All eight of the above bottles contained a concentrated disinfectant and antiseptic called “Lysol.”
Each bottle exactly matches the one pictured in an October 21, 1922 advertisement found in the “Saturday Evening Post.”
Sold in a concentrated form, the “Saturday Evening Post”ad indicated that it had to be measured out and mixed prior to use.
The advertisement then went on to provide mixing instructions and finally, how and where to use it.
Finding a total of eight such bottles out in the bay suggests Lysol was a “must have” in what must have been a remote and harsh environment back in the early 20th century.
So, with that as background, what follows is the “Lysol” story, a story that starts in the late 1800’s and is still unfolding today.
Lysol had its beginnings in Wiesbaden, Germany with a chemist and pharmacist named Gustav Adolph Raupenstrauch whose story appeared in the “Dictionary of German Biography, Volume 8,” published in 2005.
Raupenstrauch, the son of a pastor, began working in a pharmacy in Bistritz while still in school. From 1881 onwards he studied pharmacy and chemistry in Vienna and in 1886 obtained a doctorate. He was appointed departmental head at the food testing institute and the chemical testing institute in Wiesbaden and carried out research into disinfecting agents used to fight infectious diseases. His research resulted in the development of a new substance, Lysol, which was considered more effective and had fewer side effects than the disinfecting agents that had been used since then. In 1889 he received a patent for Lysol and in 1890 established a factory for Lysol production in Hamburg called Schülke & Mayr, whose Vienna branch he headed from 1892 onwards…
As early as 1890, word of the new product had reached the United States, as evidenced by this November 23, 1890 “New York Times” item found under the heading “Progress in Science.”
Among the latest disinfectants is “lysol,” which appears to be very much like carbolic acid. The emulsifying agent is resin or fat soap, tar acid being incorporated with the soap at the moment of saponification.
Two years later an August 28, 1892 story in the “Brooklyn Citizen,” announced that the New York City firm of Lehn & Fink was Lysol’s sole agent in the United States.
A CHOLERA PREVENTATIVE
Lysol Recommended by European Medical Authorities
The chief preventative of cholera and similar diseases is absolute cleanliness which insures the absence of disease germs. To secure this condition various antiseptic preparations are used. A new antiseptic has recently been discovered which many eminent physicians regard a superior to the old preparations.
Lysol, the new preparation in a 1 percent solution, possesses high antiseptic powers and is sure death to cholera and other disease germs. Unlike carbol and other similar preparations, it is convenient for ordinary use and leaves the skin smooth and soft.
Its use has been strongly recommended as a disinfectant and preventative by the Chief Sanitary Board of Austria. It is also used as a surgical antiseptic with marked success. Lehn & Fink, manufacturing chemists of No. 128 William Street, New York, are the sole agents in America for Lysol.
Over the next 100+ years, the stories of Lysol and Lehn & Fink would be intimately connected.
Lehn & Fink had begun in business eighteen years earlier, in 1874. Their start was descried like this in a booklet commemorating the firm’s 50th anniversary, published in 1924. Simply entitled “Fifty Years,” it began:
There were no fanfare of trumpets,” no formal housewarming when on May 1, 1874, the business which is now Lehn & Fink, Inc., was started at 160 William Street, New York City.
Mr. F. W. Fink having spent the morning in the employ of another wholesale house, terminated this association, as previously arranged, at noon, and walked to his own place of business…
He had no monetary capital, but one of his retail friends, Louis Lehn of Brooklyn, put in capital, which combined with that furnished by a special partner, afforded an amount sufficient to start the partnership of Lehn & Fink.
As early as 1876 the partnership of Lehn & Fink was listed in the NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with a capital of $10,000 and both Louis Lehn and Frederick W. Fink named as partners. Also included in the listing was “special partner,” Conrad Spengeman.
This advertisement for Lehn & Fink, the earliest I can find, appeared in an 1879 publication called “Notes on Assaying,” by Pierre de Peyster Ricketts.
A long-time employee named Robert R. Lampa, described their original 160 William Street quarters in a story written years later entitled: “Reminiscences of Forty-four years in the Drug Business.” It was published in the January, 1922 edition of “The Practical Druggist.”
