Hand sanitisers are likely to sell well for a while longer, even after the Circuit Breaker (CB) lifts. But how did hand sanitisers come about in the first place? After all, there was a time when hand sanitisers didn’t exist! Who came up with the idea? The editing team at Human would like to share some of their research with you below!
The Myth: The Nursing Student
There’s a story that’s often shared. Supposedly, a nursing student named Lupe Hernandez combined gel and alcohol to form a mixture that doctors could use for situations without soap and water. In this story, there was a patent taken out on this mixture in 1966. However, the patent does not show up in records and there is no one outstanding Lupe Hernandez that pops out from historical sources. It is likely that elements of this story are true, but that elements got mixed or changed over time, resulting in the story we have now.
Gojo and Purell
The first prototype formula was mixed by Goldie and Jerome “Jerry” Lippman and is still being used in auto-repair shops. Both the company they founded and the mixture were given the name ‘Gojo’, a mix of GOldie and JerOme. The mixture was created to give mechanics an alternative to the kerosene to wipe off grime and dirt. Jerry Lippman would go on to create the first dispenser that all other wall dispensers improve upon.
Prices for the raw materials for Gojo spiked in the oil embargo of the 1970s and it took around a decade to come up with an alternative in 1988. It took another decade before this alcohol-based alternative was copyrighted as “Purell” and sold to the masses between 1997 and 1998. While there had been hand sanitisers like Purell in the past, what Goldie and Jerry did was to add a thickener to the mixture. This thickener ensured that you could dispense small portions confidently.
Market Success
Purell slowly gained traction for industrial use while the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) published a paper in 2002 about alcohol-based sanitisers [1]. The military began using Purell widely in 2005 and it was around this time that Purell gained traction for general use.
While the rights to Purell were sold and bought several times, GOJO (the company) eventually bought the rights back. The company is now run by nephew Joe Kanfer.
Conclusion
Though Purell was the first major company in the hand sanitiser market, there are many different brands in the market now, Schulke being one of them.
Find out what you can do with hand sanitisers and air purifiers in our other article!