Background
Earle Ensign Dickson was born on October 10, 1892, in Grandview, Tennessee. He was the son of Richard Ensign Dickson, a physician, and Mary Augusta Hester.
Earle Ensign Dickson was born on October 10, 1892, in Grandview, Tennessee. He was the son of Richard Ensign Dickson, a physician, and Mary Augusta Hester.
Dickson graduated from Yale University in 1913 and the Lowell Textile Institute in 1914.
In 1916 Dickson became a cotton buyer for a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, which was already one of the largest producers of surgical bandages and gauze in the United States.
By 1920 Josephine Dickson's proclivity for accidents around the house apparently kept Dickson busy applying gauze and surgical tape to her hands. Unfortunately, such bandages were clumsy to apply and easily lost. After some reflection, he laid gauze pads on strips of surgical tape and covered both with strips of crinoline. Whenever his wife required first aid, she needed only to cut off a bandage from the handy roll. Now she could treat her cuts and burns without assistance.
When Dickson mentioned his innovation to a fellow employee, he was encouraged to seek a hearing from his superiors within the organization. The company's president, James W. Johnson, saw the potential in Dickson's idea and decided to manufacture the item under the now famous trademark of "Band-Aid. " The name was suggested by W. Johnson Kenyon, at that time superintendent of the mill at the Johnson and Johnson plant. The first adhesive bandages were produced in long sections that allowed the user to cut off the desired amount. They were produced by hand, and initially sales were not especially large. Gradually the product caught the attention of the public.
In 1924 machinery was developed to precut three-inch by three-quarter-inch bandages, and business increased by 50 percent. As a direct result of Dickson's invention, he was named manager of the hospital sales division, which he played a major role in organizing, in 1925, and was named to the board of directors in 1929. From that time he ascended in the corporate structure until his retirement as a vice-president in 1957.
Nevertheless, despite the popularity of the adhesive bandage and the entrance into the popular culture of the brand name as a generic label, Dickson remains largely unknown.
Quotations: "I was determined to devise some manner of bandage that would stay in place, be easily applied, and still retain its sterility. "
On December 6, 1917, Dickson married Josephine Frances Knight. They had two sons.
