condoms did not only come from moralists: by the late 19th century many feminists expressed distrust of the condom as a contraceptive, as its use was controlled and decided upon by men alone. they advocated instead for methods which were controlled by women, such as diaphragms and spermicidal douches.: 152–3 despite social and legal opposition, at the end of the 19th century the condom was the western world's most popular birth control method. two surveys conducted in new york in 1890 and 1900 found that 45% of the women surveyed were using condoms to prevent pregnancy.: 173–4 a survey in boston just prior to world war i concluded that three million condoms were sold in that city every year.: 192–3 1870s england saw the founding of the first major condom manufacturing company, e. lambert and son of dalston.: 165 in 1882, german immigrant julius schmid founded one of the largest and longest-lasting condom businesses, julius schmid, inc. this new york business initially manufactured only skin condoms (in 1890 he was arrested by anthony comstock for having almost seven hundred of the devices in his house).: 154–6 in 1912, a german named julius fromm developed a new, improved manufacturing technique for condoms: dipping glass molds into a raw rubber solution. called cement dipping, this method required adding gasoline or benzene to the rubber to make it liquid.: 200 in america, schmid was the first company to use the new technique. using the new dipping method, french condom manufacturers were the first to add textures to condoms.: 169–70 fromm was the first company to sell a branded line of condoms, fromm's act, which remains popular in germany today. the fromms was taken over by the nazis during the war, and the family fled to great britain but could not compete against the powerful london rubber company. the condom lines manufactured by schmid, sheiks and ramses, were sold through the late 1990s.: 154–6 youngs rubber company, founded by merle youngs in late-19th-century america, introduced trojans.: 191 beginning in the second half of the 19th century, american rates of sexually transmitted diseases skyrocketed. causes cited by historians include effects of the american civil war, and the ignorance of prevention methods promoted by the comstock laws.: 137–8, 159 to fight the growing epidemic, sexual education classes were introduced to public schools for the first time, teaching about venereal diseases and how they were transmitted. they generally taught that abstinence was the only way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.: 179–80 the medical community and moral watchdogs considered stds to be punishment for sexual misbehavior. the stigma on victims of these diseases was so great that many hospitals refused to treat people who had syphilis.: 176 1900 to present world war i to the 1920s a world war i-era u.s. military poster promoting abstinence the german military was the first to promote condom use among its soldiers, beginning in the second half of the 19th century.: 169, 181 early-20th-century experiments by the american military concluded that providing condoms to soldiers significantly lowered rates of sexually transmitted diseases.: 180–3 during world war i, the united states and (at the beginning of the war only) britain were the only countries with soldiers in europe who did not provide condoms and promote their use,: 187–90 although some condoms were provided as an experiment by the british navy. by the end of the war, the american military had diagnosed almost 400,000 cases of syphilis and gonorrhea, a historic high.: 191 from just before 1900 to the beginning of world war i, almost all condoms used in europe were imported from germany. germany not only exported condoms to other european countries, but was a major supplier to australia, new zealand, and canada. during the war, the american companies schmid and youngs became the main suppliers of condoms to the european allies.: 156, 170, 191 by the early 1920s, however, most of europe's condoms were once again made in germany.: 199 in 1918, just before the end of the war, an american court overturned a conviction against margaret sanger. in this case, the judge ruled that condoms could be legally advertised and sold for the prevention of disease. there were still a few state laws against buying and selling contraceptives, and advertising condoms as birth control devices remained illegal in over thirty states.: 266 but condoms began to be publicly, legally sold to americans for the first time in forty-five years.: 192–3 through the 1920s, catchy names and slick packaging became an increasingly important marketing technique for many consumer items, including condoms and cigarettes.: 197 quality testing became more common, involving filling each condom with air followed by one of several methods intended to detect loss of pressure. several american companies sold their rejects under cheaper brand names rather than discarding them.: 204, 206, 221–2 consumers were advised to perform similar tests themselves before use, although few actually did so.: 223 worldwide, condom sales doubled in the 1920s.: 210 still, there were many prominent opponents of condoms. marie stopes objected to the use of condoms ostensibly for medical reasons. founder of psychoanalysis sigmund freud opposed all methods of birth control on the grounds that their failure rates were too high. freud was especially opposed to the condom because it cut down on sexual pleasure. . some feminists continued to oppose male-controlled contraceptives such as condoms. many moralists and medical professionals opposed all methods of contraception. in 1920 the church of england's lambeth conference condemned all "unnatural means of conception avoidance." london's bishop arthur winnington-ingram complained of the number of condoms discarded in alleyways and parks, especially after weekends and holidays.: 211–2 in the u.s., condom advertising was legally restricted to their use as disease preventatives. they could be openly marketed as birth control devices in britain, but purchasing condoms in britain was socially awkward compared to the u.s. they were generally requested with the euphemism "a little something for the weekend." boots, the largest pharmacy chain in britain, stopped selling condoms altogether in the 1920s, a policy that was not reversed until the 1960s.: 208–10 in post-world war i france, the government was concerned about falling birth rates. in response, it outlawed