Who invented chewing gum thomas adams

So began the Adams gum dynasty. The Adams family made the first commercial chicle-based gum in It was worse: it was immoral. Emily Post wouldn't even say the word. It didn't so much have to be sold to the American public as justified.

So justified it has been -- for years. Perhaps it promises cleaner teeth and stronger jaws. Admiral Byrd chewed gum at the South Pole to calm his nerves. Just the other day I read an article in American Scientist.

Chewing gum appears to fight depression by releasing serotonins. So chewing gum came to stay. And what about Santa Ana and Adams? Santa Ana died penniless; Adams died rich.

And commercial chewing gum has been a uniquely American gift -- to an all too tense waiting world,. In , he patented a machine that could mass produce chewing gum from chicle. Adams later worked with businessman William Wrigley, Jr. There is little recorded information about his early life; however, it is known that he dabbled in various trades—including glassmaking—before eventually becoming a photographer. The Mexican general was in exile, living with Adams in his Staten Island home.

Adams noticed that Santa Anna liked to chew the gum of the Manilkara tree, which was known as chicle. Such natural products had been used as chewing gum for thousands of years by groups such as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Aztecs. In North America, chewing gum had long been used by Native Americans, from whom British settlers eventually adopted the practice. Later, businessman and inventor John B.

Curtis became the first person to sell gum commercially. His gum was made from sweetened paraffin wax. It was Santa Anna who suggested that the unsuccessful but inventive photographer Adams experiment with chicle from Mexico. Santa Anna felt that chicle could be used to make a synthetic rubber tire. Santa Anna had friends in Mexico who would be able to supply the product cheaply to Adams.

Before making chewing gum, Thomas Adams first tried to turn chicle into synthetic rubber products. At the time, natural rubber was expensive; a synthetic alternative would have been extremely useful to many manufacturers and would have guaranteed its inventor great wealth.

Adams attempted to make toys, masks, rain boots, and bicycle tires out of the chicle from Mexican sapodilla trees, but every experiment failed. Adams became disheartened by his failure to use chicle as a rubber substitute. He felt he had wasted about a year's worth of work. One day, Adams noticed a girl buying White Mountain paraffin wax chewing gum for a penny at the corner drugstore. He recalled that chicle was used as chewing gum in Mexico and thought this would be a way to use his surplus chicle.

According to a speech given by Adams' grandson Horatio at a banquet for the American Chicle Company, Adams proposed to prepare an experimental batch, which the pharmacist at the drugstore agreed to sample. Adams came home from the meeting and told his son Thomas Jr. His son, excited by the proposition, suggested that the two manufacture several boxes of chicle chewing gum and give the product a name and a label.

Thomas Jr. In , Adams was inspired to turn his surplus stock into chewing gum by adding flavoring to the chicle. Shortly after, he opened the world's first chewing gum factory.

In those distant times, many old cultures Aztecs, Ancient Greeks and Egyptians used several types of chewing gum as a mouth freshener and medicinal accessory. First widespread use of chewing gum by modern civilization happened in early s when English settlements picked up the chewing practice from Native Americans.

Several inventors started selling chewing gum between and , most notably John B. Curtis who is today regarded for beginning of commercial chewing gum use and William Semple who filed first patent on chewing gum in late Big change in chewing gum industry came with Thomas Adams During his lifetime, he worked as a photographer, glassmaker and inventor, but his only great invention was made during s.

Its natural gun had great potential and soon with the help of Santa Ana Adams started his experiments in hope to create some commercial viable product. Their goal was first to create cheap alternative to then very expensive rubber tires.