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Sta-Pacs menstrual tampons
(1930s? Sta-Pacs or Stapacs Company, U.S.A.)
Procter & Gamble kindly
donated the box and contents as
part of a gift of scores of
menstrual products.
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Below:
The leaflet included in
the box measures as
shown 7 x 5.25" (17.7 x
13.2 cm) to be folded in
half to make four pages.
Right
below you see
pages 4 and 1.
The Sta-Pacs
logo (p. 1, at
right)
changed from
the one on the box,
usually a design mistake
since you lose
"corporate identity."
Also, at least modern
graphic design tut-tuts
too
many typefaces, seen
here; this too
destroys corporate
identity.
The long introductory
paragraph at left seems
to give away the
tampon's age as
belonging to the 30s or
maybe the 1940s.
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Below:
Interior
of the leaflet, pages 2
& 3.
Somebody - not me! -
probably crossed
out part of
number 10 to eliminate "wrapped
in sanitary cellophane
and is"; I
don't think the leaflet
would enter the market
this way. I
enlarged that line in
the last image, below.
I found no trace of
cellophane in the opened
and damaged box although
several of the tampons
look as if no one had
fiddled with them. It
could be that someone at
Procter & Gamble (or
elsewhere) crossed the
line out after noting
the lack of cellophane
BUT it's also possible
that this is a test
box - someone
was editing the text for
the market-ready
leaflet. Supporting this
idea is that there is no
patent number or trade
mark sign anywhere,
maybe to be added
somewhere later. But
most of these early
American tampons had
no patent or trademark
indications anyway, Tampax being
a huge exception. (See
links
to older tampons in
the column at left or
at the bottom of the
page.)
The initial language -
"internal sanitary
tampon," "completely
replaces the cumbersome
sanitary pad" -
indicates that tampons
were still fairly new to
consumers. "Most fastidious
young
ladies and
women" and "apply
[the tampon]" ring old
fashioned. These
observations point to
the 1930s or 1940s as to
the date of this tampon.
"Progressive step" is
interesting and I wonder
what it means. Is
Sta-Pacs an intermediate
solution?
Item 4: "The special
tube plunger"
seems to be exactly the
thing Tampax
patented. Is
Sta-Pacs just a rip-off?
This remark
points out that the user
might have never seen
such a wonder, which
emphasizes the case for
a 1930s date. Almost all
early tampons had no
insertion tubes,
Tampax again being the
exception.
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End Older tampons:
A.C.C. Tamponettes,
Fibs, B-ettes, Cashay, Daints, Dale, EZO, fax,
Holly-Pax,
Lotus, LOX, Moderne Woman, Tampax & many more - All tampons on this
site
© 2008 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on
this Web site
in any manner or medium without written
permission of the author. Please report
suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org\
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