When I entered the drug business 0f Lehn & Fink, the firm had been established only a few years – in 1874 I believe. It occupied very small quarters – 160 William Street – the building about 60 feet deep. We had a cellar and sub-cellar and part of the third floor. Subsequently we managed to get the first floor also and eventually we occupied the whole building, which all told, consisted, aside from the store and cellars, of three floors and a cock-loft of a depth somewhat shorter than that of the street floor. In this small building the goods were stored; orders put up, and shipments made and received. Goods were placed wherever there was room- and space was scarce – which means that an orderly arrangement of stock was impossible.
This depiction of their 160 William Street building generally supports Lampa’s description. It was included as part of an advertisement found in the August 20, 1927 edition of a publication called “Sales Management.”
Ten years later in 1884, according to a March, 1927 feature on Lehn & Fink published in a trade publication called the “Glass Container,” sales had “increased from nothing to a yearly total of $500,000,” necessitating a move to larger quarters at 128 William Street.
Up to this point the company was largely focused on business generated in the local New York metropolitan area. According to the “Glass Container” story that changed in the mid to late 1880’s when the company began to expand nationally. At the same time changes in management were occurring as well when, in 1886, Louis Lehn retired. Shortly afterwards, the 1888 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory named Fink, along with Charles Eberhardt and Albert Plaut as principals.
As the company was growing during the 1880’s they added two additional Manhattan facilities, a laboratory on Gold Street and warehouse on Pearl Street. Both are listed on their 1893 business card found in the June, 1893 edition of a publication called “Notes on Remedies.”
It was during this period of expansion that Lysol entered the picture, and by 1892, having acquired the sole rights to sell it in the U. S., Lehn & Fink began promoting Lysol in professional publications. This early advertisement to the medical profession appeared in a number of medical publications, including the June, 1892 edition of the “Toledo Medical and Surgical Reporter.”
A September,1895 advertisement included in a publication called “Notes on New Remedies,” not only touts Lysol to the medical profession for surgical and obstetrical use but also to veterinarians as an animal wash and to horticulturists as a way to destroy insect pests of all kinds.
At this point, according to the September, 1897 “Descriptive Price List of Lehn & Fink’s Specialties,” Lysol was sold in both 1-lb. bottles and 1 gallon jugs.
In 1898, Lehn retired after which the 1900 NYC Copartnership and Corporation directory named Albert Plaut along with his brother Joseph as principals, with Albert serving as president.
Not long after Albert Plaut assumed the presidency, the April 6, 1900 edition of the “New York Times” announced that the company was planning another move.
Albert & Joseph Plant, who compose the wholesale drug firm known as Lehn & Fink have bought through Ruling and Whiting, the property 120 William Street, 25 by 150, together with 79 John Street, containing about 7,000 square feet. The purchasers will tear down the buildings now on the site and erect a modern structure, which will be occupied entirely by their own business. The price paid for the combined properties is $151,000.
According to Robert Lamba’s reminiscences in the “Practical Druggist,” before the company could move into their new quarters, their present location at 128 William Street was destroyed by a fire.
The fire cleaned us out completely – stock, fixtures and all – had not even a single desk, inkwell or blotting paper to start anew with. The fire occurred on Friday night. That same night quarters were rented in Beekman Street and the fitting out of a temporary plant began immediately. Profers of assistance came from our friends and neighbors in the wholesale trade – they were accepted and helped us materially in getting us on our feet.
Lamba went on to say:
At the time of the fire Lehn & Fink had a new building under construction at 120 William Street, but it was not ready for occupancy. The walls were about up – that was about all. This new building – an L shaped, double building in fact was entered by us in 1901…
The building was depicted in a book entitled “New York The Metropolis,” published in 1902, the year after the building opened.
The publication described the company’s new home as:
A new fireproof eight story structure with electric plant and complete appointments, specially designed for the drug business.
