October 10 - Earle Dickson

Image courtesy invent.org

On this day, in 1892, Earle Dickson, inventor of Band-Aids, was born in Grandview, Tennessee. Not much is known about Earle’s life outside of his contribution to first aid kits everywhere. We do know that he married Josephine Knight in 1917 and that he worked for Johnson and Johnson as a cotton buyer. We also know that Josephine was a bad cook. Not necessarily in that the food she prepared was anything less than delicious or that it wasn’t cooked to perfection, though. Bad in that, as she chopped things  and stirred pots, she was constantly nicking her fingers and burning her arms. None of her injuries were life threatening, but she frequently needed to cover them. And at that time, she couldn’t do that herself.

After several months of dressing his wife’s wounds, Earl began to get an idea. He felt that the pieces of gauze and bandages he had available to cover Josephine’s cuts while they healed were just too big to be useful. So he took one of the big pieces of gauze, cut it into little pieces and stuck them onto a strip of adhesive tape. Not only were these mini bandages much easier to work with and covered only what needed to be protected, Josephine was able to apply them to her scrapes without Earl’s help. She no longer had to leave a wound exposed while waiting for her husband to get home from work.

Image courtesy pinterest.com

In 1920, Earle happened to mention his solution to his wife’s problem to a co-worker. That co-worker encouraged him to pitch the idea to management. The Johnsons weren’t terribly interested in smaller bandages until Earl got to the part where Josephine was able to put them on herself. Now the idea had some marketable merit. They soon started production on Band-Aid Adhesive Bandages. The idea did not take off. But that wasn’t Earle’s fault. Johnson and Johnson only made them a little smaller than the big bandages they already produced, coming in sections about 2.5 inches wide and 18 inches long. After selling only $3,000 worth of Band-aids the first year, Earle convinced his bosses to make them much smaller. The much more handy size, coupled with the fact that the company gave an unlimited supply to the Boy Scouts for free, helped boost sales immensely.

Image courtesy jnj.com

By 1924, Johnson and Johnson had installed machines in their factory to make several sizes of Band-Aids (they were made by hand prior to that). They became sterile in 1939 and went vinyl in 1958 (surgical tape was the norm up until then). Since their invention, over 100 Billion Band-Aids have been manufactured, sold and put on booboos all over the world.

And that's about all we know about Earle. Johnson and Johnson eventually promoted him to a vice president position and he remained in that job until his retirement in 1957. He was also on the company's board of directors until his death. By four years later, he'd relocated to Kitchener, Canada. He passed away there on September 21, 1961 at the age of 68. At the time of his death, people were buying $30 million worth of his invention every year. That number has grown to $168 million per year (and that's just for actual Band-Aid brand bandages). So the next time you nick your finger in the kitchen or scrape your knee on a jog, thank Josephine Dickson and her husband Earle for figuring out a handy solution to your problem all those years ago.

Also on this day, in Disney history: Jodi Benson