Benjamin T. Babbitt

He "possessed a most ingenious and inquiring disposition",[2] and by the time he was twenty he was working in a machine shop and had learned the trades of wheelwright, machinist and file maker.

By age 22 Babbitt had enough money to open his first machine shop in Little Falls, where for 12 years, he manufactured pumps and engines.

Babbitt moved to New York City, where he began to manufacture "saleratus" (or sodium bicarbonate, commonly called baking soda).

[2] In 1851, he became the first to manufacture and market soap in individual bars, which he packaged attractively and added a claim of quality.

The soap was sold from brightly painted street cars with musicians, which helped lead the phrase "get on the bandwagon.

Babbitt is a section of North Bergen, New Jersey named for a tract of 87 acres (35 ha) between Granton and Fairview purchased for factory complex in 1904.

[13] to which the soap works relocated in 1907 from its former premises, a 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) facility on West Street in Lower Manhattan.