STUCK ON YOU

   

By Mary Davis

 

Have you ever put clay and plant fibers on a wound? No?

 

Well, if that doesn’t appeal to you, how about sawdust?

 

The Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Chinese, to name a few, used clay, plants, honey, poultices, raw meat, lint, as well as animal grease, among various other things to dress wounds and protect them. Any of those in your medicine cabinet?

 

These were all laborious, cumbersome, and didn’t always stay in place, especially while moving about.

 

 

We have newly married Josephine Dickson to thank for the modern-day self-adhesive bandage, or rather her husband. She was a bit of a hazard to herself in the kitchen with frequent cuts and burns.

 

Earle Dickson was a cotton buyer for the Johnson & Johnson company. He was concerned for his accident-prone, young bride, so in 1920, he combined two of the company’s products, gauze and adhesive tape. This allowed his wife to easily tend to her own injuries, rather than balancing gauze while trying to wrap tape around it.

 

These pre-BAND-AIDs were an eighteen-inch-long strip of adhesive tape two and a half inches wide. Gauze was placed down the middle of it. Then the next time Mrs. Dickson had a mishap while cooking, she could merely cut a width commensurate with the wound size and apply it unassisted.

 

 

Dickson showed his design to one of the Johnson brothers. In 1921, J & J started producing these first BAND-AIDs, all made by hand. They were not popular in this form, so the company precut them and individually wrapped them. To help with sales, they distributed free BAND-AIDs to the Boy Scouts of America.

 

 

I remember those tins on the right. Brings back memories of scraped knees.

 

In 1924, they automated and produced them by machine. But it wasn’t until 1939 that they began selling a sterilized version. The red pull string was added in 1940, which remained unchanged for fifty-two years until they introduced the pull-apart design.

 

 

As a child, I thought those tiny round ones were useless because of their size and would put them on for fun.

 

The first decorative ones, stars and stripes, were introduced in 1956. Various other prints and characters have graced them. Throughout the decades, the types of tape have evolved to include fabric, plastic, clear, and water resistant.

 

The famous jingle written by Barry Manilow, "I am stuck on BAND-AID Brand ’cuz BAND-AID’s stuck on me", didn’t come along until 1976.

 

Over a hundred years later, BAND-AIDs are still sticking to people.

 

MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)
3rd Place 2023 SELAH Award

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) flies a secret mission to rescue three soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident. Order HERE!

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby, and her mini black lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

Sources

Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, p250-251

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-band-aid-1991345

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-Aid

https://www.band-aid.com/about/history

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-band-aid-1991345

How Clumsiness and Boy Scouts made the Band-Aid

Blogger: Amber Lemus

Earle Dickson as a young man
Johnson & Johnson Archives
Used under Fair Use

I love reading about inventions because the stories are always entertaining. Either it was a funny accident, an inspirational story of perseverance, or an ingenious solution to a problem most people skim over. For example, did you know the Band-Aid was invented for a woman who was clumsy, especially in the kitchen?

Earle Dickson was born October 10, 1892 in Grandview, Tennessee. In 1917, Earle married Josephine Frances Knight. He was working at the Johnson and Johnson company as a cotton buyer, while his wife stayed at home keeping house. However, he quickly discovered that dear Josephine was constantly burning her fingers, nicking them with knives, or having some type of mishap around the house. She must have complained to him about the difficulty of bandaging up those minor wounds by herself while she was at home alone everyday, because he quickly came up with a solution.

Earle took a patch of gauze and affixed it to the center of surgical tape. He then used a band of crinoline to keep the tape from sticking to itself. What resulted was an easy-to-use bandage that his wife could easily use by herself to cover those injuries and prevent infection or further tearing of the skin. It worked wonderfully.

When Earle went back to work at Johnson and Johnson, he mentioned his solution to a coworker, who thought it was genius. The coworker encouraged him to take the idea to management and see if they would be interested in it. Initially, the managers at J&J were not impressed, but when Earle demonstrated that he could apply the bandage by himself to his own wounds, they saw that as a great feature. His supervisor told one of the Johnson brothers about the idea, who decided to adopt it and released the product to the public in 1921 under the brand of the Band-Aid. 

Early Ad for the Band-Aid
Johnson & Johnson Archives
Used under Fair Use

During this time, Johnson and Johnson were already successful producers of gauze and bandages for hospitals as well as military installations, so they had a built in market for this new product. Still, the first launch of the product was mostly a flop. Only $3,000 worth of the product was sold during the first year of production. Some believe that the reason it didn't initially take off was because the first versions of the Band-Aid were 2.5 inches wide by 18 inches long. The idea was that you could cut off whatever length of bandage you required for your injury.

Sales remained low, until someone came up with the idea of providing free, unlimited Band-Aids to the Boy Scout troops across the country. With the Boy Scouts using them, they became widely known and the demand for the Band-Aid soared.

In 1924, the Johnson and Johnson company started pre-cutting the Band-Aids into select sizes. Then in 1939, they began producing them as fully-sterilized bandages, just in time for WWII.

As for Earle Dickson, he was promoted for his invention and climbed to the rank of Vice President of the Johnson and Johnson company. He also became a member of the board, where he remained until his death in 1961, at which time the company was producing more than 30 million dollars worth of Band-Aids per year.

Today, more than 100 Billion Band-Aides have been produced and they have become one of the worlds most iconic and innovative products.

In recognition of his invention, Earle Dickson was inducted into the Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2017.

*****

Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award for historical fiction, Amber Lemus inspires hearts through enthralling tales She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call "historical fiction at its finest".

She lives near the Ozarks in her "casita" with her prince charming. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers and hang out on Goodreads with other bookish peoples.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at http://www.amberlemus.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!