Inventor of the Band-Aid: Who is Earle Dickson?

Earle Dickson (October 10, 1892 – September 21, 1961) was an American inventor who invented the adhesive bandage. He lived most of his life in Highland Park, New Jersey.

Dickson worked for Johnson & Johnson, a company that produced gauze and dressings. When his wife, Josephine Knight, kept cutting her hand while cooking and doing housework, she started dressing it with gauze and adhesive bandage.

Earle Dickson (October 10, 1892—September 21, 1961) was an American inventor best known for inventing adhesive bandages in the US. He lived in Highland Park, New Jersey, for a large portion of his life.

In 1920, he made this job more practical by sticking gauze in the middle of the adhesive bandage. This way, his wife could use the adhesive bandage as needed. Dickson shared this idea with his boss, James Wood Johnson, and it was put into production in a short time. Mass production of adhesive bandages began in 1924. Because of his idea, Earle Dickson was promoted to vice president of the company.

The story of the invention

Although Dickson's wife, Josephine, loved to cook, she was constantly cutting or burning her hands. At that time, for such minor injuries, a piece of gauze and an adhesive cloth bandage were used to hold the gauze in place. However, each time, both materials had to be cut separately according to the size of the wound. Moreover, it was not easy to wrap the cloth bandage around the hand when alone. That's why the bandage fell off frequently. Dickson began to make some experiments to find a more practical solution to this situation.

Earle Dickson first folded and placed a sterile gauze in the middle of a strip of surgical tape. Then, to prevent it from sticking to itself, he covered the tape with an adhesive fabric called Krolin and rolled it up. Thus, Josephine could now cut as much of this strip as she wanted and use it practically whenever she needed it. Dickson convinced his company to offer his design for commercial sale, and after a while, the company began producing handmade band-aids under the brand name "Band Air". Although sales were not very good at first, things took off when the company distributed free Band-Aids to Boy Scouts across the country. Three years later, machines began to be used in production. Due to his Band-Aid design, which became the company's best-known product over time, Dickson rose to the position of vice president of the company he worked for.