William Procter and James Gamble

We brush our teeth "Blend-a-honey," and sink - "Comet" my hands "Seyfgardom", and the dishes - "Fairy". We are not afraid spots, because there are "Tide", and dandruff - because there is a "Head-end-sholders". Asses of our babies are always pink, and even ourselves quite comfortable and dry. So, imagine our life without Procter & Gamble as impossible as, without Procter Gamble. And the company itself - without the inventions of Victor Mills.
Englishman, William Procter and an Irishman, James Gamble could never meet, if at the beginning of last century, fate brought it both to America. Namely, in Cincinnati.

Sixteen James Gamble in the United States brought the father - a priest, a Protestant, a weary drag polunischenskoe exist eternally troubled Catholic Ireland, and who has decided to start a new life somewhere in Illinois. However, the journey Gamble finished a little closer to the coast of the Atlantic: in the way James was sick, and the family made a stop in Cincinnati (Ohio) - noisy and busy place. While James gained strength, the Reverend Gamble had to retrain in a greengrocer, but continued to preach in the family and educated son of an exemplary Christian. Renewed in body and spirit, James, first helped his father in the shop, and then went to the disciples to the most experienced soap-boiler state - soap at the time brought a good income. So good that a few years, James opened his own soap factories and was able to start a family. His wife was Elizabeth Norris, daughter of Alexander Norris, quite a successful manufacturer of candles. In the same year, played another wedding: Olivia, sister Elizabeth, married widower William Procter.

William also was in America not from the good life. In good old England, he got into debt to fulfill the dream of his life - to open a store woolen products. But, alas, the store lasted exactly one day: the morning after the opening of William found the shop door cracked and empty shelves. He vowed to return to creditors $ 8 thousand. debt - an enormous sum for those times, but asked them permission to leave England to go on earnings in the "fabulously rich in America". It had no choice but to believe Procter and agree to postpone the trial. Ambush they did in the debt trap - back to some crumbs. And since appeared at least some chance to get all. William and his wife Martha went to Kentucky. But they also had no chance to get to the destination: the road in March caught cholera and died several days later. The accident happened just in Cincinnati, where Procter and buried his wife.

Unable to move on, he decided to settle down near her grave, and established himself as a clerk in one of the local banks. But low salaries are not even enough to live, not to mention the fact, to pay his debts, and a few months later William decided to engage in the manufacture of candles - a complex matter, but a very profitable. Several years were needed for it to organize a small candle production. And all these years, the specter of the robbers did not give Procter sleep. Saving on the dog, William confuse attackers this way: next to the studio put a huge doghouse, tied the chain of impressive size, put a hefty number of gnawed bones. Thieves do not bother, life slowly was adjusted. Procter was even able to pay its creditors. Now a widower thinking about new marriage. His wife and agreed to become Olivia Norris, which Procter had met in the church. Thus, William Procter and James Gamble were relatives.
And on that Procter & Gamble have become partners, their present-law. It is foolish to undertake the work alone, especially since Svechnikov and soap-boiler to the same raw material: animal fat. So in April 1837 appeared the company Procter, Gamble & Co. Under the "From" while hiding a Mr. Tarrant, who was invited to participate in the company as an investor. But about a year, Mr. "Co" disappeared, apparently the charter on a daily basis to hear the psalms, which William and James singing at work. But, apparently, their prayers were heard not only Tarrantom - at least, the company Procter & Gamble successfully competed with eighteen manufacturers of soap and candles Cincinnati.

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. Very soon, their products have begun to recognize a distinctive pattern on the boxes - star and crescent, enclosed in a circle
. Affiliates, . perhaps, . and it never occurred to develop its brand, . if Procter once did not pay attention to the grave crosses, . painted on the boxes with products: thus illiterate stevedores ticked, . in any soap boxes, . and in which - Candles,
. Pious Procter ordered to change the crosses on the stars. Soon a number of them appeared and crescent. And once one seller has returned all the party candles, to doubt their authenticity because the boxes were not familiar figure, has no product is not without logo Procter & Gamble.

. 22 years of the company Procter & Gamble, the initial capital of which was 7192 dollars and 24 cents, sold candles and soap in a million
. By the beginning of the 60's they already had a small factory, 80 workers, brand - and sons who are ready to continue his father's business. Sons can be proud of. Already the first serious task assigned to them, was done brilliantly. At the very eve of the Civil War, William Alexander Procter and James Norris Gamble went to New Orleans for the purchase of wood resin needed in the manufacture of soap and candles. In conversation companions now and then uttered the word "war" and, although other reasons for concern were the young people bought up almost the entire stock of New Orleans resin for a dollar per barrel. Several months later, the troops of the northerners took a lot of soap and candles, their prices soared, soared and the cost of resin - up to $ 15 per barrel. Procter & Gamble to sell its goods at prices lower than competitors who had not managed to make reserves, but still shot the fat broth. Moreover, the company received its first major state order, so that every soldier returning from the war, knew of its star and crescent.

