Ask for It by Name!

Without a doubt one of the most widely-recognized trade symbols in the world is the muscular arm and hand holding a blacksmith’s hammer within a red circle on the yellow box of Arm & Hammer baking soda. But the origin of the symbol has never been fully explained.

The symbol was first used when Dr. Austin Church founded the Vulcan Spice Mill, a small store selling a variety of imported spices, in Brooklyn, NY in the mid-19th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, was associated with blacksmiths, so why Church chose the name for his spice business is anyone’s guess. But in an age of widespread illiteracy, when visual symbols were the key to forging customer loyalty, Church chose a blacksmith’s arm and hammer for his shop sign.

In 1846, sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) was becoming popular for cooking, and Church formed a company with John Dwight to market the new product. Over the flowing two decades, Church and Dwight marketed baking soda under a variety of names and distributed highly popular baking soda cookbooks via direct mail. When Austin Church retired in 1867, his two sons formed their own company, resurrecting their father’s old “arm and hammer” logo for use on the baking soda boxes. In 1896, the Church sons merged with their father’s old firm under the name “Church & Dwight,” and within a few years was producing baking soda using the Vulcan logo and the brand name Arm & Hammer.

Today Arm & Hammer soda is found in 95% of all American households and is still produced by Church & Dwight Co., Inc.