all contraceptives, including condoms. contraception was also illegal in spain. european militaries continued to provide condoms to their members for disease protection, even in countries where they were illegal for the general population.: 213–4 invention of spray-drying and manufacturing automation around 1920 patent lawyer, inventor and vice-president of the united states rubber company ernest hopkinson invented a simple new technique of converting latex into rubber without a coagulant (demulsifier), which featured using water as a solvent, spraying the solution and drying it with warm air, as well as optionally preserving liquid latex with ammonia. to distinguish from the earlier technologies, the rubber products made with this technology eventually started to be called "latex" products. youngs rubber company was the first to manufacture a latex condom, an improved version of their trojan brand. latex condoms required less labor to produce than cement-dipped rubber condoms, which had to be smoothed by rubbing and trimming. because it used water to suspend the rubber instead of gasoline and benzene, it eliminated the fire hazard previously associated with all condom factories. latex condoms also performed better for the consumer: they were stronger and thinner than rubber condoms, and had a shelf life of five years (compared to three months for rubber). europe's first latex condom was an export from youngs rubber company in 1929. in 1932 the london rubber company, which had previously served as a wholesaler for german-manufactured condoms, became europe's first manufacturer of latex condoms, the durex.: 199–200 the durex plant was designed and installed by lucian landau, a polish rubber technology student living in london. until the twenties, all condoms were individually hand-dipped by semiskilled workers. throughout the 1920s, advances in automation of condom assembly line were made. fred killian patented the first fully automated line in 1930 and installed it in his manufacturing plant in akron, ohio. killian charged $20,000 for his conveyor system ($320,000 in 2021 dollars). automated lines dramatically lowered the price of condoms. major condom manufacturers bought or leased conveyor systems, and small manufacturers were driven out of business.: 201–3 the skin condom, now significantly more expensive than the latex variety, became restricted to a niche high-end market.: 220 in britain, the london rubber company's fully automated plant was designed in-house by lucian landau and the first lines were installed from 1950 onward. great depression in 1927, senior medical officers in the american military began promoting condom distribution and educational programs to members of the army and navy. by 1931, condoms were standard issue to all members of the u.s. military.: 213–4 this coincided with a steep decline in u.s. military cases of sexually transmitted disease.: 217–9 the u.s. military was not the only large organization that changed its moral stance on condoms: in 1930 the anglican church's lambeth conference sanctioned the use of birth control by married couples. in 1931 the federal council of churches in the u.s. issued a similar statement.: 227 the roman catholic church responded by issuing the encyclical casti connubii affirming its opposition to all contraceptives, a stance it has never reversed. semen analysis was first performed in the 1930s. samples were typically collected by masturbation, another action opposed by the catholic church. in 1930s spain, the first use of collection condoms was documented; holes put in the condom allowed the user to collect a sample without violating the prohibitions on contraception and masturbation.: 228–9 in 1932, margaret sanger arranged for a shipment of diaphragms to be mailed from japan to a sympathetic doctor in new york city. when u.s. customs confiscated the package as illegal contraceptive devices, sanger helped file a lawsuit. in 1936, a federal appeals court ruled in united states v. one package of japanese pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients. in 1938, over three hundred birth control clinics opened in america, supplying reproductive care (including condoms) to poor women all over the country.: 216, 226 programs led by u.s. surgeon general thoman parran included heavy promotion of condoms. these programs are credited with a steep drop in the u.s. std rate by 1940.: 234 two of the few places where condoms became more restricted during this period were fascist italy and nazi germany. because of government concern about low birth rates, contraceptives were made illegal in italy in the late 1920s. although limited and highly controlled sales as disease preventatives were still allowed, there was a brisk black market trade in condoms as birth control.: 254–5 in germany, laws passed in 1933 mandated that condoms could only be sold in plain brown wrappers, and only at pharmacies. despite these restrictions, when world war ii began germans were using 72 million condoms every year.: 252 the elimination of moral and legal barriers, and the introduction of condom programs by the u.s. government helped condom sales. however, these factors alone are not considered to explain the great depression's booming condom industry. in the u.s. alone, more than 1.5 million condoms were used every day during the depression, at a cost of over $33 million per year (not adjusted for inflation). one historian explains these statistics this way: "condoms were cheaper than children." during the depression condom lines by schmid gained in popularity: that company still used the cement-dipping method of manufacture. unlike the latex variety, these condoms could be safely used with oil-based lubricants. and while less comfortable, older-style rubber condoms could be reused and so were more economical, a valued feature in hard times.: 217–9 more attention was brought to quality issues in the 1930s. in 1935, a biochemist tested 2000 condoms by filling each one with air and then water: he found that 60% of them leaked. the condom industry estimated that only 25% of condoms were tested for quality before packaging. the media attention led the u.s. food and drug administration to classify condoms as a drug in 1937 and mandate that every condom be tested before packaging. youngs rubber company was the first to institute quality testing of every condom they made, installing automatic testing equipment designed by arthur youngs (the owner's brother) in 1938. the federal