The chore of washing the laundry began to change with the introduction of washing powders in the 1880s. These new products originally were simply pulverized soap. New cleaning product marketing successes, such as the 1890s introduction of Gold Dust Washing Powder (created by industrial chemist James Boyce for the N. K. Fairbank Company in the United States), proved that there was a ready market for better cleaning agents. Henkel & Cie, founded in Düsseldorf in 1876, pursued the opportunity, and on 6 June 1907 launched the first of its kind product, Persil. The manufacturer had found a method to add sodium perborate—a bleaching agent—to its base washing agents (silicate), creating what the marketing department called a "self-activating powder" detergent. During the washing process, oxygenated perborate forms small bubbles, doing the ""work of the washboard""—saving consumers time and rendering the historic method of "sun-bleaching" (by laying clothes out in the sun) unnecessary.