Its Time for A Little History Lesson!

HISTORY OF GUM: LESSON 1

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