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Millions of Americans will be lining up to buy their sweethearts chocolate covered strawberries and bouquets of roses this Valentine’s Day. But have you ever wondered how this day dedicated to love came to be? We’ve uncovered some of the most interesting facts about the sweetest holiday of the year.

And here are Valentine’s Day Fun Facts from Fluorolite Plastics:

Valentine’s Day started with the Romans

There are two theories about the origin of Valentine’s Day. According to History.com, one is that the day derives from Lupercalia, a raucous Roman festival on February 15^th. The second theory is that while the Roman Emperor Claudius II was trying to bolster his army, he forbade young men to marry, because apparently single men make better soldiers. In the spirit of love, St. Valentine defied the ban and performed secret marriages, History.com reports. For his disobedience, Valentine was executed on February 14th.

Candy hearts were originally medical lozenges

In 1847, Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase invented a machine that simplified the lozenge production process, resulting in the first candy-making machine, according to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. After identifying an opportunity to revolutionize the candy business, Chase shifted his focus to candy production with Necco wafers.

The candies got their iconic shape much later

It wasn’t until 15 years after the creation of Necco wafers that Daniel Chase’s brother, Oliver Chase, developed a way to press words onto the candy lozenges with a felt roller pad and vegetable food coloring. According to The Huffington Post, the conversation candies officially became heart-shaped in 1902, and today Necco says about 100,000 of them are sold each year.

Necco wafers and Sweetheart candies saved from dusty extinction!

Fans of the chalk-like substance that constitutes Necco wafers and Sweetheart candies have had a rough few months after the New England Candy Company abruptly closed in July. The enterprise was bankrupt before getting bought by Round Hill Investments. CEO Kirk Vashaw announced upon the news of this acquisition, “We look forward to announcing the Sweethearts relaunch for the 2020 Valentine season”.

Valentine’s Day is a popular holiday to get engaged

This seems fitting: A 2017 study by diamond retailer James Allen found that 43% of millennials chose Valentine’s Day as their top choice of day to propose or be proposed to.

Americans spend a lot on love

According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $18.2 billion for Valentine’s Day in 2017 and were expected to spend $19.6 billion in 2018.

More Americans skip Valentine’s Day than you realize

Whether it’s because they’re single or think the holiday is beyond cheesy, about 3 in 10 adults reported in a survey by the National Retail Federation that they’re not celebrating the day of love, though they may treat themselves to a small gift or a night out with friends and family. Oh well, more chocolate and roses for us!

LED LIGHTS – now it’s time for the rest of the story…

August 9, 2019/in Uncategorized /by Mike Kamin

LED LIGHTS – now it’s time for the rest of the story….

“Should I convert to LED lights?” is a question facing every building owner, facility manager and even home owners. Yes, there are savings to be had and yes there are costs to be incurred. But the untold part of this equation is “how will the new LED light be perceived by my students/residents/employees/guests?

And now, for the rest of the story….Last week we received a call from a facility manager who had just made the switch to LED. Seemed like the perfect plan….lower utility bills…longer life….rebates galore….clearly a “no-brainer”. That was until the lights were installed and the employees almost revolted! Their light was different and they didn’t like it at all. It was too late to switch back to the old lighting so we were tasked with creating a replacement lens that would mitigate the glare and brightness and hopefully replicate the previous light emission.

The good news is that we were successful in helping this facility manger avoid a revolution! The bad news is that this facility manager ended up spending more time, money and resources to fix a problem that was not even considered during the “switch to LED” decision making process.

This was not an isolated instance. This conversation takes place many times a week and is increasing in numbers as the march to “Switch to LED” becomes a stampede for rebates and perceived savings.

So, just a reminder that you might want to make sure that you might want to include “the rest of the story….” in your decision making process when considering LED lighting.

Thank for listening…

Our Blog

LED LIGHTS – now it’s time for the rest of the story…

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FLUOROLITE PLASTICS
2 Central Street Suite 133
Framingham, MA 01701

800.858.1201

508.788.0886

[email protected]

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