in the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (which cover his life until 1774): to test for holes, he would often blow them up before use. Couples in colonial America relied on female-controlled methods of contraception if they used contraceptives at all. The first known documents describing American condom use were written around 1800, two to three decades after the American Revolutionary War. Also around 1800, linen condoms lost popularity in the market and their production ceased: they were more expensive and were viewed as less comfortable when compared to skin condoms. Up to the 19th century, condoms were generally used only by the middle and upper classes. Perhaps more importantly, condoms were unaffordable for many: for a typical prostitute, a single condom might cost several months' pay. Expanded marketing and introduction of rubber The early 19th century saw contraceptives promoted to the poorer classes for the first time: birth control advocates in England included Jeremy Bentham and Richard Carlile, and noted American advocates included Robert Dale Owen and Charles Knowlton. Writers on contraception tended to prefer other methods of birth control, citing both the expense of condoms and their unreliability (they were often riddled with holes, and often fell off or broke), but they discussed condoms as a good option for some, and as the only contraceptive that also protected from disease. One group of British contraceptive advocates distributed condom literature in poor neighborhoods, with instructions on how to make the devices at home; in the 1840s, similar tracts were distributed in both cities and rural areas through the United States. From the 1820s through the 1870s, popular women and men lecturers traveled around America teaching about physiology and sexual matters. Many of them sold birth control devices, including condoms, after their lectures. They were condemned by many moralists and medical professionals, including America's first female doctor Elizabeth Blackwell. Blackwell accused the lecturers of spreading doctrines of "abortion and prostitution". In the 1840s, advertisements for condoms began to appear in British newspapers, and in 1861 a condom advertisement appeared in The New York Times. The discovery of the rubber vulcanization process is disputed. Some contest that it was invented by Charles Goodyear in America 1839, and patented in 1844. Other accounts attribute it to Thomas Hancock in Britain in 1843. The first rubber condom was produced in 1855, and by the late 1850s several major rubber companies were mass-producing, among other