Who Invented the Band Aid

An article by Peter Pierce    Comments Off

Band-aid is the brand name and product of Johnson & Johnson. It was invented in the year 1920 by one of the employees of Johnson & Johnson, Earle Dickson. Dickson introduced this product for his wife who frequently cut or burn herself while cooking. The product was used by Mrs. Dickson to dress her wounds without any assistance. The inventor resided at New Jersey and he conveyed the idea to his employer. The employer went on to produce this product as Band-Aid and marketed the same. Invention of the product allowed Dickson to attain a successful career at Johnson & Johnson and he retired as Vice president of the company in the year 1957.

The bandages are made with nylon fibres embedded with medical cloth. Cotton is used as absorption pad and this pad is covered with ventilated thin plastic sheets.

The first bandages were hand – made bandages and were not popular. In 1925, the company introduced the machine made bandages in form of sterilized Band-Aids. During World War II, millions of sterilized Band-aids were shipped to medical team and some bandages were shipped to hospitals.

Later, decorative band-aids were introduced in the market. They were designed to represent themes of Superman, Smiley faces, Barbie, Spider-man, batman and other cartoon characters and are a successful product with children across the world.