240. Dirilyte

(images: Harry Truman receiving a gift of Dirilyte, the Dirilyte factory.) The bronze metal alloy known as Dirilyte was developed by Carl Molin in 1914 in Sweden. He began marketing it as Dirigold in 1919. Seven years later he moved his manufacturing to Kokomo. In 1935 the Federal Trade Commission made the company change its name from Dirigold to avoid confusion since the flatware contained no actual gold. Dirilyte is not plated and has the golden color throughout the metal. In 1948, President Truman was presented with a Dirilyte flatware set when he came through Kokomo on a campaign stop. According to a newspaper article, Charles Lindbergh used Dirigold in Indianapolis in 1927 at a banquet in his honor when on a stop of his cross country tour after flying the Atlantic Ocean. In 1981 Dirilyte manufacturing was moved to Warsaw, Indiana. Production ceased in 1986. No two pieces of Dirilyte are exactly alike. Each piece was individually hand crafted without an assembly line and is a reflection of the skill of the worker who made it.