A label on the front of this glass jar reads “DENTRAY / TOOTH POWDER.” That on the back reads in part “DENTRAY / TOOTH POWDER / MADE BY A DENTIST / Purest ingredients, harmless if swallowed. No grit, no pumice-cannot scratch the precious tooth enamel, nor hurt tender gums / . . . / DENTRAY COMPANY, N.Y. / MADE IN U.S.A.”
David Adolph Eolis (1886-1945) was an immigrant from Russia who settled in New York and identified as a chemist. In 1935, he obtained a patent for a powder dispenser (1,986,718), and a copyright on the term Dentray. In 1939 he obtained a patent for “composition and process of making powder from nacreous substances” (2,172,369).
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