12 Inventions You Won't Believe Came From War

Sanitary Napkins

Kimberly-Clark, an American manufacturing firm, had trademarked the product Cellucotton before World War I. During the fighting in Europe, the U.S. army distributed this super-absorbent fabric for use as gauze to dress wounds. Nurses at military hospitals soon began to use the fabric for menstrual hygiene as well. When the war ended, the nurses wanted to keep using Cellucotton, and so in 1920, Kimberly-Clark shipped their latest product, Kotex, a neologism from “cotton-like texture,” to stores across the United States.