disinfecting wipes
CLOROX
Three years before the iconic
Hollywood sign made its debut,
the big name in California was
Clorox. In 1920, the American
cleaning giant (then known as the
Electro-Alkaline Company)
erected a massive billboard over
San Francisco to tout its signature
liquid bleach to the daily ferry
commuters. Residents on the
other side of the bay received a
different kind of welcome. Annie
Murray, the wife of the company’s
first general manager, insisted on
handing out free samples of the
newfangled cleaner to housewives
visiting her family’s grocery store
in Oakland. You might say that
Clorox still focuses on the personal
touch, albeit in a somewhat differ-
ent form. The Guardian estimates
that the world uses about 14,000
disinfecting wet wipes every sec-
ond, and according to Amazon,
Clorox is the bestseller.
Benadryl
itch relief/allergy relief
In 1933, George Rieveschl
sent out 200 applications
in hopes of becoming a
commercial artist. He got nothing
but rejections. So he became a chemist
at the University of Cincinnati, and within
ten years he’d created a compound that
helped reduce itchy allergic reactions.
He called it Benadryl. After the oral
medication became available without
a prescription in the 1980s, Benadryl
began to also be sold as an anti-itch
cream. (It won in both categories.)Kind
nutrition bar
The glucose
is non-GMO, the 20-plus flavors offer
abundant variety, and the grains (such
as amaranth, buckwheat, and sorghum)
are unrefined and packed with protein.Coppertone
sun protection World War II
airman Benjamin Green used
veterinary petroleum to keep
from getting sunburned while
on duty. After the war, he
added cocoa butter and coco-
nut oil to the mix and created
Coppertone suntan lotion.
(The SPF came later.)Robitussin
cough remedy In Latin, the
word tussis means “cough.” It’s
the same root found in the
word pertussis, aka whooping
cough.rd.com 83Trusted Brands Reader’s Digest