chewing gum

By the early 20th century, Americans could not get enough of theconfection called chewing gum invented by Thomas Adams.

Timeline

* The ancient Greeks chewed mastiche - a chewing gum made from theresin of the mastic tree.
* The ancient Mayans chewed chicle which is the sap from thesapodilla tree.
* North American Indians chewed the sap from spruce trees andpassed the habit along to the settlers.
* Early American settlers made a chewing gum from spruce sap andbeeswax.
* In 1848, John B. Curtis made and sold the first commercialchewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.
* In 1850, Curtis started selling flavored paraffin gums becomingmore popular than spruce gums.
* On December 28 1869, William Finley Semple became the firstperson to patent a chewing gum - U.S patent #98,304.
* In 1869, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna introduced Thomas Adams tochicle.
* In 1871, Thomas Adams patented a machine for the manufacture of gum.
* In 1880, John Colgan invented a way to make chewing gum tastebetter for a longer period of time while being chewed.
* By 1888, an Adams' chewing gum called Tutti-Frutti became thefirst chew to be sold in a vending machine.