History of the Disposable Diaper Quiz

Answer: It refers to a pattern of geometric shapes.

The word "diaper" was originally used in 19th century England to refer to quilted cloth with repeated geometric shapes. This is what cloth diapers (or nappies, if you're in Britain), were made out of then. So, since diapers were made out of "diapered cloth," it was a fairly easy simplification to start calling them just diapers. I have not seen any information as to why that particular cloth pattern was referred to as "diapered," but regardless the modern word comes from the cloth pattern.

Dioxene, adenosine, polyester, and resin are all real chemicals, but I have no idea if they are ever combined into a compound thusly named, and if they are, what it is or does.

I have no idea what the origin of the word "hat" is, but the origins of the word "diaper" are less nebulous.

Answer: Boaters

Boaters were plastic panties made out of the same plastic as shower curtains. They had snaps instead of pins, and a regular cloth diaper was inserted into them. At first glance this may seem far removed from a disposable diaper, however it is important to remember that while plastic / rubber panties are considered part and parcel of cloth diapering today, they were not used until the middle of the twentieth century. Prior to that people used either uncovered cloth diapers or other covering materials such as wool.

While Boaters did not last very long, they did launch the chain of innovation that yielded the more familiar modern disposable diaper.

Answer: tissue paper

They were not very absorbent. One of the first brands, CHUX, which came out in the early 1950s, had a capacity of only 100mL, which even for a baby means approximately one elimination. At this point, they were not used as the primary means of diapering, but rather were restricted to special circumstances that necessitated easier or faster diaper changes, such as traveling or going to the doctor.

Answer: He led the development of Pampers.

Vic Mills was a legend at Procter and Gamble. In 1959 he created and led the team that designed Pampers. He was motivated to undertake the project as a result of his irritation at using cloth diapers on his granddaughter. The first Pampers P&G made were tested on that same granddaughter, and they were eventually released onto the market in 1961. While Marion Donovan almost always gets the first mention in histories of the disposable diaper, Mills probably had more singular influence on the evolution of disposable diapers than any other individual.

During his 35 year career at P&G, he also contributed significant innovations to the manufacturing processes of such products as Ivory soap, Jif peanut butter, Crisco, Pringles potato chips, and Duncan Hines cake and brownie mixes.

Answer: 1960s

The diapers of the 1960s would still look quite inferior to typical offerings found in today's super-markets, but they started to take on the essential format that has survived to today - a plastic based waterproof backing attached to a pulp (and later polymer) based absorbent core that was fastened with tapes.

They were also quite bulky, and stayed that way for some time. It took around thirty years to introduce thin diapers that still offered enough absorbency to be reliable.

Answer: All of them were

As flimsy as a Kleenex diaper sounds, they did make them for a short while. Basically any major paper products company either makes diapers or has at some point. Pampers is the only one of the options still on the market.

Answer: 1961

Pampers (owned by Procter and Gamble) is the oldest major brand of disposable diaper in the United States. Its major competitor, Huggies, was able to eventually catch up in market share, but Pampers has always been one of the dominant players. Another popular brand, Luvs, is actually a P&G product; they have succeeded in capturing large portions of both the premium and bargain markets.

Answer: 1978

Kimberly Clark launched Huggies brand disposable diapers in 1978, very shortly after Procter & Gambles' exclusive patents on Pampers ran out.

Answer: super absorbent polymer

SAPs form the absorbent core of most modern disposable personal care products, from baby diapers to adult diapers to sanitary pads. They have the ability to absorb many times their own weight in water, sometimes in excess of 100 times their own weight. They had been used for about a decade in feminine hygiene products prior to their introduction in disposable diapers.

They are the technology that has allowed for lighter, thinner diapers. In the decade after their introduction, the average weight of a disposable diaper decreased by about half, while absorbency increased to the point where leakage rates of under 2% were attainable. The impact of SAPs was probably more significant in the adult market, due to the greater demand for a discrete product among adult users. However, even though babies have less of a need to be discrete about wearing diapers than adults do, smaller diapers are cheaper to ship and stock on store shelves.

Answer: 1989

This product effectively created a new market for the makers of disposable diapers; now their market included not only the years in which a baby is in diapers, but also potty-training, bedwetting, etc. This trend of market expansion continued with the introduction of Goodnights, essentially larger Pull-Ups designed specifically for older children, as well as the continual release of larger sized diapers coinciding with the increasing average age of potty training.

Answer: two tapes per side

Using multiple tapes per side is common practice in adult diapers, however it completely failed in the baby diaper market. It amounted to more hassle without achieving a significantly better fit, and was consequently abandoned. After the failure of this feature, the use of re-fastenable tapes proved to be more successful, and allowed the care-taker to open and close the diaper as many times as necessary in order to get a good fit, check for wetness, etc.

Answer: diapers designed specially for boys and girls

Many of us may remember the elaborately gendered diapers of the '90s. They were often colored pink and blue, and were marketed as having special absorbency zones for boys and girls. Consumers failed to differentiate between them, however, and the general consensus emerged that a diaper is a diaper. The added cost in producing separate lines of the same product, designing shelving layouts to take them both into account, etc., cost more than the feature was worth, and unisex diapers returned as the norm.

Super thick diapers had gone by the wayside by this point, as the movement toward slim, compact diapers was well underway. Other than in some recently introduced training pants, wetness indicators have not proven popular in baby diapers, though they are a standard feature on adult diapers.

Answer: Poland

There is a direct correlation between a country's economic indicators and its demand for disposable diapers. The wealthier a country is, the more its people are able to spend on luxury items, and disposable diapers are high on the list of products that reduce the workload of mothers in particular. Numerous nations in southeast Asia and the former Communist states in eastern Europe had become viable markets in the 1990s as their economies expanded.

However, by the close of the century disposable diapers had nowhere near the market saturation they did in the West and these markets remained growth areas for the diaper industry.

Answer: 3%

3% may seem relatively low, but disposable diapers lag behind only newspapers and food / beverage containers as percentages of solid waste in American landfills. The amount of solid waste generated by the use of disposable diapers is one of the most consistent reasons people criticize them.

Answer: Because the diapers were not bio-degradable.

The FTC sued the companies for false advertising because there was no proof that the diapers were actually bio-degradable. The diapers were designed with corn starch as a component of their plastic backing, and they were supposed to degrade under exposure to UV radiation. When tested, they did fragment, however there was no change in the mass of plastic waste, and as a result they were deemed to not be bio-degradable. Additionally, the FTC argued that since the final destination of diapers is in a landfill where they are not exposed to UV radiation, the mechanism was unlikely to generate degradation in the first place. The FTC lawsuit was successful, and the diapers were taken off the market. A bio-degradable disposable diaper remains an elusive goal of the diaper industry.

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