Samuel M. Kier was originally a salt manufacturer; more canny than his competitors, he sold the oil which came up with his water as a patent medicine.
"The Age of Big Business Volume 39 in The Chronicles of America Series"
Burton J. Hendrick
In order to give a mysterious virtue to this remedy, Kier printed on his labels the information that it had been "pumped up with salt water about four hundred feet below the earth's surface."
"The Age of Big Business Volume 39 in The Chronicles of America Series"
Burton J. Hendrick