So this younger generation of Procter & Gamble and after the war. James Norris Gamble, a self-taught chemist, developed a new kind of soap - very white and very hard. And Harley, the youngest son of Procter, coined a name for it - "Ivory", which means "ivory" (about the palaces of ivory, Harley heard a Sunday sermon). This brand was so impressed buyers that soap with the name "Ivory" is successfully sold in many countries so far.

However, whiteness, hardness and sonorous name for this success was clearly not enough. It required something more. And it appeared. Again came about by accident. One worker, who watched the cooking "Ivory", or fell asleep or with someone chatting, as a result of an hour later switched off the. Fearing the wrath of the owners, he admitted that soap digested. And it made available for sale. A week later at the door of the warehouse Procter & Gamble appeared buyers demanded "soap, which does not sink, like everyone else, and flies". Hostess, washing clothes in rivers and lakes, and this is just not enough.
In the early 20-ies it was all in another. In any case, washing is no longer "Ivory", which for decades from an ideal means of washing has become a "soap beauty. Reported by the magazine "Cosmopolitan" - in the advertising message next to the picture of a lady Ivory, languid beauty in a dress of ivory. By advertising company Procter & Gamble approached very seriously. But since then, as in 1882, Harley Procter had a hard time convincing the older generation of the need to spend money on advertisements, pictures in magazines and portraits of the then stars with soap and beauty in his hands was no longer enough. It was necessary to use new, modern means of advertising. For example, radio. And in the intervals between the first radio series was the sound soap ads from Procter & Gamble. To a radioserial on semeika Koldbergov he would be dubbed the "soap opera".

. Likely, . Procter & Gamble could have remained in the memory of fans of soap operas as "one of the largest manufacturers of soap (by that time the company has already sold more than 50 varieties of soap, candles could not compete with electric lamps, . and in 1920, Procter & Gamble has ceased to produce them), . If it were not for tale-teller named Victor Mills.,
. We will never know, . I guess William Cooper Procter (the last of the family founders, . who guided the company), . employing a young man named Victor Mills, . what value it will have for the future of Procter & Gamble,
. By 1925, when Mills was the first chemical engineer of the company, he managed to serve in the Navy during World War II, to work as a welder in Hawaii, get married and graduate of Chemical Technology University of Washington. Energy and ideas he has been rife, and Victor enthusiastically set to work. Seeing how his wife is suffering from the laundry and once he heard her lamentation: "Oh, Victor, those soap chips that make your company does not want to dissolve in the water!" - He invented the soap flakes for laundry and dishwashing. A little later - the first synthetic laundry detergent, Dreft, the prototype of "Tide"
Wife was not only inspiring crazy ideas Mills. Both she and their daughter Mail became the real guinea pigs in the laboratory, in which Mills turned his house. If Dad was home from work, splodgy something red and fragrant cherry Mail knew: he invented a new toothpaste, which at night will have to brush your teeth. If the lapels of his jacket could see my father's white fingerprints, then tomorrow the whole family will taste a new powder for the confectionery and biscuits all day in huge quantities to eat cupcakes. Mail no doubt that her future children will not escape the same fate. She was not mistaken.

When she had their first child, Mills, who took the time to research and development department of Procter & Gamble, began to think about how to make a softer paper disposable handkerchiefs that they are not scratched the grandson of the nose. When the Mail got a second child, Grandpa Vic, who adored grandchildren, and hated to wash sliders and gauze pads, set about trying to create disposable paper diapers.

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. Grandchildren Mills, paraded in the first prototypes diapers, had hard times - in plastic pants, they were zharkovato
. Yes, and fasten them with pins was not too comfortable. But a few months of work - and the problem was solved. In March 1959 the stores of Illinois received the first batch of diapers - (pamper in English the word means "spoil"). Feedback from customers were the most favorable market seemed endless - America was experiencing a demographic upsurge. No wonder that by the early 90's diapers have become so popular in the world that have become synonymous with the concept of "disposable diapers.
. Thanks to them, Procter & Gamble was able to expand production and product range, and then buy many brands
. The company now produces over 40 product groups, comprising more than 300 titles. This soap, toothpaste, soap powders, detergents, shampoos, food products, feminine pads and, of course, diapers, of which the world first heard 40 years ago.
. But the name of their creator, the public learned only recently from newspaper articles devoted to the memory of Mills
. Father diapers and author of 25 other patented inventions, have turned Procter & Gamble in a multidisciplinary concern, died in 1997 aged 100 years. Why did he not call his own name great invention, it is understandable. But if he were not so squeamish, children around the world would learn his name in conjunction with the words "papa" and "mama".