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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Is this the first Tampax menstrual tampon? (U.S.A., about 1931-33)
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From the tip of the cotton plug (left) to the end of the
second tube the 'pon measures 4.75" (12 cm) long. The two-tube
design was Dr. Haas's great invention - the Sunday London Times named him
one of the "1000 Makers of the Twentieth Century,"
in 1969 - enabling women to insert the tampon without their fingers touching
their "parts," to use the word in the instructions. Roughly contemporary
tampons had no applicator, like fax
and Wix. Tampax Inc. bought the Wix company in the
1930s but I haven't been able to find a trace of fax other than what
a wonderful woman sent me in the 1990s. I once offered $500 for anyone who
could find fax ads in newspapers or elsewhere; no one could - if
they had tried at all, since I heard from not one soul.
Note how this differs from the EZO
tampon, probably also from the 30s. Note the similarity with Sta-Pacs
tampon.
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The string stretches 4.125" (10.5 cm). The plug
(the directions call it a pack) is 1.75" (4.5 cm) x 0.48" (1.2
cm) with the irregular tip being 0.56" (0.75 cm) at its widest.
Dr. Haas made "Tampax" from the words "tampon" and "vaginal
pack," liked the sound of Kotex and thought it important for the name
to be memorable for marketing purposes.
The smaller tube is 0.44" (1.2 cm) in diameter, the larger maybe 0.01"
more, too small to measure with my ruler. Everything is white, 70+ years
seemingly making no difference - except for a brown mark on the margin near
the string, which might be an intentional adhesive, since I had trouble
pushing the plunger to get the plug out. If so, pity the woman who would
have tried to use it! But maybe age affected it. This was the second tampon
I tried; the plug on the first one would not come out. The same thing happened
with the EZO tampon.
All images copyright 2005 Harry Finley
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© 2005 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
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