Beginnings: the Dempster Dumpster

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

pcaharrier

24 points

9 comments

classicrefusetrucks.comOtherstory

calmpositive

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20/100

NostalgiaWaste ManagementVintage

Key topics

Nostalgia

Waste Management

Vintage

The post shares a nostalgic look at the Dempster Dumpster, a classic refuse truck, sparking discussion about its history and design impact.

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0-2h

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2.3

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01Story posted
Oct 6, 2025 at 1:22 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM EDT
2m after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
4 comments in 0-2h
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04Latest activity
Oct 7, 2025 at 3:04 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (9 comments)

Showing 9 comments

pcaharrierAuthor

3 months ago

2 replies

I'm also cringing a little bit to learn that the practice of misspelling words with a "K" is as old as the "Dumpster Kolector" from the 1940s.

cfmcdonald

3 months ago

1 reply

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

Rendello

3 months ago

Not a brand name, but "ok" is widely believed to be from a meme from 1838 where abbreviations were comically misspelled. "Ok" being "Oll Korrect":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK

EvanAnderson

3 months ago

1 reply

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...)

IAmBroom

3 months ago

There, there, it's All Correct. It'll be AC.

MisterTea

3 months ago

2 replies

I figured it was Dempster though I did not know they were originally loaded with arms like skips. Dempster also made the unique "Dinosaur" hoist for roll off containers which used a yoke slid by a hydraulic cylinder. https://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/DE/DE05.html

I'd like to know who came up with the roll-off idea as they can also be used to create a modular truck system where you can swap bodies. I always though the ultimate do-all truck is a roll off hook-lift with a boom crane and trailer hook up.

vortex_guardian

3 months ago

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.

Animats

3 months ago

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

dang

3 months ago

Url changed from https://web.archive.org/web/20110220041407/http://www.classi..., which points to this.

(Submitters: if an article is still available on the open web, please submit with that URL instead of an archive URL. It's fine to include archive URLs in the comments of course.)

This is a great HN submission btw!

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ID: 45493713Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 3:22:58 PM

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