See the fax tampon and the almost identical tampon Nunap sold probably about the same time, both probably made of Cellucotton, the component of Kotex.
fax clip sheet.
See other marketing devices: Ad-design contest for menstrual products in the United Kingdom; B-ettes tampon counter-display box and proposal to dealers, with contract; (U.S.A., donated by Procter & Gamble, 2001); "Your Image is Your Fortune!," Modess sales-hints booklet for stores, 1967 (U.S.A., donated by Tambrands, 1997)
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Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

fax menstrual tampon, Chicago, U.S.A., probably early 1930s

This is the fax tampon, perhaps the earliest commercial tampon in America, or anywhere (the company actually called it an "internal sanitary napkin," probably because the word "tampon" was unfamiliar to the public (read a discussion of this). Does that betray the age of the product? But then neither Wix nor Tampax used that word in their early ads.) There was no string; the user twisted the extra gauze covering (left) before inserting and tugged on it for withdrawal. I would guess that once the public had a string to pull they would not settle for twisting gauze, which must have absorbed blood very easily. This may place fax before the Wix and Tampax tampons.

But see also the very early Tampax tampon.

In October 1997, Tambrands, the former maker of Tampax, gave this museum an instruction sheet for a tampon called Nunap, in which the drawing of the tampon is the same as that of the fax! And the company has the same address. Read more about the possibility that Kimberly-Clark not only made the first widely successful disposable menstrual pad used in the U.S.A., but also the first commercial tampon, or at least one of the first!

See an ad for fax!

Front and back of box - ad for fax

 



 

 

Each box had two bags of five tampons each (left).
(Front and back of box)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forty-eight hours (pointing finger)!
Look at the reference to the "pad-type napkin" in item 8, probably indicating the public did not know what a tampon was, so the company did not use the word.

 


Front and back of box - ad for fax. fax clip sheet. More early commercial tampons

© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or
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