"Women who realize the importance of daintiness are grateful to Mum."
Mum advertisement, 1926
Every civilization throughout history has searched for a remedy to the perennial problem of body odor. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks applied mixtures of carob, cinnamon, incense, and various citrus juices, though such attempts did little more than temporarily mask body odor. And the Roman historian Plinus wrote of a deodorizing salt made from a mix of potassium and aluminum. But, it was not until the nineteenth century that the eccrine gland was found to be responsible for the production of body odor.
An unknown Philadelphia man created the world's first trademarked deodorant in 1888. Named "Mum," it was sold as a rather difficult-to-apply, waxlike cream in a glass jar, and had zinc chloride as its principal drying-agent. It worked to inhibit the growth of bacteria present in moist, warm areas of the body, such as the armpits, that were conducive to body odor.
In the early twentieth century powdered sodium bicarbonate diluted with talc became a common deodorant. In the late 1940s Helen Barnett Diserens, a researcher for Bristol-Myers, developed a solid aluminum chloride-based deodorant stick that, while easy-to-use, resulted in complaints of hairs being pulled during application. Diserens solved this problem in 1952 with the first roll-on that delivered deodorant to the skin via a plastic roller, using the same principle as the recently invented ballpoint pen.
