Nowadays, chewing gum is a part of the everyday life of a very large number of people, although this product was invented only a little more than a hundred years ago.
The substitutes for "gum" at different times were wood resin, paraffin. For example, it is known that ancient Greeks chewed the resin of mastic wood, Mayans chewed chicle (sapodilla tree juice).
White settlers adopted this habit: they used pine juice and beeswax. The first example of industrial production of some kind of modern chewing gum is the small case of John B. John Bacon Curtis from Maine, a pine gum producer organized in 1848. It was not very popular because it was technologically difficult to remove unnecessary impurities from pine resin.
The date of the invention of modern chewing gum is considered to be December 28, 1869, when William Finley Sample from Ohio was granted a patent for chewing gum, that is, a certain combination of rubber with other substances suitable for the preparation of chewing gum. However, Sample himself never made chewing gum for sale.
Thomas Adams owes us a real rubber gum. Thomas Adams brought to our world what we understand and imagine to be gum.
Adams decided to put the experience: boiled a piece of rubber and divided it into portions. The result: although the rubber had no taste, sales of the first rubber gum "Adams New York № 1" were good.
Gum "Black Jack" was the name of the first tasteful gum. It appeared in 1884 by the efforts of the same Adams. In addition to the licorice flavor, the gum was also shaped like a pencil. "Black Jack", however, had both disadvantages and one of them was unstable taste. The problem was solved by sugar and corn syrup.
In the 1970s "Black Jack" was taken out of production, but in 1986 this variety appeared on the shelves again. Adams New York No. 2" gum was introduced, which differed from the first only in its larger packaging. And the name of the first fruit gum (although it appeared in the century before last) is familiar to us not by hearsay - "Tutti Frutti". By the way, "Tutti Frutti" was the first gum to be sold through automatic machines in the New York subway.
For a while, Adams was the only chewing gum producer. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, a fairly large number of chewing gum producers competed for attention and respect for consumers.
A special role in promoting the product was played by Wrigley's company. The history of this transnational corporation dates back to 1891, when William Rigley, a very successful soap seller, noticed that customers came to his shop not so much because of the soap because of the two plates of chewing gum that were attached to the purchase.
William Rigley improved the technical side of the process and began to produce the well-known "Wrigley`s Spearmint" today. It was in 1892, and a year later the world saw "Wrigley`s Juicy Fruit". These varieties are still on top of sales. The secret of Rigley's success was in additional components: sugar powder, mint, fruit additives. Rigley also made gum as we used to see it: in the form of a plate, a stick and a ball.
So from a soap seller, Wrigley quickly moved on to becoming a producer of famous chewing gum.
Pine gum, paraffin, etc. did not meet the demand of the consumer in the proper measure, because they had low taste characteristics. Besides, there were no necessary technologies for processing, for example, resin.
Lack of technologies also served as a barrier for the production of rubber chewing gum: there was no technology of mass production of this type of products, there was no extensive experience with rubber. In many ways, therefore, it took quite a long time after the patent was registered before the chewing gum went on sale.
Practically from the moment of the invention of chewing gum manufacturers tried in every possible way to modernize it.In 1871, Adams added licorice extract to improve taste and smell. Later on, manufacturers began to use various additives.
In 1880, pharmacist John Kolgan improved the aroma of chewing gum: he mixed the flavor with sugar before sugar was added to the rubber base. This made the taste of gum more stable.