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Showing posts from October, 2009

Baking Powder Billheads

In 1843 the first modern version of baking powder was discovered and manufactured by Alfred Bird, a British chemist. In 1846, Justus Von Liebig in Germany experiments with yeast made from sodium bicarbonate and hydrochloric acid with explosive results. In 1885, Eben Horsford and George Wilson manufacture chemicals which eventually became the Rumford Chemical Works. Horsford formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phopshate baking powder. In 1889, William Wright and chemist George Rew developed a double-action baking powder marketed under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Below find some examples of baking powder billheads.

Letter Logos

Examples of some nice letter logos as graphics on billheads.

Receipts for Collection

Besides having highly decoative billheads, many companies also carried this over into the receipts for collection. These receipts are smaller than billheads are are normally printed lenghtwise. Think of a piece of letterhead but have the size. Many of these were pre-printed with blanks to fill in the amounts owed.

Trademarks on Billheads

Historically, the trademark was simply a sign or mark used to identify the origin or ownership of of the goods its was affixed. At first these marks were not adopted in the maker's own interest but was put upon the manufacturer so that its product could be identified if it was of poor workmanship or inferior. Eventually, the trademark came to be regarded as a sign of quality and good reputation. Just a few images of trademarks used as a graphic on some billheads.