MARY BRASWELL: Looking back at an assortment of cleaning products

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected].

Spring cleaning is not the job it once was before vacuum cleaners, washing machines and thousands of cleaning supplies from which to choose. Here is a look at the history behind just a few of the products found on the cleaning aisle of any grocery store.

OCTAGON SOAP

—Until 1928, Octagon was manufactured by the Colgate Company, which was started by William Colgate in 1806 when he opened a starch, soap and candle business in New York City.

— The first print ad for Octagon was in a newspaper in 1817. It was not until the 1830s that the company began selling individual bars in uniform weights.

— Octagon was very popular in the ’30s when it was in brown, roughly-cut bars wrapped in paper with coupons printed on the outside which could be collected and exchanged for a variety of merchandise.

— For many years after 1928, Octagon was produced by the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953, Peet was dropped from the company’s title.

— This lye soap is primarily for laundry purposes but is mild enough to use as a hand soap and can still be found, although in limited markets.

SPIC AND SPAN

—Two housewives, Elizabeth MacDonald and Naomi Stenglein, from Michigan experimented with the development of a household cleaner until they came up with a product that included equal parts of ground-up glue, sodium carbonate and trisodium phosphate. The mixture made their homes spotless, or “spick and span.”

—MacDonald and Stenglein dropped the “k” and called their product Spic and Span. The two families ran the business. It was sold in brown envelopes to local markets.

— On Jan. 29, 1945, Procter & Gamble bought Spic and Span for $1.9 million. The product name has changed owners a couple of times, but P&G still markets the product for commercial use.

— In 1999, the Mexican-American organization, LatinosUSA, organized a boycott against Spic and Span because of the word spic, a derogatory term for a person of Latino descent. In addition, “spic and span” has been used to derogate mixed-race couples of African American and Puerto Rican origin.

S.O.S.

— The S.O.S Soap Pad was invented in 1917 by Ed Cox, an aluminum pot salesman. He made the pre-soaped steel wool pads as a calling card, a way to introduce himself to customers.

— Cox’s wife named the pads S.O.S, short for “save our saucepans.”

— The missing period after the last “S” was intentional. The acronym S.O.S. is the universal distress signal and therefore, could not be trademarked. By removing the period, the name became unique and could then be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

— Cox soon found that his soap pads were a more lucrative business than his pots and pans.

— General Foods owned the company for a while, then sold it to Miles Laboratories in the late 1960s. In the mid-1990s, the manufacturer began advertising that S.O.S had been made rust-resistant and therefore lasted much longer. So well did the rust-inhibiting ingredient work that it was removed and the advertising ceased about that quality.

— S.O.S is now owned by Clorox.

CLOROX

— In May 1913, a bookkeeper, a lawyer, a coal and wood supplier, a banker and a miner in California each invested $100 to set up the first commercial liquid bleach factory in the U.S.

— The firm, Electro-Alkaline, coined the word Clorox from the product’s two main ingredients, chlorine and sodium hydroxide.

— On the verge of collapse in 1916, William Murray came on board as the company’s general manager. He convinced his wife to hand out free 15-ounce sample bottles to the customers of their grocery store. By 1916, the product was being shipped to the East Coast by way of the Panama Canal.

— In 1928, the company went public and changed its name to the Clorox Chemical Company. An animated Clorox bottle named Butch was used in advertising and even survived the transition in 1941 from rubber-stoppered bottles to screw-on lids.

— Clorox survived the Great Depression and was found useful as a first-aid product for the military during World War II. One of the product’s ingredients was, however, rationed and many bleach manufacturers diluted their bleach with water. Clorox opted not to do so and simply sold less, developing a reputation for quality.

—In 1957, Procter & Gamble purchased Clorox and renamed it The Clorox Company. Almost immediately, a rival company objected and it was challenged by the Federal Trade Commission, which contended this purchase would hamper competition in household products. The FTC won its case (after 10 years in court). On Jan. 1, 1969, The Clorox Company became independent once again.

— Clorox is derived from sodium chloride … common table salt.

ARM & HAMMER

— Arm & Hammer baking soda was introduced in 1867 and is now a registered trademark of Church & Dwight, an American manufacturer of household products.

— The well-known logo of Arm & Hammer is the muscular arm holding a hammer. This represents Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking.

— Tycoon Armand Hammer was not the namesake of the product, as he was often asked, since he was born 31 years after the product was named. He once tried to buy the company, but was unsuccessful. He did, however, purchase enough stock to join the board of directors for Church & Dwight, on which he served until his death in 1990.

— It was not until the 1970s that Arm & Hammer got serious about products other than baking and washing soda. Now it is found in numerous products, including toothpaste, deodorant, cat litter and laundry detergent.

LYSOL

— In 1889, Lysol was introduced as a disinfectant to help end the cholera epidemic.

— Again battling disease, in 1918 Lysol was used in the fight against the flu pandemic.

— Lysol Brand Disinfectant Liquid was introduced to hospitals and drug stores in 1930.

— From the 1920s until the ’60s, Lysol was largely marketed for personal body use. Ads suggested women use the product as a douche and even for birth control. While not clearly stated in advertising, it was suggested (and believed by many) that Lysol would kill sperm.

— In a concentrated form, Lysol could kill (and did in some cases) when ingested and, when applied externally, caused irritation and burns. Still, it was sold for feminine hygiene.

REMEMBER THIS?

Ty-D-Bol was introduced in 1958. The Ty-D-Bol Man piloted a boat inside the toilet tank from 1968 to 1994 in commercials.

QUIK QUIZ answer

a) Spic and Span