[1960s Ruffles]
The other day while I was out running and engaging in a wide-ranging discussion with Perplexity Pro on my phone about any number of things, I asked "Who invented Ruffles potato chips?
To my surprise I learned it wasn't Frito-Lay, the company that makes them, but rather one George Ronald Pierce.
From the Douglas County (Nebraska) Historical Society and Wikipedia:
In the late 1940s, George Ronald Pierce began working for Industrial Electrics, owned by Bernhardt Stahmer, at 15th and Chicago Streets.
There he had a hand in several different products, perhaps the most noteworthy of which was a slicer for potato chips.
In 1948, he put the machine on a trailer behind the family car and drove east, showing and selling his company's invention in several states.
He called the chips that it made "Ruffles," a name taken from the ruffled lace collars in fashion in the 16th century — the chips resembled little corrugated waffles.
The uneven surfaces were said to make the resulting chips sturdier and better for dipping.
Stahmer, the company's owner, trademarked these ridged chips as Ruffles in 1948.
He sold the rights to the Frito Company in 1958.
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