Edna Grace Murphey, the entrepreneur behind the Odorono Company of Cincinnati, acknowledged a confusion amongst her early customers, later writing of her largely unpromising initial career: ‘at every stage of development there was an increased inspiration from users – and along with it increased discouragement. It costs so much to make a new user; it took so long to convince anyone that checking perspiration would not affect their health.’
Murphey was attempting to break into the hygiene market touting a toilet lotion created by her father Dr Abraham D Murphey of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1909. This was a growing market - as standards of personal hygiene rose in the 20th century, more people were choosing to use products to control underarm sweat and the odour it produced. For most however, the most obvious – and widespread- solution was not a chemical intervention but to wash regularly and dose themselves with perfumes. Those particularly anxious about sweat showing through their clothes could purchase dress shields which were rubber or cotton pads worn in the armpits.
The Murpheys sought to give people a new option: an antiperspirant made from aluminum. Aluminium is – after oxygen and silicon – the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust, making up almost 8% of its mass. The salts of aluminium were used by the Ancient Greeks and Roman as a mordant, fixing dye to cloth, and for dressing wounds. Alum, an organically occurring chemical compound of aluminium and potassium sulphates, was prized for its astringent properties and used as a natural antiperspirant.
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