Leo Gerstenzang

Leo Gerstenzang (1923), a polish American, invented the Q-tip. He invented it after watching his wife clean their baby’s ear with a cotton ball and a tooth pick. He sold his product as “Baby Gays” and was the most widely sold brand. The “Q” in Q-tip stands for quality.

His idea behind the q-tip was to make hard to clean places easier to clean but safer to clean than with toothpicks. He spent years perfecting his product. His biggest challenge was to get the equal amount of cotton on each side and to keep the cotton stuck on the q-tip so that it would not get stuck in baby’s ears.

His product:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:White_menbo.jpg

Resources:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/q-tips/
http://www.answers.com/topic/cotton-swab
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml