BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages are one of the most recognizable of the Company’s products. They were invented in 1920 by an employee named Earle Dickson, who worked as a cotton buyer. His wife Josephine was prone to kitchen accidents. Earle wanted a bandage his wife could apply herself, so he took two of the Company’s early products – adhesive tape and gauze – and combined them by laying out a long piece of surgical tape and placing small pieces of gauze on it in intervals. To keep the adhesive from sticking, he covered it with crinoline fabric. Whenever his wife cut herself, she cut a piece of the tape and gauze pad and used it as a bandage. Dickson mentioned his invention at work, and a new product was born. The first BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages went on the market in 1921, and were the first ready-made adhesive bandages that consumers could apply themselves. Earle Dickson was made a vice president at Johnson & Johnson.