Up to this point sale of Lysol was limited entirely to the medical profession. According to a February 2, 1922 feature on Lehn & Fink found in an advertising publication called “Printers’ Ink:”
Lysol was advertised in medical and hospital publications and by circularizing and sampling. The medical profession was circularized four times a year. Its use in hospitals spread rapidly, where as a bactericide in obstetrical cases it found favor…
This December 28, 1901 advertisement found in the “Philadelphia Medical Journal” suggested that it had certainly taken hold in the hospital community by then.
In daily use by thousands of doctors and in the most prominent hospitals FOR SURGICAL AND OBSTETRICAL WORK
The ad went on to name hospitals in several U. S. cities where Lysol was in constant use. New York City hospitals mentioned were Mount Sinai Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital, St Marks Hospital, German Hospital (now Lenox Hill), Presbyterian Hospital, New York Post Graduate Hospital and New York Polyclinic. Some of these hospitals are still with us today.
The “Printers Ink” feature went on to say:
Soon thereafter physicians began to prescribe it in the home, principally in confinement cases.
That almost certainly led to the smaller sized bottle mentioned in this July 14, 1906 advertisement found in the “Medical Record.”
According to the “Findings of Fact” in the case of Lehn & Fink Products Corporation v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Promulgated June 28, 1946 in U. S. Tax Court:
In 1910 Lehn & Fink, a corporation, was organized to conduct the business theretofore carried on by the partnership…
The following year, the 1911 Copartnership and Corporation Directory listed the firm as a New York corporation with capital of $600,000 and Albert Plaut named as president. Albert passed away several years later and in the 1915 directory his brother Joseph was named president.
It was around this time that the company began to broaden their advertising in an effort to reach the home market. Advertisements targeting the housewife began touting Lysol as a germicide and household disinfectant, a strategy exemplified by this January, 1915 ad found in “Good Housekeeping.” Leaning on their medical reputation, it read in part:
Lysol should be used regularly in your household, as it is in practically every hospital in the country. Disease finds it difficult to enter a house guarded by the Antiseptic, Disinfectant and Germicide, so much a favorite among physicians.
According to most internet sources, it was also in the early to mid-teens that Lehn & Fink acquired the rights to manufacture Lysol in the United States. Coincidently, in March, 1912 the company was planning a new six-story factory building on Sedgewick Street in Brooklyn. The announcement appeared in the March 22nd edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” under the heading:”New Buildings.”
Located along Brooklyn’s East River waterfront in the block between Sedgeick Street and Irving Street, the building was listed between 1913 and 1919 at 83 Sedgewick St. (sometimes 74 Irving St.). I suspect this is where Lysol was initially manufactured in the United States. In fact, according to the company’s anniversary booklet, “Fifty Years,” by the late teens all of the company’s manufacturing was being done in Brooklyn.
Lehn & Fink’s own manufacturing department was seized with growing pains. 120 William Street was devoted entirely to executive offices, stock rooms and shipping departments. In Brooklyn, N. Y., the laboratories and plant spread out and covered all the available ground and then began to grow up in the air. Wider sales of Lehn & Fink specialties constantly demanded increased production. New products were added to an already comprehensive list.
By the late teens that list of products included several under the Lysol name including toilet soap and shaving cream. Both were labeled as “new products” in this September, 1918 advertisement found in the “Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association.”
The need for more space came to a head in 1920 at which time the company moved their laboratories and all of their manufacturing operations to Bloomfield, N. J. The move was announced in the April 20th edition of “The Practical Druggist.”
Increased business has again overtaken Lehn & Fink, Inc. A site of 20 acres, located on two trunk line railroads at Bloomfield, N. J. with ideal motor trucking facilities to New York and with convenient trolleys for Newark and other sections of New Jersey, was purchased when it became evident greatly augmented manufacturing facilities would soon be necessary.
Despite uncertain weather and building conditions, new ultra-modern manufacturing plants and laboratories were put up on this site during the winter and early spring. All departments of the plant, now in full operation, are directed by experts, while small electric trucks maintain continuous coordination between the departments.
During the same year the company moved their New York City operation to 636 Greenwich Street where it was located between Morton and Barrow Streets. The same April, 20th “Practical Druggist” story announced that move as well.
During the summer, Lehn & Fink’s executive offices, and stock rooms will be moved to the 170,000 square feet of floor space in a new steel and stone building at Greenwich, Morton, and Barrow Streets, New York City.
