The first attempt of birth control: Onan
From the beginning of time man has always had as primary aim that to reproduce himself but also that to avoid reproduction for several reasons. Certainly the first documented example was Onan who to avoid the fecundation of Tamara, wife of his death brother, preferred to scatter the seed on the ground rather than inside her. For this reason was punished by God.
Certainly we can say that in addition to have coined the term “Onanism”, Onan invented the “coitus interruptus”.
The Egyptian in 1350 B.C.
Some important evidences come to us by the ancient Egyptians in the age of Pharaohs: is of the 1350 B.C. a sculpture which lets imagine the use of the object represented.
The Egyptian were the first that used bladders and intestines by well-oiled (the first lube) animals for their sexual intercourses. They used condom in tissue too but these had an only decorative aim with no use in birth control.
Chinese and Japanese in 1000 B.C.
It’s a widespread conviction that the inventors of the present condom was Chinese who began to use sheets of grease-proof paper properly shaped. Their rugged neighbour, the Japanese, used little leather cylinders or tortoise scales made flexible by alkaline solutions.
Europeans in 200 B.C.
In Europe the forerunner of what is tecnically considered today an hospital facility comes in II century B.C. as testify some engravings found in the caverns of Combarelles in Dordogne. Unfortunately, we doesn’t know much about the materials used but most probably they could be animal intestines. Romans used condoms made by dried sheep intestines too. Above all the soldiers when fraternized with women during their long campaigns far from Rome, used them as a protection from illness.
The Renassaince
The elegant people during the Renassaince discovered the use of ultraslim flax lines with rich decorations that plunged in astringent infusions before the use.
 The discover of America brought in Europe, through the ships of the King of Spain, gold, Silver, potatoes and tomatoes seeds and in addition a difficult clandestine: a virus that, just landed, proved the responsible for a disease which the doctor Gabriele Falloppio described as “French pox” and after was called in the common language syphilis. Falloppio himself gave some indications to avoid the infection. The emergency brought the condom to be not only a protection for rich people but even for soldiers: near Birmingham, in the undergrounds of Dudley Castle, were found some exemples of condom (made by animals or fishes intestines) probably used during the Civil War between the army of Oliver Cromwell and those of Charles I (1640).
Speaking of Falloppio, we remember that he was a famous export of female anatomy and it is given to him the name of the Tubes.
Casanova and the XVIII century
The condom innovation was introduced by Charles II and was a big success. In the court men used them and were regularly sold. Every seller promoted their efficacy. Normally, to produce condoms, it was used lamb or goat intestine and even silk; these condoms were fixed to penis with a ribbon which was on one side of the opening and they were reusable.
Obviously the moralists criticized them. They asserted that condoms could carry to the deterioration of the human race encouraging sex before the marriage, the prostitution and the adultery. Ignoring their rules, a famous libertine named Casanova used a condom cloth made for his gallant intercourses and he called it “the English coat”.
A cuirass against pleasure
In this way were named the rudimentary instruments used as condoms.
Luckily progress was getting near. In 1870 a pioneer of the rubber industry, a certain Goodyear, registered the patent for the rubber vulcanization. Five years later began the mass production of rubber condoms.
The manufacturing process has, obviously, undergone across time modifications and evolutions as technology was advancing.
The evolution interested both the techniques of latex purification and the adoption of more effective lubrificants and spermicidals.
For example, the talc used as coating left its place to rice or Indian corn starch, or to very thin mineral powders, physiologically inert.
Lubrificants in the 80% of the cases are silicone oils. But the compounds with water-based base used for a long time by cosmetic and food industries. are establishing themselves.
A little detective story
What is the origin of the name condom?
Some people says that it comes from the name of the doctor Condom, doctor of the English Court which tried at any rate to avoid to his majesty the embarrassment of a excessive number of illegitimate children.
Others derive the name from the French city of Condom, in Gres district, where the local butcher’s shops provided lamb intestines to soften with almond oil before any sexual intercourses.
And if the name had a latin origin, from the verb “condere” that means hide, defend, protect? |
