When was the condom invented?
The first condoms are from the sixteenth century and were made of cattle intestine
The latex ones were popularized with the invention of vulcanization
The condom is today an essential element in sexual relations to avoid the spread of venereal diseases. Humanity has been using them for millennia to avoid pregnancy, contagion of diseases or as a decorative accessory.
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The oldest known condom appeared on the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. It was manufactured 3,500 years ago and is exhibited at the Cairo Museum. However, it is not clear if its function was to prevent pregnancies. There is no evidence that the Egyptians tried to contain the birth rate, but on the contrary. This civilization adored among others the god of reproduction. In fact, there are inscriptions explaining that women were applied in the vagina suppositories of crocodile , honey and natron dung , a mineral known as 'divine salt' composed mainly of sodium carbonate. This practice has often been interpreted as a method of contraception, but in reality its usefulness was the opposite. The excrements of the animal and the natron are alkaline, which favors the movement of sperm, honey is bactericidal. So condoms would probably be decorative.
The first condom for contraceptive purposes is usually attributed to a certain Lord Condom, supposed doctor of Charles II of England, who in the mid-seventeenth century invented the thing to stop the number of bastard children that the monarch was breeding in the capital. However, the expert in sexual health and contraception Norman E. Himes concluded in the forties of the last century after much research that Dr. Condom was a legend.
Greased lamb casings topped with string
The first medical document known about condoms was written in 1564. The Italian anatomist Gabriel Falopio, in full epidemic of syphilis in Europe, described a piece of linen that fitted like a cap to the glans of men before sex and avoided the disease. The doctor tried it with more than 1000 men and none contracted syphilis.
These first condoms were made of greased lamb or pork casings, an elastic and soft material, and a string to purse the penis. One of the best preserved condoms is from 1813. It was found in Lund (Switzerland). It is pork intestine and appeared accompanied by a manual instruction in Latin that advises to dip it in warm milk before using it to avoid diseases when having sex with prostitutes.
The writer Giacomo Casanova, known for his amorous conquests in the eighteenth century, often mentioned condoms in his memoirs. In 1717 the British physician Daniel Turner mentions it in his book Syphilis and the poet John Gay a year earlier in his poem The Petticoat . In Spain, condoms have been found hidden among the pages of a sixteenth-century medical book in the General Historical Library of the University of Salamanca, during the process of revising and re-cataloging part of the historical funds. It is made of pork and the ribbon to adjust it is blue. Condoms are from the nineteenth century, so it is presumed that they were introduced in the book, wrapped in a sheet of newspaper of 1857, by a student of the time who was consulting the medical manual.
Reinventing the condom, next challenge
The condom is, therefore, an article well known for centuries to avoid unwanted pregnancies, but above all it was used to avoid illnesses when sleeping with prostitutes. Despite this, it was not popularized until the mid-nineteenth century when rubber vulcanization was invented . Then they were able to manufacture latex mass and lower its price.
The first color condom arrived in 1949. Spermicide sprays and lubricant were soon invented. With the appearance of AIDS in 1981, the condom was again recognized as the best method to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and to contain the spread of the epidemic.
Nowadays, one of the great challenges of the future is according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reinventing the condom. He has invested millions of euros in the development of eleven prototypes. Among the improvements of these condoms of the future include new materials that increase sensitivity, such as hydrogel , female condoms quick to place by an inflation system, or male with an easy and at the same time applicator that are placed in a jiffy.