A fleet of motor trucks will operate between the Bloomfield plants and the New York building. Delivery delays will be eliminated by the scientific time saving plan of order filling which the great increase in space makes possible.
The building has also been designed to include everything possible for the comfort and health of employees.
The enthusiasm which is now radiating throughout the Lehn & Fink organization means that the public will get products of the highest and purest quality, delivered with a speed and precision in every way abreast of the times.
Both their New York and New Jersey facilities were pictured as part of a Lehn & Fink advertisement that appeared in several 1924 editions of “Hospital Management.”
In addition to geographical changes, the company’s growth brought about corporate changes as well. According to the 1946 tax court records:
As the business expanded, various subsidies were organized by Lehn & Fink, Inc., the first of which, Lysol, Inc. was incorporated in 1920 in Delaware to acquire control of the Lysol business throughout the world.
It was contemplated that Lehn & Fink, Inc. would continue the manufacture and sale of Lysol in the United States under a contract by the terms of which Lysol, Inc. employed Lehn & Fink, Inc., as its sole manufacturing and selling agent in the United States…
In 1924, another subsidiary, Pebeco, Inc. was established and a similar arrangement was made for the manufacture and sale of Pebeco Toothpaste after which, according to the tax court records:
the business of Lehn & Fink, Inc., had three aspects: (1) A wholesale business in pharmaceuticals and other items commonly carried by druggists; (2) the manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals; and (3) the manufacture and sale of Lysol disinfectant and Pebco tooth paste…
At this point, with Albert Plaut’s son Edward, now serving as president, it was decided to make substantial changes in the business.
The 1946 tax court records went on to describe those changes.
The management decided to abandon the wholesale drug business and the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and to devote the entire facilities of the business to the manufacture and sale of Lysol , Pebeco and such other nationally advertised and trade-marked products as it might thereafter acquire, the first of which was to be Hinds Honey & Almond Cream. The decision was motivated by a recognition on the part of the management that a single factory and laboratory staff, operating under a single executive and sales organization, could manufacture and market in the same trade channels three or more noncompetitive products more economically, and therefore more profitably, than the several products could be manufactured in separate plants and marketed by separate sales organizations.
This lead to the formation of the Lehn & Fink Products Company to serve as a holding company and acquire stock ownership of Lysol Inc., Pebeco, Inc. and the newly acquired A. S. Hinds Company. The prospectus appeared in several New York newspapers on August 4, 1925
Two days later, the August 6, 1925 edition of the “N.A.R.D. Journal” provided some additional information.
An event of unusual significance to the drug trade has been the formation during the past week of Lehn & Fink Products Company, a corporation organized to acquire all of the stock of A. S. Hinds Company, makers of “Hinds Honey and Almond Cream,” Portland Maine, and Lehn & Fink, Inc., New York, owners of the entire stock of Pebeco, Inc. and practically all the stock of Lysol, Inc.
Edward Plaut, who for the past five years has been president of Lehn & Fink, Inc., will be the managing head of the new company.
Lehn & Fink was founded fifty-one years ago… Since that time it has supplied the wholesale and retail drug trade throughout the United States with fine drugs and rare chemicals, and has proved an enormous source of new pharmaceutical and medicinal products. The two most widely known specialties of Lehn & Fink, Inc., are of course Pebeco Toothpaste and “Lysol” disinfectant. Lehn & Fink has been the sole distributor of these products for more than twenty years, and within the last ten years has acquired the entire ownership and trademarks of both.
Lehn & Fink Products Company will take over the splendid Lehn & Fink laboratories at Bloomfield, N. J. as its manufacturing plant. These modern laboratories among the finest in the country, are particularly well equipped to add the Hinds products to the L & F specialties already made there, and the actual transfer of operations from the Hinds plant to Bloomfield, N. J. will be accomplished practically without lost motion.
According to the March, 1927 edition of the “Glass Container” much of the plant space was devoted to “Lysol” and “Pebeco Tooth Paste.”
One wing of the plant is devoted to the manufacture and packing of Pebeco Tooth Paste, while another wing houses similar “Lysol” disinfectant operations. A large central wing is utilized for general manufacturing.
