Boilerplate refers to any text that is or can be reused in new contexts or applications without being changed much from the original. Many programmers often use the term "boilerplate code," and a legal boilerplate is a standard provision in a contract. All the textbooks define a contract as either a promise or an agreement that is enfored or recognised by the law. ...

The term dates back to the early 1900s, referring to the steel used in steam boilers. Hence a boilerplate is text that is "strong as steel." In the 1890s, boilerplates were actually cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation's largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union. // Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United... A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated under pressure. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ...

Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. The modern equivalent is the press release boilerplate, or "boiler," in which a company describes itself and its products.

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