Some tampon
curiosities: L & F [Lehn & Fink]
Improved Tampons (U.S.A.,
1930s-1940s?) Box,
instructions, some tampons. From the
company that made Lysol.
- Medical tampons mentioned
in newspapers, U.S.A., 1894-1921 - o.b. folder, Germany,
early 1950s (tells
what o.b. means!)
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MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S
HEALTH
St Michael super
menstrual tampons, 1972 (Marks &
Spencer, U.K.)
compared with
Tampax super tampons, 1972
Tampax, the first menstrual
tampon with an applicator,
has been the number one tampon in
America for decades and quite
possibly the first
commercial menstrual tampon in
Europe.
It has had its imitators such as
these impostors here and here. And
I wonder if St Michael tampons
attracted Tampax's attention not
because of similarities in
packaging - it's very different
with minor exceptions - but
because of the design of the
tampon itself, especially
its cardboard tube. I have no
evidence that Tampax was concerned
about this but it's worth looking
at, which I do in the following
pages. All
companies watch for imitators
and patent violators.
"St Michael" - English English
(so to speak) puts no period after
abbreviations - is a strange name
for such a female product. Ironic,
too, is the fact that the Catholic
Church early on opposed Tampax and
tampons in general, virginity
and the
evil of fiddling with the user's
private parts being among
the concerns - and these are
concerns for some women today.
But Wikipedia
calls the saint "the field
commander of the Army of God,"
the "patron saint of the warrior."
In this case
the enemy is
menstruation.
At least through its Web site,
Marks & Spencer no longer
offers tampons. The company was
located on Baker
Street; I could have used
Sherlock Holmes's help with this
mystery but he would have been
spooked by the subject. Maybe Dr.
Watson. Or today's Irregulars,
speaking of menstruation.
I thank
the former Tambrands, once maker
of Tampax tampons, for donating
both boxes!
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Below:
The box measures 3 5/16 x 4 7/8 x
5 11/16" (8.4 x 12.5 x 6.8 cm).
Someone at Tambrands stuck on the
sticker with the notations
Rec'd 1[I?]
-520; 1[I?] - R20
KWAST to ERS Aug 15, 72
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Below:
The smaller sides are the same
except the flowers vary slightly.
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Below:
This lacks the MARKS &
SPENCER, etc., of the above side,
and the flowers are a bit
different.
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Below:
The box top. 28 p
probably means 28 pence,
the price.
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Below:
The bottom. The garish flowers
remind me of the hippies
of the 1970s, this very era. Flowers,
of course, are often associated
with menstruation, almost
ironically since they usually
invoke the opposite reaction that
menstrual blood does. But read the
historical
basis of the association.
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Below:
The Tampax box. I show it upside down
so you can read the
date someone at Tambrands wrote on
it without standing on your head.
It reads
Apr[I
believe] 20-72
Sample
The other side, in the same
hand, reads
[unreadable,
probably an initial]
Sample
Because this article is really
about St Michael tampons, I'm not
putting more scans of the Tampax
material except the few you
see on the following pages.
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NEXT | box - instructions - the
tampon
© 2009 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
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