If you are trying to date the advent of do-it-yourself building materials,
perhaps Sears catalogue predates the establishment of an actual
brick-and-mortar locations. Certainly the country-town hardware store of
the early twentieth century was the original outlet for such merchandise.
Cement block machines, already cited, are a perfect example. Sears
mail-order houses are another. What's important, in DIY terms, is that
these products came with assembly instructions, so that the unskilled could
use them.

But how do you choose to characterize do-it-yourself merchandise? Seems to
me that such merchandise should contain point-of-sale packaging with
illustrative materials and installation instructions for the end user. And
this is an archaeological issue, because the advent of packaging with such
instructions permitted the wide and rapid diffusion of innovative products.


               Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
*****************************************
*   When working a compost so fungal    *
*   you don't want to fail or to bungle,*
*   so dismiss it not lightly:          *
*   you must turn the pile rightly      *
*   for that is the rule of the jungle! *
*****************************************