ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab

On September 26, 1871 U.S. Patent No. 119,413 for the composition of portland cement was issued to David Oliver Saylor, of Allentown, Pa. In 1871, Saylor tried his hand at selecting and mixing different kinds of rock from his quarries to produce portland cement at the first US plant in Coplay, Pa. After initial difficulties, he succeeded with a mixture of magnesium clay and limestone clay.

Also ...

On October 1, 1940, International Latex Corporation received a registration for their trademark to identify women's under garments:

Playtex was the brainchild of Abram Nathaniel Spanel (1901-1985), an inventor with over two thousand patents. He established International Latex Co. (now Playtex International) in Rochester, New York in 1932 after he became a millionaire on an earlier invention - a garment bag to which a vacuum cleaner could be attached to remove moths. The "Play" in Playtex seems to come from the first International Latex product - play clothes for toddlers made from latex. International Latex also sold shoulder covers for shampooing, aprons, and the like.

The first Playtex girdle advertised was in the NY Times of March 10, 1940. The ad said "as new as this edition of the paper." The ad for a department store had a photograph of an unworn panty brief. The possibility of being worn under swim suits was mentioned - something Playtex mentioned until briefs were discontinued. Much was made of the fact that they were molded, not seamed, and were made of latex, not "an old-fashioned rubber garment". The price was $2.00. Sears-Roebuck's Fall 41/Spring 42 catalog advertised Playtex, but noted they might not be available. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 sealed their doom until 1947 when rubber supplies became available.

A.N. Spanel was noted for placing paid political commentaries in major newspapers. He was a fairly progressive industrialist for the era and International Latex was among the first companies to air-condition its facilities for workers' comfort, and among the first to introduce profit-sharing. Spanel's leaning were so "liberal" that columnist Westbrook Pegler accused Spanel of communist leanings in 1945. Spanel sued for six million dollars and won a public retraction. He was a noted philanthropist in the medical research field and voluntarily returned $1.5 million of his wartime profits from government contracts back to the government.