Read Online Uncle John's Great Big Bathroom Reader by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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stomachs felt like they were “crawling with ants.”
Salicylic acid had given Hoffman’s father multiple ulcers. He had literally burned holes in his stomach trying to relieve his rheumatism pain, and was desperate for something milder. So Hoffman read through all the scientific literature he could find. He discovered that every scientist who had tried to neutralize the acidic properties of salicylic acid had failed...except one. In 1853, a French chemist named Charles Frederic Gerhart had improved the acid by adding sodium and acetyl chloride—creating a new compound called acetylsalicylic acid. However, the substance was so unstable and difficult to make that Gerhart had abandoned it.
----
Crazy drivers: The highest speed ever reached by a motorcycle doing a wheelie was 157.87 mph
----
No Pain, No Gain
Hoffman decided to make his own batch of Gerhart’s acetylsalicylic acid. Working on it in his spare time, he managed to produce a purer, more stable form than anyone had ever been able to make. He tested the powder on himself successfully. Then he gave some to his father. It eased the elder Hoffman’s pain, with virtually no side effects.
The Bayer Facts
Hoffman reported his findings to his superiors at Bayer. His immediate supervisor was Heinrich Dreser, the inventor of heroin. (At the time, it was thought to be a non-addictive substitute for morphine. Heroin was a brand name, selected to describe the drug’s heroic painkilling properties.) Dreser studied Hoffman’s acid, found that it worked, and in 1899 Bayer began selling their patented acetylsalicylic acid powder to physicians under the brand name aspirin. The name was derived from the Latin term for the “queen of the meadow” plant, Spiraea ulmaria , which was an important source of salicylic acid. A year later, they introduced aspirin pills.
IN THE BEGINNING
Within ten years of its introduction, aspirin became the most-commonly prescribed patent medicine in the world for two reasons: (1) it actually worked, and (2) unlike heroin, morphine, and other powerful drugs of the time, it had few side effects. There was nothing on the market like it, and when it proved effective at reducing fever during the influenza epidemics at the start of the twentieth century, its reputation as a miracle drug spread around the world.
“This was a period of time when a person only had a life expectancy of 44 years because there were no medications available,” says Bayer spokesman Dr. Steven Weisman. “Aspirin very quickly become the most important drug available.” It seemed to be able to solve any problem, large or small—gargling aspirin dissolved in water eased sore throats, and rubbing aspirin against a baby’s gums even helped sooth teething pain.
----
Surveys say: About 4% of U.S. employess never laugh at work.
----
UPS AND DOWNS
Aspirin was initially a prescription-only medication, but it became available over the counter in 1915. Sales exploded, and demand for the new drug grew at a faster rate than ever. Since Bayer owned the patent on aspirin—and there were no other drugs like it—the company didn’t have to worry about competition; it had the worldwide market to itself.
But the forces of history would soon get in the way.
HEADACHE MATERIAL
In 1916, Bayer used its aspirin profits to build a massive new factory in upstate New York. They immediately started manufacturing the drug for the American market and sold $6 million worth in the first year.
Then they ran into problems. World War I made Germany America’s enemy, and in 1918 the U.S. Government seized Bayer’s American assets under the Trading With the Enemy Act. They auctioned the factory off to the Sterling Products Company of West Virginia. (The two Bayers would not reunite again until 1995, when the German Bayer bought Sterling’s over-the-counter drug business for $1 billion.) Sterling continued marketing aspirin under the Bayer brand name, which by now had been
Salicylic acid had given Hoffman’s father multiple ulcers. He had literally burned holes in his stomach trying to relieve his rheumatism pain, and was desperate for something milder. So Hoffman read through all the scientific literature he could find. He discovered that every scientist who had tried to neutralize the acidic properties of salicylic acid had failed...except one. In 1853, a French chemist named Charles Frederic Gerhart had improved the acid by adding sodium and acetyl chloride—creating a new compound called acetylsalicylic acid. However, the substance was so unstable and difficult to make that Gerhart had abandoned it.
----
Crazy drivers: The highest speed ever reached by a motorcycle doing a wheelie was 157.87 mph
----
No Pain, No Gain
Hoffman decided to make his own batch of Gerhart’s acetylsalicylic acid. Working on it in his spare time, he managed to produce a purer, more stable form than anyone had ever been able to make. He tested the powder on himself successfully. Then he gave some to his father. It eased the elder Hoffman’s pain, with virtually no side effects.
The Bayer Facts
Hoffman reported his findings to his superiors at Bayer. His immediate supervisor was Heinrich Dreser, the inventor of heroin. (At the time, it was thought to be a non-addictive substitute for morphine. Heroin was a brand name, selected to describe the drug’s heroic painkilling properties.) Dreser studied Hoffman’s acid, found that it worked, and in 1899 Bayer began selling their patented acetylsalicylic acid powder to physicians under the brand name aspirin. The name was derived from the Latin term for the “queen of the meadow” plant, Spiraea ulmaria , which was an important source of salicylic acid. A year later, they introduced aspirin pills.
IN THE BEGINNING
Within ten years of its introduction, aspirin became the most-commonly prescribed patent medicine in the world for two reasons: (1) it actually worked, and (2) unlike heroin, morphine, and other powerful drugs of the time, it had few side effects. There was nothing on the market like it, and when it proved effective at reducing fever during the influenza epidemics at the start of the twentieth century, its reputation as a miracle drug spread around the world.
“This was a period of time when a person only had a life expectancy of 44 years because there were no medications available,” says Bayer spokesman Dr. Steven Weisman. “Aspirin very quickly become the most important drug available.” It seemed to be able to solve any problem, large or small—gargling aspirin dissolved in water eased sore throats, and rubbing aspirin against a baby’s gums even helped sooth teething pain.
----
Surveys say: About 4% of U.S. employess never laugh at work.
----
UPS AND DOWNS
Aspirin was initially a prescription-only medication, but it became available over the counter in 1915. Sales exploded, and demand for the new drug grew at a faster rate than ever. Since Bayer owned the patent on aspirin—and there were no other drugs like it—the company didn’t have to worry about competition; it had the worldwide market to itself.
But the forces of history would soon get in the way.
HEADACHE MATERIAL
In 1916, Bayer used its aspirin profits to build a massive new factory in upstate New York. They immediately started manufacturing the drug for the American market and sold $6 million worth in the first year.
Then they ran into problems. World War I made Germany America’s enemy, and in 1918 the U.S. Government seized Bayer’s American assets under the Trading With the Enemy Act. They auctioned the factory off to the Sterling Products Company of West Virginia. (The two Bayers would not reunite again until 1995, when the German Bayer bought Sterling’s over-the-counter drug business for $1 billion.) Sterling continued marketing aspirin under the Bayer brand name, which by now had been
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