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 reproduce or distribute any
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