First Aid
How did being part owner of a cattle ranch lead one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson to develop the first First Aid kits? During the 19th century, health care was hazardous at best and very little attention was paid to first aid and the proper treatment of wounds and injuries. Robert Wood Johnson the first was part owner of a cattle ranch in Colorado, where he liked to spend vacations. Johnson traveled to the ranch by train and, having an outgoing personality, he started a conversation with the chief surgeon of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, who complained about the high accident and injury rates among the railroad workers who were laying track to complete the country’s coast-to-coast rail system. Johnson became convinced that Johnson & Johnson could help fill the urgent need for easily accessible medical products to treat railroad injuries. (When injuries occurred, medical supplies were often too far away to be of timely use.) In 1888, he started asking the advice of additional railway surgeons, and in 1890 the Company produced a first aid kit, the “Railway Station and Factory Supply Case,” based on what they had recommended. It was a large wooden case that held antiseptic dressings, surgical supplies, splints and other medical supplies, along with detailed instructions on how to treat injuries. The kits were placed with local railroad station agents along rail routes so they quickly could be sent to the scene of an accident. These early railroad first aid kits were named after the railway lines they were intended to serve, such as the New York City and Hudson River Railroad.
But Robert Wood Johnson didn’t stop there. He enlisted Scientific Director Fred Kilmer to come up with a definition of first aid, as well as the first-ever comprehensive First Aid manuals. This was important because, at the time, there was no standard of emergency “first aid” care, and efforts to help the injured often did more harm than good due to lack of knowledge. Kilmer, who was a thorough and conscientious scientist, extensively researched first aid by communicating first-hand with physicians who treated emergencies and winnowing through the sometimes conflicting information. He published a series of bulletins on first aid, and later compiled the nation’s first-ever comprehensive First Aid Manual. Kilmer defined first aid as a “’bridge between the accident and medical and surgical assistance, over which the patient may be carried safely and securely from the scene of the accident or sudden illness to the doctor or hospital.’” (Robert Wood Johnson, the Gentleman Rebel, by Lawrence G. Foster, p. 62) The Company soon made first aid kits for use in homes, schools, offices, farms and factories, and later, for those new inventions, the automobile and the airplane.
Besides being the inspiration behind Johnson & Johnson First Aid kits, the coast-to-coast railroads also led to the division of the United States into separate time zones, which happened in 1883, three years before Johnson & Johnson was founded.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
RSS 2.0
I didn’t know that the time zones came about because of the railroads! You learn something new everyday, I guess!
interesting article, I just found a 1926 johnson and johnson autokit no.8 full of vintage first aid supplies, and maybe the first band-aid in its original un-opened package? dated 1926
fun stuff have a good day !
Hi,
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Regards,
Jane
I have a tin box that reads- “wood’semergency case” “for first aid” “manufactured by Johnson and Johnson”. Can you tell me anything about it?
Hi Michelle,
Woods Emergency Case (No. 6) was a small First Aid kit in a metal box that was designed for multipurpose use. A Johnson & Johnaon First Aid Manual from 1911 describes it as a compact kit that could be used at home, in camp, on a boat or in an automobile. The kits were black metal boxes 7 1/2 x9 x3 inches. They contained wound dressings, gauze, cotton, bandages, ZO Adhesive Plaster (adhesive tape), Camphenol ointment for treating burns and scalds, a tourniquet, scissors, tweezers, safety pins and a J&J First Aid Manual. People would keep the kit for a long time and just refill it with new supplies as needed. Unlike the large First Aid Cabinet No. 1, the Wood’s Emergency Case was designed to be portable so that people could take it with them wherever needed. The name came from the middle names of two of our founders: Robert Wood Johnson and James Wood Johnson. Wood was a family name from their mother’s side of the family.
Hope that information proves helpful!
Margaret
Hi, i have to take something into my childs school “historical”. I have found an old johnson & johnson first aid kit marked 525/4 outfit, first aid for M.T. Australia D ^ D. Im presuming this is 2nd world war first aid kit but can you tell me more about it? thanks so much
Lisa in Australia
Hi Lisa,
Without a photo of the First Aid Kit, it would be hard to give you any information. If you can take a digital photo of the kit and email it to me through the blog, that would be helpful. There’s a direct link to the blog’s email on the “About the Blog Author” page. Also, Johnson & Johnson has been highly decentralized for many decades, so the Australian First Aid Kit would have been manufactured in Australia.
Thanks,
Margaret
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by NATA Office and Sarah M., Margaret Gurowitz. Margaret Gurowitz said: 120 years ago: first First Aid Kits were invented: http://bit.ly/9hqgVs #jnj [...]