Read an earlier discussion of this: What did European
and American women use for
menstruation in the 19th century and before?
Ads for teens (see also introductory
page for teenage advertising): Are
you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1964,
U.S.A.), Freedom (1990, Germany), Kotex
(1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes
(1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
More ads for teens: See
a Modess True or False? ad in
The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I
Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many
dates).
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The Museum
of Menstruation and Women's Health
Some European women regularly menstruated
into their clothing:
More evidence (Part 3)
A 19th-century German comments on
menstruation, with a proposal for a menstrual
pad and belt: from Friedrich Eduard Bilz's Das Neue Naturheilverfahren
(about 1890)
Read the discussion here.
(translated text continued from here)
Translation
by Harry Finley (the original text is at the
bottom of this page):
When the woman lays the middle piece on,
she attaches the middle buttons of the sling
holding the wood shavings pillow; the
flexible covering and soft, very absorbent
filling do not annoy her at all. The pillow
completely absorbs the blood. But even when
the pillow is completely soaked, the middle
piece is blood because of its rubber
covering. Naturally no blood reaches the
clothing and bed linen. According to need,
the pillow can be changed to the still clean
sling perhaps twice a day because of heavy
bleeding before she burns the old pillow.
It's a great advantage to have such a
close-fitting pad, especially under tight
dresses, for certain societal duties and for
certain professions, such as the theater.
[Early in tampon history, the 1930s and
1940s, at least two were promoted as
benefiting women on the stage: Lox and Tamponettes.]
The disinfecting characteristic of this
mat of wood shavings comes to the fore
especially when - as it happens with many
women - the discharge starts to smell bad.
2. The antiseptic hygiene pad from the
Saxon Bandage Factory in Dresden-Radebeul
and
3. The moss pads from M. Warwede in
Neustadt-Rübenberge, province of
Hannover. Here's what he says about his
pads: "My pads grant the amenity of
comfortable wearing. There's no complicated
belt with rubber inserts that are
uncomfortable and squeeze. The inserts are
buttoned to the simple belt. The absorbent
ability is so good that not one drop of
moisture escapes until the whole pad is
soaked with secretions. The pad is equally
soaked throughout and remains soft. The
shagnum moss has the nice quality of not
balling up and remains elastic, and because
it's a bad conductor of heat, it warms when
wet, thereby protecting from catching cold.
The very pleasant disinfecting quality of
moss is apparent here, and the secretions
are absorbed with no odor at all: these are
advantages that no other pad can brag
about!"
Wood shavings pads cost 95 pfennigs per
dozen, and the necessary belt, 1 mark 25
pfennigs. A packet of moss pads costs 75
pfennigs (five per pack), the belt 60
pfennigs. One only needs half as many of the
second pads as of the first because of the
greater absorbency of the moss.
The tiny expense of six to eight marks per
year makes this pleasantness available to
every lady. Both pads are available both
from the maker as well as from special
stores for natural health: from Karl
Glöckner in Dresden-A., Amalienstrasse;
in Austria, from Joseph Schmall, Vienna IV,
94 Lerchenfelderstrasse ["Field of Larks
Street'].
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