Askit Powders was a proprietary brand of headache cure sold primarily in the UK. The product combined aspirin, aloxiprin and caffeine.
History
In the 19th century, it was common for apothecaries to create their own combinations of drugs to combat specific ailments. Some sources credit the Swedish physician Herman Hjorton with creating the product under the name "Hjorton's Powders" in 1903, but it is noted that the main ingredient, phenacetin, had been available since 1887.[1]
In the Cowlairs district of Glasgow one such apothecary, named Adam Laidlaw, had a premises on Keppochhill Road. He devised a mix of aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine to combat colds, headaches and many other problems: a true panacea. By 1900, he was selling an average of 450 to 500 powders per week, and had obtained a fame somewhat wider than the natural catchment area of his pharmacy. In 1917, he asked a local accountant, John McRobbie, for advice on setting up a company to start making the powder in greater quantities. By 1920, this materialised into a mechanised factory, but the product had no name other than "Mr Laidlaw's Powders".[2]
The name is said to derive from two girls coming into the shop around 1920 and saying to the person serving in the apothecary: "if it is the lady chemist I'll ask it: if it is the man chemist you ask it".