The History of Invention of Aspirin

Many might think that they know what aspirins are, but do they actually know what it is and are the effects? What we know as the aspirin of today was formally invented by Felix Hoffman, who was a chemist working at Bayer in the late 1890s in Germany. Aspirin could also be known Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirins are known and commonly used as painkillers for minor aches such as headaches, fevers, muscle aches and also as a blood thinner (so when someone is having a heart attack while getting medical attention they should take a high dosage of aspirin to thin the blood and try to get it back to the heart).

Aspirin also includes chemicals that can potentially prevent heart attacks and also decrease the chances of getting by 20% cancer over a 20 year period. During the 19th century, life was much different then as it is now, people back then had double the work hours as the average person does right now, leading to not having labor rights established. During 1848 there was an uprising because of the mass rate of unemployment, this caused a chain of reactions, this caused the wages to reduce because of the decline in the textile industry and due to the poor harvest food prices increased. Although this did not stay like this forever, in around the 1850s the unemployment rate decreased due to doubling of the industrial production and international trade in Berlin, this made the living standards even worse.

According to OSU there was an increase of 2 million immigrants during that time span, since there were more people attracted to working in factories they had to live closer together, this made the cities very unhygienic causing the spread of the diseases to be easier, many people died because of these communicable diseases. Most diseases were caused since It was harder to provide clean air and water for everyone. Through the years living standards increased at a an undeniably slowly rate.

Due to the rapid growth of people it created a bad development of industrial slums, causing families to have to save up all their money to be able to pay rent and to pay for their vital needs. Life expectancy in the city was lower than in the countryside, this meant that 1 in every 3 newborns died within their first few years. This caused the people to be very unhappy and they caused lots of strikes and protests. Higher management did although try to help, According to Vasold M “Nuremberg (a city in northern germany) provided many jobs for those who were struggling, although the work was backbreaking”.

Due to the backbreaking work that the workers had to do each day they would face some aches and pains throughout their bodies, the only remedy for this at that time was willow which might have not been as convenient as it is to us now. In conclusion, while researching about how people lived during the times that both Felix Hoffman lived in and also the years that the aspirin was created in I have noticed a drastic change in what life is today and how people lived back then. Both the social and economic factors back then were much different as they are now. We have taken a natural product, in this case willow bark and created something that has changed the lives of many people.