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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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.
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!
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Front
and back of box
- ad for fax
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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.
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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
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