Vicks Vaporub Salve Porcelain Enamel Door Push Sign - "COME IN" AP1819

Measures 3 3/4" x 7".

First sold in 1905, VapoRub can be traced to Jules Bengué, a French pharmacist, who created Ben-Gay, a menthol-based treatment for arthritis, gout and neuralgia. Lunsford Richardson, a pharmacist in Selma, North Carolina, sold Ben-Gay and heard from his customers that it cleared their sinuses. He blended menthol into petroleum jelly, at first calling it Richardson's Croup and Pneumonia Cure Salve, later changing the name to Vicks VapoRub. It was named after Richardson's brother-in-law, Joshua Vick, a physician who had arranged for Richardson to have access to a laboratory to create the product. Richardson began selling it in 1905, renaming it VapoRub in 1912.