Ingenious Inventions

Prehistoric men and women In 1848, the Curtis brothers chewed on lumps of tree resin for pure made chewing gum from pure spruce enjoyment. For centuries the ancient tree resin. Later, adding paraffi n and Greeks chewed mastic gum derived from fl avoring to their already popular OST of us have enjoyed chewing the resin of the mastic tree. The word concoction, the brothers opened the gum at some point in our life. In M “mastic” in Greek means “to chew”. This fi rst major gum manufacturing plant, fact, people have enjoyed chewing gum- is the resin obtained from the bark of the Curtis Chewing Gum Factory. like substances in many lands and from the mastic tree, a shrub-like tree found very early times. The materials may mainly in Greece and Turkey. Grecian have been different – sometimes they women especially favored chewing were thickened resin and latex from Thomas Adams mastic gum to clean their teeth and certain kinds of trees, or various sweet sweeten their breath. grasses, leaves, grains and waxes. First fi nding relating to gum has been traced to 5000-year-old human settlements in Finland. 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. Thomas Adams was a photographer, he tried his hand at the gum business, boiling down chicle (natural gum collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees including M. zapota, M. chicle, M. staminodella, and M. bidentata) in his home. SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2013 56 Ingenious Inventions Susan Montgomery Williams of Fresno, California established the Guinness World Record for the largest bubblegum bubble in 1996, blowing a bubble that measured 23 inches.

Bubble-Gum Ice cream (left)

Chewing gum became so popular that doctors advised patients to stop it, by telling patients it would cause their intestines to stick together. Fleer was the inventor of the bubble gum. But his product “Blibber Blubber Bubble Gum” was too sticky to enjoy. Its natural gun had great potential American pharmacies during that time. In 1928, while attempting to make a and soon with the help of Santa Ana Together with his eldest son Tom Jr., new rubber product, Walter Diemer, an Adams started his experiments in Adams made the fi rst batch of modern accountant for the Fleer gum company hope to create some commercial viable chewing gums that he named “Adams accidentally discovered the bubble gum. product. Their goal was fi rst to create New York No.1”. It was less sticky than regular chewing cheap alternative to then very expensive In 1871, Adams patented another gum. It also stretched more easily. rubber tires. After a year of unsuccessful fi rst of its kind: Flavored gum, after Within months, the Fleer Chewing Gum trials, he gave up on the idea of Chicle adding licorice fl avoring to his recipe. Company in Philadelphia began making based rubber. Then he remembered that He named the product “Black Jack”. bubble gum using Diemer’s recipe, and Santa Ana and indigenous population of Black Jack was not sold in chunks, marketed the fi rst-ever commercially Mexico enjoyed chewing of chicle gum but in stick form, and the public liked sold bubble gum. “Dubble Bubble,” as for the past few thousand years. He it. Soon almost everyone was trying the it was known, was an instant success. molded them in small gumballs that chewing gum. So much so that doctors Today, bubble gums are made from were wrapped in different colored tissue advised patients to stop chewing gum, sugar, corn syrup, fl avorings, softeners papers. often telling patients it would cause and latex or plastic. Sugarless or sugar- Photographer Thomas Adams of their intestines to stick together. free gums hit the marketplace in the New York also tried his hand at the As more and more manufacturers early 1950s, leading to a whole new gum gum business, boiling down chicle entered the chewing gum market, consumer. Minty, refreshing sugarless (natural gum collected from several the popular substance began to be gums are chewed by people of all ages species of Mesoamerican trees including marketed in different ways. Wrigley’s and often, recommended by health care M. zapota, M. chicle, M. staminodella, sold gum as a treat or candy. Beeman’s providers as a teeth cleaner and stress and M. bidentata) in his home and added pepsin to their recipe. Frank reducer. selling small chunks of it to a local drug Susan Montgomery Williams of store. During that time, he worked as Canning sold a “dental gum” called Fresno, California established the a secretary to the Mexican president “Dentyne”. In the 1870s, Adams & Guinness World Record for the largest Antonio López de Santa Anna where he Sons sold “Sour Orange” fl avored gum bubblegum bubble in 1996, blowing noticed that Santa Ana often chewed as an after dinner candy. In the early a bubble that measured 23 inches. gum of a local tree Manilkara Chicle. His 1920s, Clove gum was said to freshen Chad Fell set the record in 2012 for the fi rst batch of chewing gums was vastly the breath of those drinking liquor Largest Hands-free Bubblegum Bubble, superior to then then popular paraffi n illegally. at 20 inches. wax gum that was widely used in Next came the bubble gum. Frank 57 SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2013