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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 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\
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