20 Mule Team Borax is a brand of cleaner manufactured in the United States by
The Dial Corporation, a subsidiary of
Henkel.
[Hildebrand, G. H. (1982) "Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith." San Diego: Howell-North Books. ] The product primarily consists of
borax
The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho. , also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, and is named after the
20-mule teams that were used by
William Tell Coleman's company to move borax out of
Death Valley, California, to the nearest
rail spur between 1883 and 1889.
Related products
Bleach, Borateem Plus bleach substitute, and 20 Mule Team Borax were all once manufactured by United States Borax & Chemical Corporation (now known as US Borax, Inc.). Borateem products originally contained over 98% borax. Borateem, now manufactured by Dial Corporation, is a chlorine-free, color-safe bleach powder but contains no borax.
, also originally a 20 Mule Team product, was a borax-based powdered hand soap first manufactured by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, later by US Borax via merger, and finally acquired by Dial.
The Boraxo line expanded to include powdered and liquid hand cleaners but was discontinued by Dial in 2021 or 2022.
History
20-mule teams were first used by
Francis Marion Smith to transport borax from the desert.
Smith subsequently acquired Coleman's holdings in 1890 and consolidated them with his own to form the
Pacific Coast Borax Company. After the 20-mule teams were replaced by a new rail spur, the name ''20 Mule Team Borax'' was established and aggressively promoted by Pacific Coast Borax to increase sales.
Stephen Mather
Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American industrialist and conservation movement, conservationist who was the first Director of the National Park Service, director of the National Park Service. As president and ow ...
, son of J. W. Mather and administrator of the company's New York office, persuaded Smith to add the name ''20 Mule Team Borax'' to accompany the sketch of the mule team already on the box. The 20-mule team symbol was first used in 1891 and
registered in 1894. In 1988, just over 20 years after the acquisition of
U.S. Borax by
Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Hu ...
, the Boraxo, Borateem and 20-Mule Team
product line
In marketing jargon, product lining refers to the offering of several related product (business), products for individual sale. Unlike product bundling, where several products are combined into one group, which is then offered for sale as a uni ...
s were sold to
Dial Corporation
Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products and is a su ...
by U.S. Borax.
Rio Tinto Borax: About Borax : History
Dial is now an American consumer products unit of Henkel.
References
External links
Dial's product information pageRio Tinto's 20 Mule Team Borax official site
{{Henkel
Cleaning product brands
Death Valley
Dial Corporation brands
Products introduced in 1891
Borates