"Your bath took care of the past, but for future freshness, make Mum your next step."
Mum advertisement, 1946
The development of the roll-on deodorant is a perfect example of how ingenious lateral thinking can link one seemingly unrelated invention to another and result in a useful product. "Mum" deodorant—first developed in the late nineteenth century—was a rather sticky, hard-to-apply substance. When Helen Barnett Diserens (1918-2008) joined the product team of Bristol-Myers as a researcher in the late 1940s, one of the company's skills' was working creatively on a select list of consumer-Bqsed toiletries. A member of Diserens's team suggested that she take a look at another recent marvel, the ballpoint pen (actually based on an idea from the late 1800s) to get some inspiration for improving Mum's applicator.
Diserens's new roller applicator—made of glass with a rolling ball at its tip—was tested in the United States in 1952. After further testing, the product was launched globally and to wide acclaim in 1955. However, the roll-on was soon eclipsed by aerosol antiperspirant deodorants, which held a massive market share until the 1970s. Then fortune turned once more. With increasing strictures on the chemical ingredients of the aerosol product, the roll-on has come into its own once again.
