The History of Gum, part 1 of 3
The 1850s: A Chance Encounter
Two men, a Mexican and a New Yorker, became acquainted. It was a meeting that would have a profound effect on today's giant chewing gum industry. One of the men was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, conqueror of the Alamo and several times president of Mexico. The other was a young photographer, Thomas Adams.
The 1860s: An Idea is Born
Santa Anna, living with Adams on Staten Island while in exile from Mexico, suggested Adams create a formula for carriage tires by experimenting with chicle, the gummy substance people in Mexico had been extracting from sapota trees and munching on for years. After a year of experiments, Adams and his son, Thomas Adams Jr., deemed the project a failure. The chicle sat in a warehouse, until one day, Adams was inspired by a girl asking for chewing gum in a New York drugstore. Adams thought perhaps he might be able to make chewing gum out of chicle and salvage the lot in storage. Adams Jr. helped his father put together several boxes of unflavored chicle gum and took them out on one of his business trips (he sold tailor's trimmings). They called it Adams New York No. 1.
1871
Adams receives first chewing gum machine patent. His revolutionary machine enabled him to begin mass producing his chicle based gum. Adams New York No. 1 chewing gum goes on sale in drug stores for a penny apiece.
1876: Adams Sons & Co.
Adams Sons and Co. is founded by Thomas Adams. The rapidly growing company relocates to larger quarters at 58-60 Vesey Street in Manhattan.
1879: The Birth of Beeman's®
An Ohio physician, Dr. Edward E. Beeman, turns gum - which had been simply a fun thing - into a product with valuable features. Setting aside his practice of medicine, Beeman turned his skills to manufacturing a pepsin powder as a digestive aid. One day his bookkeeper, Nellie Horton, suggested that he put the pepsin into gum "since so many people buy pepsin for digestion and gum for no reason at all." Beeman blended his pepsin compound with chicle and printed each label with a pig, the logo for his pepsin powder ("With pepsin, you can eat like a pig"). Beeman's financier later switched out the pig for a photo of Beeman's bearded face, which boosted sales even higher.
1880: Peppermint Flavor
The popular peppermint flavor arrived on the gum scene around 1880, thanks to William J. White, a popcorn salesman from Cleveland. A neighboring grocer had received a barrel of chicle instead of an ordered barrel of nuts and gave it to White, who began experimenting in his home. He soon made a discovery that solved the problem of how to put - and keep - flavor in gum. Since chicle itself would not absorb flavors, White turned to sugar, which would absorb flavor. He found that by combining flavors with corn syrup, any flavor could be obtained. The syrup then blended instantly with chicle. White decided on producing a peppermint flavor. His gum, eventually named Yucatan, became a smash hit.
Quite a hustler, White took a box of his new gum to every congressman in Washington as a promotion stunt. He fell in love with politics and successfully ran for Congress. Then he had a large steam yacht built in which he sailed to England. His status as a congressman won him an audience with England's King Edward VII. He presented him with a box of Yucatan and breezed into a sales pitch, then cabled American newspapers excited accounts of the king's acceptance of his gum.
1884: Black Jack®
Black Jack, a mass-produced licorice-flavored gum, is introduced. It is the first gum to be widely distributed in stick form.
1888
First practical vending machine debuts in the U.S. It dispensed Adams Tutti-Frutti gum on the elevated "El" train platforms in New York City.
1898: Beeman's Mass Produced
Beeman's becomes part of the Adams Company and is mass produced for the first time.
