See the Turkish Tampex & TamPak Tampax imitations, 1973
See the real Tampax patent and early history plus a very early Tampax
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.

MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

Sanpax(d?) menstrual tampons, Switzerland? Israel? 1970
Box, tampon & instructions

This tampon so closely resembles the famous Tampax with its patented two-tube applicator that I wonder if it was a knock-off - and I wonder if it infringed on the Tampax patent. Did sanpax ever hit the market?

Even the name, sanpax, uncapitalized, with the "x" overprinted with a "d" on the box, sounds like Tampax (see the comments under a picture, below). Two Turkish deceptions, TamPak and Tampex, also tried to pass for Tampax. But it could be that's simply the word shoppers with little exposure to tampon choices would recognize.

But an oddity is the language on the box and inside. English and French approximately equally split the textual duties on the outside, with a touch of Hebrew. But inside, all text except for one word is Hebrew! It's as if we caught the makers - on the box we read "Swiss know-how" - in the midst of figuring out what they wanted to do. Maybe we did.

See what is probably a Swiss tampon, Primella, from the year before and which also closely resembles Tampax. Veeery suspicious.

Tambrands, former maker of Tampax, kindly donated the box as part of a large gift from its archives after Procter & Gamble bought the company.

Below: The box measures 5.25 x 3.25 x 1.25" (13.2 x 8.2 x 3.2 cm). Someone from the donor, Tambrands, which made Tampax before Procter & Gamble bought the company, stuck on the label with markings.
Look!
On the white label someone also wrote "D" over the "x" in the name just as on the printed names on the box. The stamped "pending" might refer to the registered symbol.
Hebrew appears on the box only in this spot to the left, below, whereas the instructions are almost entirely in Hebrew. Many thanks to an e-mailer from Northwestern University, who translated the Hebrew as "Product by sanpax in the factory for hygiene products, Ashdod."
Wikipedia writes this about Ashdod (I added the color): "[Ashdod,] located in the South District of Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, is a city of over 200,000 people located approximately 70 kilometers (43 mi) from Jerusalem and Beer Sheba. Ashdod is an important regional industrial center. The Port of Ashdod is Israel's largest port accounting for sixty percent of the country's imported goods.
"The first documented settlement in Ashdod dates to the Canaanite culture of 17th century BC,[1] making the city one of the most ancient in the world. Ashdod is mentioned thirteen times in the Bible. During the history the city was settled by Philistines, Israelites, Byzantines, Crusaders and Arabs.[2]
"Modern Ashdod was established in 1956 on the sand hills near the archeological site, and incorporated as a city in 1968, with a land-area of approximately 60 square kilometers (23.2 sq mi). . . ."
Could its location in sand hills have influenced the name sanpax? And that overprinted D - sand - strikes me as suspicious. Naaaa, that's overinterpreting and too much fun.
I just have to say this: Wikipedia says that the American sister city of Ashdod is Tampa, Florida. Add an "x" to Tampa and you get ------, a competitor of sanpax and a for-sure question at the Museum of Menstruation Christmas - er, Hanukkah, that is, Winter - Ball Quiz Competition. Whoopee!
 
 
Below: The ends. "The first easy-to-use tampon"? Huh? How about Tampax, which started over 35 years before and which sanpax(d) seems to duplicate (see the tampon itself)?
"Swiss know-how" - I wonder what that refers to. It doesn't translate "brevet suisse," at right, which means "Swiss patent." Maybe it means obtaining a patent shows know-how. But it seems odd.
   

Next | Box - tampons - instructions - See the Turkish Tampex & TamPak Tampax imitations 1973 - Tampax tampon from the early 1930s - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign - Japanese tampon with finger cots

© 2007 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