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
 |
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
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