Persil History Thread - Info/pictures/videos appreciated!

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hotpointfan

hotpointfan

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Hi, as the title says, I am creating this thread about the history of Persil, the detergent brand, as I would like to know more about Persil and also about the history of the brand.

I hope this thread also educates others as well. So please can you share anything you know about Persil and I have a few questions as well.

Thanks for reading.

hotpointfan
 
2nd Question

I saw this product in the bottom of a page on a 2001 Hotpoint brochure, called Persil Revive. I'll scan the section of the page when I get round to scanning it. I have looked this up and discovered it was axed in 2002, so its been gone for 10 years. I tried finding out how it works but no joy. I was wondering could anyone shine a light on it? Thanks

hotpointfan++9-22-2012-13-13-30.jpg
 
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; color: #000000;">The chore of doing the laundry began to change with the introduction of washing powders in the 1880s. These new products originally were simply pulverized soap. New cleaning product marketing successes, such as the 1890s introduction of </span>Gold Dust Washing Powder<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; color: #000000;"> (created by industrial chemist </span>James Boyce<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; color: #000000;"> for the </span>N. K. Fairbank<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> Company in the United States),<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: 11.649999618530273px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">proved that there was a ready market for better cleaning agents. Henkel & Cie, founded in Düsseldorf in 1876, decided to pursue this market, and on June 6, 1907 launched its newly developed, first of its kind product, Persil. The manufacturer had found a method to add </span></span>sodium perborate<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; color: #000000;">—a bleaching agent —to its base washing agents (</span>silicate<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">), creating (what the marketing department called) a "self-activating powder" detergent. During the washing process, oxygenated perborate forms small bubbles, doing the "<em style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">work of the washboard</em><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">" —saving consumers time and rendering the historic method of "sun-bleaching" (by laying clothes out in the sun) unnecessary
</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">
Invented in 1907, Persil is notable because it was the first commercially available "self-activated" laundry detergent. (A self activated detergent is one which contains bleach combined with the soap components.) The creation of Persil was a significant chemical breakthrough.</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">
</span></span>

The name, "Persil", is derived from two of its original ingredients, sodium perborate and silicate

<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">
 </span>

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persil
 
Aquacycle

Thanks, I knew it was named after two chemicals, we did it in Science a while back - we made some of our own :)

I am about to start uploading pictures of a copy of the Persil care guide from around '92.
 
Persil Care Guide

I got given this to me by my nan, I believe this dates from around 1992ish, please correct me if I am wrong. I have taken photos of each page but they may not be as clear as if I had scanned them. Hopefully someone can date this. Thanks

Front cover

hotpointfan++9-22-2012-13-33-54.jpg
 
Persil Care Guide

The whole range of Persil around 1992.

From Left to right:

-Persil Non bio Concentrated Liquid medium red cap
-Persil Bio Concentrated Liquid large green cap
-Persil Bio Concentrated Liquid small green cap
-Persil Bio Concentrated Powder large box
-Persil Non bio Concentrated powder medium box
-Persil Bio Concentrated powder small box
-Persil Bio powder large box
-Persil Bio powder medium box
-Persil Non bio powder small box
-Persil non bio liquid large red cap
-Persil Bio liquid large green cap
-Persil Non bio liquid carton
-Persil Bio liquid carton

hotpointfan++9-22-2012-14-20-16.jpg
 
Persil Care Guide

The Comfort range - around 1992

From left to right:

-Comfort Pure Silk large bottle
-Comfort Pure Silk medium bottle
-Comfort Pure Silk small bottle
-Comfort Original small bottle
-Comfort Original Large bottle
-Comfort Original Medium bottle
-Comfort Original Refill carton

hotpointfan++9-22-2012-14-26-5.jpg
 
Unilever's use of the Persil brand

I'm still rather curious as to how Unilever (Lever Brothers) ended up with the Persil brand in the UK, Republic of Ireland, France and New Zealand.

It's odd to have two major consumer products companies sharing a single brand-name for a similar product.

Obviously the formulations of Unilever's Persil and Henkel's Persil are not at all related.
 
Henkel sold the rights to the product and the Persil name to a few companies around the world where they didn't operate at the time. In the UK & Ireland it was sold to Crossfields, who were taken over by Unilever 10 years after they launched Persil. At first it was basically the same product as the German version and came in near identical packaging, but over time that has obviously changed. I'd guess it was a similar story in France and NZ with Unilever acquiring smaller companies that owned the brand before Henkel had a chance to buy them up.
 
It's Been Ages Since One Has Had To Tell This Story

But "Since those early days, the brand name Persil has caused some confusion. In 1909, the English firm of Joseph Crosfield acquired the patent rights and trademarks of Persil for the United Kingdom and various British, Dutch, and Danish colonies. Crosfield was later absorbed by Lever Brothers, which in turn became part of Unilever. Today both Henkel and Unilever continue to market a product named Persil. In Western Europe, for example, Unilever owns the trademark Persil in Britain and France, while Henkel has Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, and Denmark."

Over the years Unilever and Henkel Germany have tried to purchase each other out of the Persil name brand, but each has never budged.
 
Persil Revive

They looked like large individually wrapped dryer sheets (containing some sort of alcohol based solution) that you threw in the tumble dryer with dry clean only items. Results were often not as good as a genuine dry clean process, but OK for a cheaper way of freshening up lightly soiled items. For heavier stains you were meant to rub the affected area with the Revive sheet before putting them in the dryer.

Dr. Beckmann makes a similar product these days that works in exactly the same way.
 

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