FLIT

Last updated

FLIT manual spray pump for insecticides from 1928 FLIT Spray Can 1.jpg
FLIT manual spray pump for insecticides from 1928

FLIT was the brand name for an insecticide. The original product, invented by chemist Dr. Franklin C. Nelson and launched in 1923 [1] and mainly intended for killing flies and mosquitoes, was mineral oil based and manufactured by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, before the company, now part of ExxonMobil, was renamed first Esso and later Exxon. The Esso formulation contained 5% DDT in the late 1940s and early 1950s, before the negative environmental impact of DDT was widely understood. Later marketed as "FLIT MLO", it has since been discontinued. A hand-operated atomizer called a Flit gun was commonly used to perform the spraying.

Contents

The Flit brand name has been reused for another insecticide product, with the primary active ingredient of permethrin, marketed by Clarke Mosquito Control. [2] The current product is most often used to control adult mosquitoes. Spraying it into the air kills adult mosquitoes that are present and then by settling onto surfaces it kills mosquitoes that may later land.

"Quick, Henry, the Flit!"

World War II "Flitting" or spraying insecticide World War II "Flitting" (MAMAS A44-726-4), National Museum of Health and Medicine (5530272626) (cropped).jpg
World War II "Flitting" or spraying insecticide

In 1923, Flit, then marketed by a newly formed subsidiary of Jersey Standard, Stanco Incorporated, [3] became the subject of a very successful long-running advertising campaign. Theodor Seuss Geisel created the artwork for this campaign, years before he started writing the children's books that made him famous as Dr. Seuss. The ads typically showed people menaced by whimsical insect-like creatures which would look familiar to fans of Dr. Seuss's later work and included the tagline "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"

Seuss's artwork associated with Flit included numerous racial caricatures which, although not unusual for the 1920s, are now seen as racist.

1923 FLIT advertisement drawn by Dr. Seuss 1923 "FLIT" ad - Seuss-cartoon-racist (cropped).jpg
1923 FLIT advertisement drawn by Dr. Seuss

This advertising campaign continued for 17 years and made "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" a popular catchphrase in the United States. [4] [5]

U-2 fuel

According to Ben Rich (a junior propulsion engineer on the U2 program), some raw material (possibly the solvent) used for the production of FLIT was similar to that used for LF-1A fuel for the Lockheed U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, causing a nationwide shortage of bug spray in 1955. The fuel LF-1A was produced by Shell Oil Company. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DDT</span> Organochloride known for its insecticidal properties

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by the Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler. DDT's insecticidal action was discovered by the Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller in 1939. DDT was used in the second half of World War II to limit the spread of the insect-borne diseases malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods". The WHO's anti-malaria campaign of the 1950s and 1960s relied heavily on DDT and the results were promising, though there was a resurgence in developing countries afterwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dr. Seuss</span> American author and cartoonist (1904–1991)

Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobil</span> American petroleum brand owned by ExxonMobil

Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.

Standard Oil is the common name for a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The trust was born on January 2, 1882, when a group of 41 investors signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, which pooled their securities of 40 companies into a single holding agency managed by nine trustees. The original trust was valued at $70 million. On March 21, 1892, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved and its holdings were reorganized into 20 independent companies that formed an unofficial union referred to as "Standard Oil Interests." In 1899, the Standard Oil Company acquired the shares of the other 19 companies and became the holding company for the trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insecticide</span> Pesticide used against insects

Insecticides are pesticides used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Acaricides, which kill mites and ticks, are not strictly insecticides, but are usually classified together with insecticides. The major use of Insecticides is agriculture, but they are also used in home and garden, industrial buildings, vector control and control of insect parasites of animals and humans. Insecticides are claimed to be a major factor behind the increase in the 20th-century's agricultural productivity. Nearly all insecticides have the potential to significantly alter ecosystems; many are toxic to humans and/or animals; some become concentrated as they spread along the food chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raid (insecticide)</span> Brand name of a line of insecticide products

Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticide products produced by S. C. Johnson & Son, first launched in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esso</span> Oil and gas company

Esso is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso", to which the other Standard Oil companies would later object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyrethroid</span> Class of insecticides

A pyrethroid is an organic compound similar to the natural pyrethrins, which are produced by the flowers of pyrethrums. Pyrethroids are used as commercial and household insecticides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hermann Müller</span> 20th-century Swiss chemist and Nobel laureate

Paul Hermann Müller, also known as Pauly Mueller, was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobil 1</span> Brand of synthetic motor oil

