Other early commercial tampons - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign
Ads for the Kotex stick tampon (U.S.A., 1970s) - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |

MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

 

THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

Is this the first Tampax menstrual tampon? (U.S.A., about 1931-33)

 

From the tip of the cotton plug (left) to the end of the second tube the 'pon measures 4.75" (12 cm) long. The two-tube design was Dr. Haas's great invention - the Sunday London Times named him one of the "1000 Makers of the Twentieth Century," in 1969 - enabling women to insert the tampon without their fingers touching their "parts," to use the word in the instructions. Roughly contemporary tampons had no applicator, like fax and Wix. Tampax Inc. bought the Wix company in the 1930s but I haven't been able to find a trace of fax other than what a wonderful woman sent me in the 1990s. I once offered $500 for anyone who could find fax ads in newspapers or elsewhere; no one could - if they had tried at all, since I heard from not one soul.
Note how this differs from the EZO tampon, probably also from the 30s. Note the similarity with Sta-Pacs tampon.
 
The string stretches 4.125" (10.5 cm). The plug (the directions call it a pack) is 1.75" (4.5 cm) x 0.48" (1.2 cm) with the irregular tip being 0.56" (0.75 cm) at its widest.
Dr. Haas made "Tampax" from the words "tampon" and "vaginal pack," liked the sound of Kotex and thought it important for the name to be memorable for marketing purposes.
The smaller tube is 0.44" (1.2 cm) in diameter, the larger maybe 0.01" more, too small to measure with my ruler. Everything is white, 70+ years seemingly making no difference - except for a brown mark on the margin near the string, which might be an intentional adhesive, since I had trouble pushing the plunger to get the plug out. If so, pity the woman who would have tried to use it! But maybe age affected it. This was the second tampon I tried; the plug on the first one would not come out. The same thing happened with the EZO tampon - ironically.
All images copyright 2005 Harry Finley

NEXT: Instructions - Tampax 1931-33 main page - The wrapped tampons - The tampon disassembled - Other early commercial tampons -
Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign

SEE ALSO the directory of all tampons on this site.
© 2005 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