See a Pursettes
booket for teenagers (late 1950s?).
The Pursettes black plastic
tote (carrier) with tampons. (An ad sold
the tote, and an enthusiastic customer mentions the tote in her testimonial.)
Tampax keeps an eye on its competitor Pursettes:
Tampax tampon inter-office memo with attached
ads, U.S.A., 1964
Want to be a SCHOOLEBRITY in the know?
(Huh, you say?) Read
Are you in the know? BOOKLET collection
of the great pad & etiquette tips for teens
Kotex ran for decades (but without the ads) (1956)
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made
for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine
- a list of books and articles about menstruation
See early tampons and a list of tampons on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
 
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Pursettes lubricated applicator
menstrual tampons, box of 16, 1960-70s?
Campana Corp., Batavia, Illinois, U.S.A.
teenage, women, health, menstruation, applicator, lubricated, Purilon, period,
hygiene
The early (1930s?-40s) no-applicator Dale
tampon (with an ad) also had a lubricated tip,
rare among menstrual tampons.
I thank the contributor!
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Below: The instructions
are on both sides of a sheet
measuring 4 13/16 x 8" (12.2 x 20.4 cm).
If I had faced these instructions I would have said, "Forget
it! Back to
Kotex!" Not only does the verbiage
match the mechanical dexterity demanded by
the origami tampon it appears in very
small type. Maybe that's
why Pursettes seemed to concentrate on young women; they had stronger
eyes. Maybe also that's why it failed.
Left column: The first small paragraph talks
about tampons in general, not Pursettes in
particular.
Middle column: Because of its declared high
absorbency, I wonder if Purilon was associated
with toxic shock syndrome as other high-absorbency
tampons were (like Rely). Scroll down for more on
Purilon.
Under Placement (middle column): the *#^*#$
tampon took
so long to get in the woman had time to change her
hairdo from
the first picture to the second.
Right column: The lubricants
on the tampon and applicator are still slippery
when wet; I tested them.
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Below: The bottom diagram and Purilon
text, enlarged.
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Purilon: The FMC Corp. registered the name
Purilon with the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1966; its first use
in commerce was 1965 but now the registration
is "dead." The Office called it a fiber.
The second, 1972, (and now dead) mentioned registration was as "knit
shirts." The last (1997, and live) registration is for a hydrogel
for wounds from a company called Coloplast.
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I'm not sure if the Purilon in 1965 is the same as the current version,
which according to one
site "is a sterile, high viscosity hydrogel
which provides a superior combination of absorption and hydration,
and maintains a moist wound environment essential for autolytic debridement."
The key word for tampon purposes is absorption.
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Below: The other side of the instructions.
Left column: Pursettes came in a super
absorbent size.
Note the use of "girls," not "women."
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Below: The diagram, enlarged.
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Below: Surprise!
The instructions come out of the box folded as below: the crease runs between
the 2nd and 3rd columns of the above sheet.
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© 2010 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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