TEA BAG

                            A small wholesale tea business in New York city was run by Thomas Sullivan at the turn of the century. He had one major problem preventing him from expanding his trade. There was no convenient way for him to send samples of his many varieties of tea to prospective customers.

                          In those days, people made tea by brewing loose tea leaves in pots, then staining the tea into cups, if someone wanted just one cup of tea and did not want to brew a whole pot, there were a number of devices he could use. One was called a "tea bell". Shaped some what like a bell, it held a small amount of tea and could be submerged in a single cup.

                           Sullivan decided to adapt the tea bell idea for sending out his samples. He made little bags og gauze, put different teas inside, then attached half a dozen of his "tea bags" to a piece of cardboard. This became his sample package, which he sent out to retail merchants.

                           To Sullivan's surprise, he began to get requests for shipments of the tea bags in quantity. The customers had seen the samples and wanted tea bags for themselves, it seemed. He complied, and tea bags were soon available for household use.