03/15/2024
Today is National Scientist Day. If you’ve ever used Mentholatum for a stuffy nose or sore throat, it is due to the ingenuity of Albert Alexander Hyde. Born in Lee, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1848, Hyde moved to Leavenworth in 1865. He worked there as a bank clerk until 1872 when the company sent him to Wichita to open a new bank. In 1887, he left the banking industry to enter the booming real estate market, but a few years later the market collapsed. Hyde then joined forces with two partners to create The Yucca Company. The company manufactured and sold shaving cream, soaps and perfume made from the yucca plant. One of the products it developed was a cough syrup called Vest Pocket Cough Specific, which contained menthol and camphor. Hyde was fascinated with the product’s ability to soothe and relieve pain. He wanted to make an ointment that would help relieve colds and sore throats. After four years of research and experimentation, Hyde invented Mentholatum Ointment (the name is a combination of menthol and petrolatum ). After Hyde passed away in 1935, the company moved its headquarters from Wichita to Wilmington, Delaware, then to Buffalo, New York. The company building in Wichita was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
