How did a common household spice, the pepper, become used as a weapon for self defense? Pepper spray in its current form is a relatively new invention, but actually the use of peppers to blind one’s enemies dates back to ancient China, Japan, and India, where cayenne peppers were used to temporarily immobilize one’s attackers.
Because this method does not cause permanent harm, it was seen as an acceptable weapon for self defense by martial arts societies. In Japan, the police were known to use a Metsubishi box, which was simply a box containing chili powder that would be blown into the eyes of a person convicted of a crime.Without the development of aerosol spray cans, modern pepper spray would not be possible. These ancient uses for hot peppers against criminals or attackers did not include an effective means for directing the pepper element at the person.
With aerosol spray cans, first used during the 1940’s, modern pepper sprays became possible.The first modern pepper sprays were developed during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. While ancient uses of Sprinklers Factory pepper relied on the whole pepper, modern scientists isolated the capsaicin in these peppers. In 1961, Japanese chemists Inagaki and Kosuge isolated these compounds. In modern times, the first pepper spray cans contained oleoresin capsicum, a powder from Capsicum peppers. This pepper substance is what gives peppers their hotness.
Modern pepper sprays use these isolated pepper compounds suspended in a liquid base, which is then pressurized and placed in an aerosol spray can. The first successful aerosol pepper spray was produced in 1969, with the spray packaged into the base of a small flashlight. These first sprays were developed for use by military and police forces as well as an animal repellant. It was often used by hunters and others who venture into the wilderness often, in case of wild animal attacks.In the 1980’s, the U.S. Postal Service began using pepper spray as a deterrent for dog attacks.
The FBI officially endorsed it as a chemical agent in 1987. Both the FBI and the NYPD spearheaded the use of pepper spray by law enforcement by adding it to their arsenal in 1991. The use of pepper spray against humans increased in the early 1990s as more police forces added it to their standard arsenal. At this time, its use began to spread a self defense device which could be carried in a car, purse, or pocket. Today, pepper spray is marketed in a variety of small canisters that can be carried for use against an attacker. Nearly all law enforcement agencies carry pepper spray for use as a non-lethal weapon.Although the first compound to be used in pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum (OC) is still used in many formulas, scientists have also begun developing chemicals that are not directly derived from extracts of hot pepper plants, including Chloracetophenone (CN) and Orthochlorobenzalmalonitrile (CS). These new chemicals are often hotter than the OC compound, but most pepper sprays use a combination of two or three different chemicals, as not everyone responds to all three in the same way.
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