Eleven Successful Products Originally Invented for Something Else



Mental Floss presents this priceless list of products that are popular today yet had dubious beginnings as products of a different type. Some of these are hilarious  including the abovementioned  use of Lysol as an agent of feminine hygiene. It's "a concentrated germ killer" dontcha know? Why not slap it all over the place? After all, it's "non-caustic and will not harm delicate tissue." So go crazy, ladies!

Read original usage suggestions for other products including bubble wrap, Kleenex and Listerine at Mental Floss. 

Image Credit: mrbill, Flickr


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The takeaway paragraph in this ad is this:

"Lysol" has has amazing, proved power to kill germ-life on contact . . . truly cleanses the vaginal canal even in the presence of mucous matter. Thus "Lysol" acts in a way that makeshifts like soap, salt or soda never can.

Notice the original stress on the words "acts" and "never can." Savvy women read that as a birth control method, and indeed that's what Lysol was hinting at. That's all they could do, because even telling women about birth control methods was illegal back then. Although it was ineffective to use in this manner, I can imagine that the long-term effects of this caustic solution rendered at least some women eventually infertile.
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