Nalgene
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Back in 1949, a Rochester, New York chemist named Emanuel Goldberg developed the first plastic pipette holder. Along with three workers, he began the Nalge Company in a small building at 625 South Goodman Street.
For years Goldberg and his growing team developed the NALGENE line of state-of-the-art polyethylene laboratoryequipment: centrifuge bottles, filter units, storage tanks.
Obviously, it wasn’t the kind of stuff you toss into your backpack for a weekend in the woods.
But there were rumors floating around … stories about scientists taking the smaller, more convenient bottles out of the lab and using them on hikes and excursions.
By the 1970s this “unofficial” use for NALGENE bottles caught the eye of Marsh Hyman (President of the Nalge Company in Rochester, New York).