How the BandAid was invented Moments of Vision 3 Jessica Oreck
In a Moment of Vision…
It’s the 1920s.
Johnson and Johnson is well-established
for their production of large,
cotton gauze dressings
that are sterile and sealed against germs,
a first of its kind.
An employee by the name of Earle Dickson
is recently married to a young,
rather accident-prone woman.
Her domestic cuts and burns are too minor
for the company’s large surgical dressings
so Earle, in a moment of vision,
cuts a small square of the sterile gauze
and secures it to her finger
with an adhesive strip.
Earle is forced to make so many
of these bandages for his clumsy wife,
he devises a method for a small
production of them.
In order to keep the adhesive part
from sticking together,
he lines them with a crinoline fabric.
Johnson and Johnson begins production
of Earle’s invention.
In a brilliant marketing move,
they distribute, for free, an unlimited
number of Band-Aids
to all the Boy Scout Troops
across America.
It doesn’t take long for them to become
a household item.
It is estimated that Johnson and Johnson
has since made more than
100 billion Band-Aids.