By 1927, according to Moody’s “Manual of Investments,” the plant in Bloomfield had grown to seven buildings covering seven acres of land and employed 400 people. Moody’s went on to make it clear the company’s products, including “Lysol” were being distributed world-wide.
Trade named products include “Pebeco Tooth Paste,” “Lysol Disinfectant” and other “Lysol” products, Hinds’ Honey and Almond Cream” and other “Hinds” products. Sale of products abroad is conducted through Lysol, Ltd., which manufactures and sells in United Kingdom, British Colonies and Japan and through German subsidiary, Schülke & Mayr, A. G. which handles continent of Europe, South America and Chinese business. Canadian business handled by Lehn & Fink, Canada, Ltd.
Throughout the early 1920’s Lysol Disinfectant continued to be touted primarily as a germ killer with their advertisements aimed at the housewife, as evidenced by this January 7, 1922 ad found in “The Saturday Evening Post.”
Later in the 1920’s, and certainly in the 1930’s and 1940’s, in addition to advertising it as a household disinfectant, it was also touted among other things as a cure for athlete’s foot…
…and as a feminine hygiene product.
In addition, the company wasn’t adverse to running focused advertisements in a specific geographic area that required clean-up after some sort of disaster. St. Louis, Missouri saw one such ad in early July, 1947 shortly after the Mississippi River overflowed its banks, flooding portions of the city.
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s at least two new products emerged under the Lysol name. One, called Pine-Scented Lysol, was being advertised as early as 1957. This advertisement, one of the first I can find, ran in several west coast newspapers in November of that year.
Another was Lysol Spray Disinfectant. Advertisements for it, initially targeting boat owners, began appearing in Florida newspapers as early as the Fall of 1961. One, disguised as a newspaper article, appeared in the September 15th edition of Sarasota’s “The News.” It read, in part:
NEW SPRAY STOPS ODORS
Boat owners who despair at the amount of damage caused by mildew and suffer from unpleasant musty odors will be glad to know that there is a new product just being introduced which will render effective aid against these problems.
In a bright aqua and gold foil aerosol container, Lysol Spray Disinfectant not only counteracts destructive mildew but is also effective against germ-caused odors…
This early advertisement for their new spray appeared in several November, 1961 editions of Jacksonville’s “Florida Times-Union.”
In the meantime, over the course of the 1940’s and 1950’s the company added manufacturing facilities in Lincoln, Illinois and Toledo, Ohio. The October 11, 1947 edition of a Bloomington, Illinois newspaper called “The Pantograph” announced the opening of the new factory in Lincoln.
Official opening of Lincoln’s newest industrial development, the huge new plant of Lehn & Fink Products Corp., manufacturers and distributors of drugs and cosmetics was held Friday afternoon.
Edward Plaut, the New York City president of the company, headed a delegation of officials of the company from the East.
The plant located on Limit Street on the east side of Lincoln is said to be one of the largest in the country devoted to drug and cosmetic manufacturing. It consists of a main factory of modern, single-story design, together with a two story office building.
When in full operation the plant will employ 400 in the manufacture of the company’s various products which include Lysol disinfectant, Hinds honey and almond fragrance creams, Etiquet deodorant, Pebeco tooth paste and powder and the Tussy and Dorothy Gray lines of cosmetics.
Main offices of the corporation are in New York City. The Lincoln plant will augment the production of the company’s only other domestic manufacturing plant at Bloomfield, N. J.
In Toledo, Ohio they acquired and expanded the National Laboratories, Inc. facility there. The acquisition was announced in the September 23, 1957 edition of “The Blade.”
Sale of National Laboratories Inc. of Toledo to Lehn & Fink Products Corp., New York has been completed… National Laboratories will retain its present name, but will be incorporated as a Delaware corporation. It will operate as an independent subsidiary, one of 16 such Lehn & Fink units throughout the world.
Plans are under way for sizable future expansion of National Laboratories’ operations in Toledo, officials said. The company is in the process of constructing a plant addition, modernizing offices and more than doubling the size of laboratory research facilities.
