It looks like the trend started circa the 1920s in the U.S. Kotex (1920) [0], Kleenex (1924) [1], Kool-Aid (1927) [2], Kool (1933) [3], Krispy Kreme (1934) [4].

Kraft might look like one, but isn't, it's named after James Kraft [5], which presumably traces back to the german word Kraft.

I'm curious if there are older examples.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotex [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleenex [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool_(cigarette) [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krispy_Kreme [5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Kraft

Isn't the deliberate misspelling of words in trade names used to create names eligible for trademark protection?

I find them horrible cringeworthy, too. Names with letters pronounced phonetically (e.g. "EZ"), sound-alike vowels (e.g. "Lyft"), and substituted consonants (like the K for C) irritate me a lot. (I'm an angry pedant and I know it...)

Here's the whole story of the Dempster Dinosaur.[1] Detailed explanation of how the clever, tough, and not too complex mechanisms that load and unload debris boxes work. Discussion of why the obvious approach with cables and winches was not very good, although it did work.

It's an insight into good classical mechanical engineering.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xs-kqJq0

That's cool about the Dinosaur hoist! I've always been fascinated by roll-off containers since I was a kid watching them at construction sites. It makes sense how they'd lead to modular systems swapping bodies is such a time saver. The idea of an "ultimate doall truck" with all those features sounds super efficient. I wonder who first thought up the rolloff concept? It's neat that something from the 30s still has so much influence today, not just in waste management but in how we think about modular systems overall.