Talk:Snake oil/Archives/2018

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When did it become a generic name for a hoax?

According to this article 'snake oil' caught on as a name for any type of hoax or fraudulent product at 3 different points:

Chinese laborers on railroad gangs involved in building the First Transcontinental Railroad first gave snake oil...This claim was ridiculed by rival medicine salesmen, and in time, snake oil became a generic name for many compounds marketed as panaceas or miraculous remedies," (Late 1860's.)
Since there was no federal regulation in the United States concerning safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Food and Drugs Act[4] and various medicine salesmen or manufacturers seldom had enough skills in analytical chemistry to analyze the contents of snake oil, it became the archetype of hoax. (1906.)
"Stanley's snake oil was tested by the United States government in 1917...Soon after the decision, "snake oil" became synonymous with false cures," (1917.)

I think we need a source for when snake oil first came to be used as a term for hoaxes - when it was first applied to something other than oil supposedly from snakes. It might also be worthwhile removing the repetitive mentions of the name catching on from the history section and creating a separate section on the spread of the term.Danikat (talk) 17:39, 3 August 2016 (UTC)