Ajax washing powder did, though, in a cardboard container: red, white, and blue.

NEWYORKER: Total Recall

Give power to the individual and you apply the same creative ingenuity to public services as companies have long done to the invention of washing powder.

ECONOMIST: The unacknowledged giant

Popular items include gherkins from the Spree forest and sausages from Thuringia, as well as Rot-Weiss toothpaste, Spee washing powder and chicken-shaped plastic egg cups in various colours.

ECONOMIST: A wild repackaging of German history

No tea, no washing powder, and no salt.

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In a domestic-science class, three boys are making a presentation for a new washing-powder advertisement.

ECONOMIST: Japan

Henkel is home to a whole host of different brands from Persil washing-powder to hair products such as Schwarzkopf.

CNN: Henkel: Reaping rewards of its revamp

The powder that works in your washing machine at high temperature functions because it contains proteins extracted from microbes that grow in volcanic hot springs.

CNN: How the search for aliens can help sustain life on Earth