Both factories were certainly needed when in 1963 it was announced that Lehn & Fink was closing their Bloomfield, New Jersey plant after 40+ years. The announcement, made by Edward Plaut’s son, Walter N. Plaut, who had taken over as president of the firm in November, 1960, appeared in the May 29, 1963 edition of Passaic New Jersey’s “Herald-News.”
Walter N. Plaut, president of Lehn & Fink Products Corp., announced plans to relocate the company’s Bloomfield plant in connection with a reorganization of company facilities. He said the move represented one part of an over-all program aimed at providing expanded, modern facilities for manufacturing and packaging operations. Discussions on these plans are being held with employee representatives.
It is expected that the manufacturing and packaging operations now conducted in Bloomfield at 192 Bloomfield Ave. will be moved to other locations. The company now maintains plants and warehouses in Toledo Ohio; Lincoln Ill.; Los Angeles, San Francisco and several other locations.
The plan would call for gradual discontinuance of operations over a period of about six months… Offices and research laboratories now in Bloomfield may be moved to more modern quarters in the general vicinity.
The following year the October 1, 1964 edition of the “Herald News” announced that the plant was closed and the property had been sold.
Lehn & Fink Products Corp. sold to Leonard N. Stern a complex of buildings on a 10-acre site in Bloomfield it was announced yesterday…
Lehn & Fink recently closed a manufacturing plant which it had maintained there and moved its operations to Lincoln Ill. It will maintain a research laboratory and office staff in the buildings and will continue to do so under a short-time lease with the purchaser…
Though Lehn & Fink had closed their Bloomfield manufacturing plant it soon became apparent they weren’t abandoning New Jersey altogether when, a month later the company announced they were building what would become their world headquarters there. The announcement appeared in the October 28, 1964 edition of the “Herald-News.”
Lehn & Fink Products Corp. has purchased approximately 35 acres of land in Montvale, N. J., to build a research laboratory and office building, Walter N. Plaut, president, announced yesterday.
The new facilities will be located on Summit Avenue, approximately one quarter of a mile west of Garden State Parkway near Exit 172.
In addition to research facilities, the buildings when completed in about 18 months, will house the corporate headquarters, the international division and the consumer products division which markets the Dorothy Gray and Tussy lines of cosmetics and skin care products, and the products of the L & F division which includes Lysol brand disinfectant, Lysol spray, Medi-Quick first-aid spray, Stri-Dex medicated pads and Noreen hair coloring products.
The company also operates manufacturing plants in Lincoln, Ill. and Toledo, Ohio and warehouses in Clifton, N.J., Lincoln and Los Angeles, as well as foreign plants in Hamburg, London, Milan, Toronto, Buenos Aires Argentina and Montevideo.
While the new facility was still under construction, the May 12, 1966 edition of “The Hackensack Record” announced that Lehn and Fink had merged with Sterling Drug, Inc.
MERGER SIGNED BY LEHN & FINK
Sterling Drug Inc. and Lehn & Fink Products Corporation have signed a joint agreement of merger, according to a joint announcement by Dr. J. Mark Hiebert, chairman of the board of Sterling and Walter N. Plaut, of Lehn & Fink. Lehn & Fink is building its headquarters in Montvale, N. J…
Under terms of the merger agreement, Lehn & Fink will be merged into Sterling, and Sterling will be the surviving corporation…Upon approval, the merger is expected to become effective June 30…
Lehn & Fink, now operating as a division of Sterting Drug, opened their new world headquarters in Montvale in September, 1966. The September 13th edition of “The Hackensack Record” covered the opening.
The gleaming new multi-million dollar headquarters of Lehn & Fink Products, the $75 million manufacturer of consumer and industrial products, was dedicated here today before 700 employees and invited guests…
James W. Newman, senior vice-president, said Lehn & Fink had consolidated its administrative, marketing and research organizations in order to place the principal creative functions under one roof and thus to achieve more efficient coordination of operations…
The story described the new facility as a 2-story, 100,000 square foot Y-shaped building on a plot of 35 acres, and included the following photograph.
As far as I can tell, at some point the company also re-established a manufacturing facility in New Jersey in Belle Meade.
