Chewing Gum!

Well I thought that I kind of needed to do something new, so… I decided to do something you are all familiar with, that is right gum. It doesn’t really flow that well as I wrote it back in fifth grade.

“Chewing Gum”
The history of chewing gum goes back thousands of years. A nine thousand year old wad of gum was found in Sweden. One thousand years ago the Mayan Indians chewed chicle. The ancient Greeks made gum from the sap of the Mastic tree. The Indians in New England used spruce sap to make gum. People were trying to make a cheap substitute for rubber when they discovered gum. The first patent for gum was issued in 1869.

There are many famous people throughout the history of chewing gum. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a Mexican general whose army defeated the Texans at the Alamo in 1836. Around 1860-1870 he went to New York to sell chicle as a type of rubber. About the same time Thomas Adams, an inventor, couldn’t get chicle to harden. He wrecked all of his wife’s pans coming up with Adams New York Gum No.1. He was the owner of a large chewing gum factory.

In 1919, William Wrigley Jr., founder of Wrigley’s Gum, mailed sample sticks of gum to everyone listed in the U.S. phonebook. His nickname was “Sultan of Spearmint.” His family is one of the nation’s wealthiest, and are the owners of Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Cubs. W.H. Mason patented a gumball machine in 1919, which was more reliable than earlier models. His son Ford coated the gumballs with a water resistant glaze so they wouldn’t bleed in the gumball machine.

The production of chewing gum involves many steps. Gum is a mixture of gums and resins. It is sweetened with sugar and corn syrup. Chicle is the basic raw material, which is found in the Sapodilla Tree in Central America. Chicle is not used today because it is too expensive and difficult to get.
Polyvinylacerate and similar polymers are synthetic materials used today.

The manufacturer melts, washes, and filters the crude gum to clean it. The gum is then blended with synthetic resins, waxes and plasticizers. Then the compound is heated, mixed until uniform, cooled and blocked, and then stored until needed. The manufacturer starts with: 22-25% gum base, 50-60% powdered sugar, 12-20% corn syrup, 1-2% colors and flavors. Finally the gum is heated, thoroughly blended, cooled, rolled out, cut, wrapped, and then packaged.

Gum can be very useful. In 1919, gum was used to patch a leak in a British Royal Air force hot air balloon crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In 1977 a forensic dentist matched a wad of gum left at a murder scene to the killer’s front tooth. In 1988, a 12 year-old babysitter used a wad of gum to plug a leaking gas pipe. Studies show that gum is good for tension relief and concentration.

There are, however, some downfalls with chewing gum. In the 1800’s doctors thought that gum would deplete the salivary glands and cause the intestines to stick together. In 1992, gum twice jammed subway train doors in Singapore. Gum is unwelcome at the statue of liberty because people stick their gum on the copper mama. Trashcans with signs that said, “stick your gum here” were made available. Now, people stick their gum on the signs.

Swallow Phobia is the fear of swallowing gum. Many people, who fear this, drop or stick their gum anywhere. Dentists don’t like gum because it cause tooth decay and cavities.

There are many types of gum. Some are: sugar coated, Sugar free, Chiclets, soft chunk bubble, liquid filled, gumballs, Kosher gum, and squeeze bazooka’s. The gum of the future might be biodegradable, and will fall apart in your mouth.

There are fun and interesting trivia facts about gum. 100 million sticks of gum are produced each day. Twenty-four miles of the stuff is produced each year. The average American chews about 200 sticks a year. More than $796 million is spent each year. 100,000 tons are chewed yearly. The leading single flavor is Double mint. 12-24 year-olds chew 40% of all gum produced. Utah has the highest consumption rate.



Bibliography

Musser, Jay C. “Chewing Gum” Grolier’s Encyclopedia C.D. rom. Version 4.5, 1993.

Rivenburg, Roy. “One Sticky Subject,” Readers Digest. December 1995: 165-168

Wulffson, Don L. Extra Ordiary Stories Behind the Invention of Ordinary Things. New York: Lathrop, Lee and Shepard books, c 1981.