His Wife Kept Cutting Herself. So He Made the Band-Aid: The True Story of Earle Dickson

Tales of Life: Ordinary People, Extraordinary True Stories · Oct 18, 2026 · 5m

(00:00) A cut in the kitchen

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The true story of Earle Dickson, the Johnson & Johnson cotton buyer who made the first Band-Aid in 1920 for his wife Josephine. She kept cutting and burning her fingers in the kitchen, and the big bandages of the time would not stay on. Earle laid small squares of gauze along a strip of surgical tape, covered it with crinoline and rolled it up, so she could cut off a bandage herself whenever she needed one. His boss loved it, but in the first year only 3,000 dollars' worth were sold. Then the company gave them away to Boy Scouts, machines began making…