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Sta-Pacs menstrual tampons
(1930s? Sta-Pacs or Stapacs Company, U.S.A.)
Sta-Pacs - which might be based
on the word Tampax, just as my invented
tampon was and Slim-pax
probably was - shared a similarity
with Tampax: Tampax's patented
applicator. You read "New Type
Applicator" on its box, below,
which might put its age close to
the Tampax
invention in the early
1930s; maybe the company was
trading on the hunch that women
had not yet seen the Tampax
applicator. But these two
similarities seems to make it a
Tampax imitation.
Procter & Gamble kindly
donated the box and contents as
part of a gift of scores of
menstrual products.
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Below: The beat-up
box arrived opened with several
tampons missing. It measures 5.24
x 4 x 1.5" (13.3 x 10 x 3.5 cm).
Spelling
Sta-Pacs two different ways
seems amateurish and
might indicate that this was a
test box
before the final product appeared.
But maybe it's just sloppiness. Or
something else.
Calling them "sanitary" tampons
seems the same use as in sanitary napkin,
which always indicates
a menstrual product in America.
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Below:
"Improved TAMPON" means
the
buyer was familiar
with the word tampon;
early tampon boxes &
instructions often said
something like "internal
sanitary napkin"
even though tampons had
been around for thousands
of years but had
been mostly used for inserting
medicine into body
cavities (like
the vagina; more here,
here,
and a medical joke.)
But the BOMBSHELL
is "New Type
Applicator." The
applicator (next
page) sure looks
like the patent-protected
Tampax
applicator that
made Tampax's fortune. I
wonder if Tampax lawyers
caught up with these
people. (See recent
copy-cat Tampax: Tampex
and TamPak.)
The ends and sides are
identical.
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NEXT: the tampon - the
instructional leaflet
All tampons on
this site - A.C.C.
Tamponettes, Fibs, B-ettes, Cashay, Daints, Dale, EZO, fax,
Holly-Pax,
Lotus, LOX, Moderne Woman, Tampax & many more
© 2008 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
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violations to hfinley@mum.org\
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