bubblegum...

I guess we all know what bubble gum is.... but how did it come into existence ?

Why we have always wanted/needed to chew something is a bit of a mystery. Maybe we are descendants from cows and not apes after all?


It seems that gum, or something similar, has been chewed since recorded history:

• The world’s oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! Recently archaeologists found three wads of 9000 year old chewed birch resin on the Swedish island of Orust. After detailed examination by dental experts, they concluded that this piece of resin was chewed by young person (a caveman teenager).
• The ancient Greeks chewed mastiche - a chewing gum made from the resin of the mastic tree.
• The ancient Mayans chewed chicle which is the sap from the sapodilla tree.
• North American Indians chewed the sap from spruce trees and passed the habit along to the settlers.
• Early American settlers made a chewing gum from spruce sap and beeswax.
• In 1848, John B. Curtis made and sold the first commercial chewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.
• In 1850, Curtis started selling flavoured paraffin gums becoming more popular than spruce gums.
• On December 28 1869, William Finley Semple became the first person to patent a chewing gum - U.S patent #98,304.
• In 1869, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna introduced Thomas Adams to chicle.
• In 1871, Thomas Adams patented a machine for the manufacture of gum.
• In 1880, John Colgan invented a way to make chewing gum taste better for a longer period of time while being chewed.
• By 1888, an Adams' chewing gum called Tutti-Frutti became the first chew to be sold in a vending machine. The machines were located in a New York City subway station.
• In 1899, Dentyne gum was created by New York druggist Franklin V. Canning.
• In 1906, Frank Fleer invented the first bubble gum called Blibber-Blubber gum. However, the bubble blowing chew was never sold.
• In 1914, Wrigley Doublemint brand was created. William Wrigley, Jr. and Henry Fleer were responsible for adding the popular mint and fruit extracts to a chicle chewing gum.
• In 1928, an employee of the Frank H. Fleer Company, Walter Diemer invented the successful pink colored Double Bubble, bubble gum.