An unscientific review of their newspaper advertisements suggests that sometime in the late 1960’s, while early in their tenure with Sterling Drug, Lehn & Fink added several more products under the “Lysol” name. These included the “Basin Tub and Tile Cleaner,” “Toilet Bowl Cleaner,” and “Deodorizing Cleaner,” all of which are pictured together with “Lysol Disinfectant” and “Lysol Spray” in this 1975 advertisement published in the “Ottawa Citizen.”
In January, 1988, Sterling Drug was acquired by Eastman Kodak Co. for $5.1 billion. Later that year a story in the August 18, 1988 edition of Rochester, New York’s “Democrat and Chronicle” announced that Lehn & Fink would continue as part of Kodak.
Eastman Kodak Co., heeding the advice of 26 internal task forces and disregarding Wall Street’s has decided to keep Sterling Drug’s L:ehn & Fink household products business.
Kay R. Whitmore, president of Kodak, told Lehn & Fink managers yesterday, in Montvale, N. J., that even though Kodak has had inquiries from would-be buyers, Lehn & Fink is too good a business for Kodak to lose.
That conclusion was reached, he said, after Kodak/Lehn & Fink teams reviewed 26 different aspects of Lehn & Fink to see if the business would be helped by being part of Kodak.
Some investors and Wall Street analysts had hoped Kodak would sell Lehn & Fink in order to reduce the debt it took on to finance the $5.1 billion Sterling purchase.”
Six years later, Kodak did sell Lehn & Fink which by then was simply called L & F Products. The sale was reported in Newark’s “Star Ledger” on September 27, 1994
Eastman Kodak Co. yesterday said it will sell the household product business of a New Jersey-based unit for $1.6 billion
Kodak said it will sell the $800 million household goods business of L&F Products to Rickett & Coleman, the London based maker of Woolite. The L&F operations included in the deal are best known for producing Lysol and Mop & Glo.
L&F, once known as Lehn & Fink, employs about 900 in New Jersey as part of its 2,400 person work force. About 640 people work at the Montvale headquarters and technical center – an additional 260 at a manufacturing and distribution plant in Belle Mead.
Eastman Kodak of Rochester N.Y., said it is divesting the L&F units as part of a strategy to return to its core imaging business… Reckitt & Coleman spokesman David Saltmarsh said the acquisition of L&F would increase his company’s foothold in the U.S market…
L&F’s manufactured-in-New Jersey products include Lysol disinfectants and cleaners, Resolve carpet and fabric cleaners, Mop & Glow and Beacon floor waxes, Chubs and Diapering baby wipes, Vanisol bathroom cleaner and Wet Ones moist towelettes. The products are sold in 37 countries.
Today Rickett continues to make products under the Lysol brand name with their marketing message relatively unchanged from 100 years ago.
Each of the eight subject bottles that were found is 4-inches tall; 1-1/2-inches in diameter and contains about 4-ounces. It exhibits 3 horizontal measurement lines, so it contains 4- 2 quart doses. According to the 1922 advertisement mentioned at the beginning of this post, that makes it the 25c size.
One bottle is embossed with the corporate name “Lysol, Inc.” and the Bloomfield N. J. location on its base. It also exhibits what is almost certainly the maker’s mark of the Owens Bottle Company, consisting of the letter “O” inside a square that was in use between 1919 and 1929. Recognizing that Lysol, Inc. was established in 1920 and the company moved to New Jersey the same year, puts the approximate date of the bottle between 1920 and 1929.
Another bottle includes the embossed location of “New York” along with the company name of Lysol, Inc. on its embossed base. It also exhibits what appears to be the maker’s mark of the Illinois Glass Company, consisting of an “I” inside a diamond that was in use from 1915 – 1929. So this bottle dates to the same time frame, from 1920 when Lysol, Inc. was incorporated up through 1929.
The others are simply embossed on the base with the words “Bottle Made in U S A.”
That being said, I suspect they date to the 1920’s as well. By 1930 advertisements began to picture a different style bottle, one with “Lysol” written horizontally near the shoulder.
An example of this later bottle type recently appeared for sale on the internet.
