Take two. And, uh, call me. In the morning.
Aspirin. We’ve all had them at some point in our lives. Now I am more of a Tylenol gal if I resort to taking anything at all.
But Aspirin came our way on this date, March 6, 1899. Also known as acetylsalicylic acid, it was patented by Felix Hoffmann. He worked at the German company called Bayer.
Felix was born in Ludwigsburg, Germany, in 1868. Big surprise here — he started studying chemistry in college. Then he studied pharmacy. In 1891 he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Munich. Two years later, he earned his doctorate, also magna cum laude. Smarty doctor guy.
He must have had a pain in his neck because he turned his focus on a pain killer. On 10 August 1897, Felix synthesized acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) — aspirin — while working at Bayer.
In the world of medicine and pharmacy, they were skeptical about its effectiveness. But they did massive studies. Two years later, they pronounced it King of Pain. Not really. But someone might have called it that. I would have.
In 1899 it was marketed for the first time under the trade name “Aspirin,” initially as a powder supplied in glass bottles. Ta. Da.
Here’s a thing. Don’t cry for me Argentina, if I have a headache. Because, there in Argentina, in the mid-1940s, aspirin became a huge hit thanks to radio jingles sung by future First Lady Eva Perón. Her country became the biggest per-capita consumer of aspirin in the world. Jingle on, Eva.
So, thanks, Felix Hoffman. Maybe he focused too much on aspirin. Or. At any rate, Hoffman was never married and had no known children. He died in 1946 in Switzerland.
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“Pain insists upon being attended to.”
— C.S. Lewis
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Take Two. In Argentina, too.
