The patent-medicine men flooded these vehicles with ... the cost of launching a new product had risen from $50,000 in 1880 to $250,000 by 1900—the added costs of doing business under government ...

Green, had started the patent medicine business by selling ... The cures were heavily advertised during the 1880s and were very popular. Warner marketed several "safe" cures such as diabetic ...

Consider, too, the Health Jolting Chair of the 1880s. It resembled a garden-variety ... [sic] The golden age of patent medicines ended in the early 1900s, notes the FDA web site, when muckraking ...

Patent medicines, often prepared from secret formulas ... Cocaine became big business; although around for centuries, it was the mid-1880s when it became popular in Europe. It was hailed as ...

When we think of patents, we think of genius inventors with brilliant new ideas to make our lives better: Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 patent for the telephone, say, or Thomas Edison’s 1880 ...