Kilmer House

There’s a little-known legend surrounding the Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters site in New Brunswick.  The legend concerns the fact that when one of the old buildings was removed some years ago, a tunnel leading to the Raritan River was discovered.  There has been a lot of speculation about the purpose of that tunnel.  Was it an old, abandoned mine tunnel from before the days of Johnson & Johnson?  Did it have something to do with the Revolutionary War?  Or – an even more intriguing possibility — could it have been a part of the Underground Railroad,* which had several stops in New Jersey and ran through New Brunswick? 

Well here’s the answer:  the tunnel was connected to the Company’s water supply.  It’s somewhere around 100 years old and was used to provide access to a water source for Johnson & Johnson.  

This photo from our archives is dated “Approx 1909” on the back and is titled “J&J Tunnel to Cond…for River Water.”  Pictured in the photo are Aaron Manley, Joseph Witte, Edward Dawson, and Andrew Manley.

Johnson & Johnson needed an abundant supply of water for its manufacturing operations.  The closest source of water was naturally the Raritan River.  At that time, long before Route 18 was built, the Company’s property went right down to the water. 

Since the Raritan was muddy, Johnson & Johnson commissioned an elaborate water filtration system to purify the water that was used.  The filtration system, state of the art for the early 1900s, used sand, a purifying compound and compressed air.  After that, the water was visually inspected and then tested to make sure it was clean.  Scientific Director Fred Kilmer wrote that the Company’s filtration system was “…able to produce somewhat over one million gallons in 24 hours,” an astonishing amount.   (RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. V, No. 10, March 1913, p. 286 “Clean Water.”)

Kilmer often looked ahead to what he thought the future might bring.  He frequently tied his writing about the Company’s products to needs in society, and he combined those two traits when he wrote the article on the water filtration system, with a very accurate prediction:

“As the country becomes more thickly populated it will be found also to be impossible to protect properly – which means absolutely – the natural sources of our water supplies.  There can be no doubt, therefore, that safety in future will lie in some man-made system of treating water to render it safe to drink.  Filtration is the answer to the problem.”  (RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. V, No. 10, March 1913, p. 286 “Clean Water.”)
 
* (The Underground Railroad ran from Philadelphia through New Brunswick, and the route did cross the Raritan River.  Sources don’t mention a tunnel, but instead say that the route across the Raritan was by barge.) 

Most people today probably use an antibacterial soap at home.  In the Nineteen-teens, before the vaccine era, a germ-killing soap was even more of a necessity to help combat disease and keep people healthy.   Around 1900, U.S. doctors asked Johnson & Johnson to make a disinfectant soap that would help them wash their hands, disinfect instruments, and keep patients clean.  The Company’s response was Synol Soap. 

Johnson & Johnson frequently made products that served unmet needs in health care, such as the first First Aid products.  This philosophy went back to the Company’s first-ever commercial antiseptic surgical dressings in 1887. 

A 1914 edition of The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, a monthly magazine for nurses, gives a history of Synol Soap.  

“About fourteen years ago various leaders in the profession requested Johnson & Johnson to establish a formula for an antiseptic soap. These doctors were daily handling all sorts of infections, and required a cleanser not only for themselves, but for their instruments and for their patients. The result was Synol Soap… While Synol is a soap usable just as any other soap, it has remarkable germ-killing powers. Surgeons and nurses use Synol on their own persons, as well as on their patients…”  (The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, 1914, Boston Medical Library, courtesy of Google Books, page 388.)

Ad from 1915 Showing Synol Soap in Use

Synol Soap was a liquid antiseptic soap that was sold in a glass jar, and was later made in a solid cake form.  It was an effective disinfectant, germicide and deodorizer, and was mild enough so that it could be used like a regular soap.  It was partially derived from wood tar, which had antiseptic properties.  This gave it a strong smell — something the Company promoted as being indicative of Synol’s disinfecting power.   Ads for Synol in pharmacies urged not only physicians and nurses to use it, but also advised consumers to wash their hands, shampoo their hair, and clean and disinfect their homes with it.  The Johnson & Johnson Scientific Department (headed up by Fred Kilmer) issued health bulletins and circulars that talked about the importance of killing germs and improving public health, a lifelong concern of Kilmer’s.

Through its trade publication THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Johnson & Johnson alerted druggists about the importance of public health in fighting disease, urging them to cooperate with teachers and principals to teach hygiene in public schools.  The MESSENGER promoted “Clean Up Weeks” and designated March, April and May as “Clean-Up” season, in which people would thoroughly clean their houses and clear surrounding outdoor areas – anywhere germs could lurk — in order to help lessen the spread of infectious diseases brought by the warmer weather.  In 1915, Kilmer wrote:  “Disease germs hiding in neglected places about the homes and surroundings are ready to attack.”  (RCM Vol. VIII, March 1916, No’s. 9 & 10, p. 459.)  That sounds alarming to modern ears, but the Nineteen-teens saw persistent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, meningitis, measles, smallpox, typhoid fever, and more.  Continued public and private cleanliness and sanitation were the ways to combat these deadly diseases in the days before there were vaccinations and medications to treat them.

Lister’s Fumigators

Synol Soap was joined by an array of disease-fighting products such as Camphenol (another antiseptic and disinfectant product), Lister’s Fumigators and the JOHNSON’S® Fumigator.  Fumigators contained a variety of compounds with deodorizing or germ-killing capabilities.  When lighted, they produced a smoke that would help disinfect or remove odor in households or public buildings.  One fumigator, Mosquitoons, was designed to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes.  Its instructions said to light it and leave the house while it worked.  To emphasize that point, the Mosquitoons package showed a pyramid-shaped Mosquitoons fumigator at work in a bedroom, which was littered with painstakingly illustrated dead and dying mosquitoes.       

Although some of these products seem bizarre today, they played an important part in limiting the spread of infectious disease and protecting public health in the early 1900s.

Products Used to Prevent the Spread of Influenza and Diphtheria

I just read that scientists at Harvard Medical School have developed a new anaesthetic that uses capsaicin – the active ingredient in chili peppers that makes them spicy – in combination with another chemical, to block pain without affecting touch or movement. In other words, this may eventually hold the possibility of being able to block pain without numbing or paralyzing the affected area.   The articles are here, here and here.  

Page from 19th Century Salesman’s Book Showing Capsicum Plasters 

The interesting thing is that over 100 years ago, capsaicin was being used as a medication to…block pain.  In fact, Johnson & Johnson manufactured and sold a medicated plaster called a Capsicum Plaster with exactly this active ingredient.  Capsicum Plasters were used for topical pain relief, and were placed directly over the area of the body that was hurting. 

Popular Medicated Plasters, Including Capsicum Plasters (Left).  The bright orange-red of the package is reminiscent of the color of a chili pepper.

The Company also sold a plaster called a Bellcapsic Plaster, which contained both capsaicin and belladonna – both pain relievers. Here’s a picture of a box of Dr. Grosvenor’s Bellcapsic Plasters, which is an example of some of the beautiful packaging found on some 19th century products.   

Dr. Grosvenor’s Bellcapsic Plaster Box

Medicated plasters were made from an India rubber compound that was infused with a medication and rolled into flat pieces.  One side of the plaster would have an adhesive so that it could stick to the skin and deliver the medication directly to or over the affected area of the body.  They were one of the most popular 19th century medical products, and plasters are still made today in some areas of the world, such as Asia.