Every month in 2020, we’ll be brining you a Klein Timeline Snapshot: a look back in time at a specific year, looking at what the world was like in said year, and what was happening with Klein Tools.
This month’s year: 1901
Prime rib: $0.17 per pound
Women’s shoes: $1.10-$1.25 per pair
Laundry service: $0.05 per shirt
What was happening in the world:
-William McKinley was beginning his second term as President of the United States, with Theodore Roosevelt as his vice president
-Albert Einstein was published in an academic journal for the first time, the Annalen der Physik which printed his “Folgerungen aus der Kapillaritatserscheinungen” aka “Deductions from the Phenomena of Capillarity”
-The first tourist resort opened in Hawaii, The Moana Hotel in Waikiki, and is still open today
What was happening with Klein Tools: 1901 was a year of many new things for Klein Tools. During the late 1890’s the company had transitioned into making hand tools full time, stopping production on things like iron gates and bed frames that they had as part of their product catalog until that point. The electrical industry was continuously adding value at a rate greater than the manufacturing sector as a whole, and Mathias Klein recognized the opportunity. He also recognized that while local business was great, he needed to expand nationally in order to continue growing. This realization led him to develop his first catalog, dubbed Klein’s Red Book, which targeted the telephone and electrical industries. That same year Klein ran its first ever advertisement, an ad for the catalog in Telephony magazine.
