Thomas Adams (chewing gum maker)
Thomas Adams (* 1818 in New York; † 1905) was an American inventor, he is considered the father of the gum.
Life and work
The inventor Thomas Adams sold instead of the hitherto existing on the market gumballs from paraffin wax or spruce resin, the gum into strips, based on dried sap of the Sapotillbaumes ( chicle ). The decisive factor was his contact with the Mexican general and repeated the President of Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna.
Adams tried before in various stores, was also active as a glass merchant and was in the 1860s photographer. Santa Anna remained temporarily in exile on Staten Iceland in New York. Here he met Thomas Adams. He gave Adam chicle, a tree resin from the sap of Sapotillbaumes, which is used for centuries by Central American Indians. Santa Anna suggested the inventive photographers to fiddle with chicle as a rubber substitute. Adams bought Santa Anna from some of its imported supply and went to work.
Adams believed that one way to improve synthetic rubber to have and began corresponding experiments for toys, masks, rubber boots and bicycle tires, but all of them failed. He was on the verge disappointed by the many failed attempts to throw the rest of chicle in the East River. Then one day he heard while shopping at the drugstore on the corner, like a little girl for a penny gum demanded.
In it, the realization dawned that the best thing about chicle perhaps as part of Santa Anna, was chewing, and he lit 1869, the first piece in his mouth. It tasted good and was good to chew. Adams decided to use the substance as a substitute for aromatic beeswax, which gave the then gumballs taste.
He continued his remaining assets and for this idea and produced chewing gum in small strips, wrapped in colorful paper. In February 1871, the New York bought his tasteless Adams ' New York Gum No.. 1 mass in the drug stores, the piece to a penny. He built together with his two sons, the first chewing gum factory in the world. In the same year he received a patent for his machine for the production of chewing gum in strip whose essential component was chicle.
Adams made further attempts to improve the taste of the product and then brought blackjack, a chewing gum with liquorice flavor to the market. This variety has sold nearly a century.
1888 Adams Gum Tutti Frutti was available from vending machines, which were placed in a New York station for the first time.
Towards the end of the 19th century, his company was the most prosperous chewing gum factory in the States. 1899, joined the six largest and best known companies in the United States and Canada, including those of Adams, in a monopoly, the American Chicle Company, together to produce chewing gum under the brand names Chiclets. Adams became the first CEO ( Chairman of the Board). This company was founded in 1962 part of the chemical company Warner -Lambert and went after the British Cadbury Schweppes Group on.