Mobil 1 is a brand of synthetic motor oil and other automotive lubrication products. Originally developed by the Mobil oil company, it is now globally marketed and sold by ExxonMobil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosquito control</span> Efforts to reduce damage from mosquitoes

Mosquito control manages the population of mosquitoes to reduce their damage to human health, economies, and enjoyment. Mosquito control is a vital public-health practice throughout the world and especially in the tropics because mosquitoes spread many diseases, such as malaria and the Zika virus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">On the Run (convenience store)</span> Convenience store brand

On the Run is a flagship convenience store brand developed by ExxonMobil, used at Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States and at Esso and Mobil stations internationally. Alimentation Couche-Tard acquired the On the Run trademark and franchise network in the U.S. in 2009, and Parkland Fuel did the same in Canada in 2016; ExxonMobil retains full ownership of the brand in the rest of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humble Oil</span> Defunct American oil company

Humble Oil and Refining Co. was an American oil company founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas. In 1919, a 50% interest in Humble was acquired by the Standard Oil of New Jersey which acquired the rest of the company in September 1959. The Humble brand was used by Standard Oil of New Jersey until 1973, when the company rebranded nationwide as Exxon and discontinued Humble, along with its other brands Esso and Enco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bendiocarb</span> Insecticide

Bendiocarb is an acutely toxic carbamate insecticide used in public health and agriculture and is effective against a wide range of nuisance and disease vector insects. Many bendiocarb products are or were sold under the tradenames "Ficam" and "Turcam."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flit gun</span> Insecticide sprayer

A Flit gun is a hand-pumped insecticide sprayer used to dispense FLIT, a brand-name insecticide widely used against flies and mosquitoes between 1928 and the mid-1950s. Although named after the well-known brand, "Flit gun" became a generic name for this type of dispenser. Once commonly found in households, hand-operated Flit guns have been replaced by aerosol spray cans and fallen out of common use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indoor residual spraying</span> Process of spraying insecticides inside residences to prevent malaria

Indoor residual spraying or IRS is the process of spraying the inside of dwellings with an insecticide to kill mosquitoes that spread malaria. A dilute solution of insecticide is sprayed on the inside walls of certain types of dwellings—those with walls made from porous materials such as mud or wood but not plaster as in city dwellings. Mosquitoes are killed or repelled by the spray, preventing the transmission of the disease. In 2008, 44 countries employed IRS as a malaria control strategy. Several pesticides have historically been used for IRS, the first and most well-known being DDT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ExxonMobil</span> American multinational oil and gas company

ExxonMobil Corporation is an American multinational oil and gas corporation and the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The company, which took its present name in 1999 per the merger of Exxon and Mobil, is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry, and within it is also a chemicals division which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products. ExxonMobil is headquartered near the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, though officially incorporated in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The company is the largest oil and gas company based in the US, America's third largest by revenue among all industries, and the eighth largest in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enco (brand)</span>

Enco was a secondary retail brand name for products of the Humble Oil Corporation in certain parts of the United States from 1960 to 1977. It was used on service stations operated by Humble in states where they were not permitted to use the Esso brand under conditions set by the court-ordered breakup of Standard Oil in 1911.

This is an index of articles relating to pesticides.

ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its roots as far back as 1866 to the founding of the Vacuum Oil Company, which would become part of ExxonMobil through its own merger with Mobil during the 1930s. The present name of the company comes from a 1999 merger of Standard Oil's New Jersey and New York successors, which adopted the names Exxon and Mobil respectively throughout the middle of the 20th century. Because of Standard Oil of New Jersey's ownership over all Standard Oil assets at the time of the 1911 breakup, ExxonMobil is seen by some as the definitive continuation of Standard Oil today.

References

  1. Clark, James Anthony (1963). The Chronological History of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries. Clark Book Co., p. 137. ASIN   B000WTVV34.
  2. "Products: Flit". Clarke Mosquito Control. Archived from the original on October 23, 2006.
  3. Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. (1962). Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise. Beard Books. p. 212. ISBN   978-1-58798-198-2, ISBN   978-1-58798-198-2.
  4. The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss. UCSD Special Collections. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  5. Corliss, Richard (March 2, 2004). "That Old Feeling: Seuss on First". Time . Archived from the original on July 25, 2008.
  6. Rich, Ben R. & Janos, Leo (1994). Skunk Works. Little, Brown & Co. ISBN   0-316-74330-5.