Thomas Adams (entrepreneur)

Thomas Adams (born May 4, 1818 in New York , † February 7, 1905 ) was an American inventor, he is considered the father of chewing gum .

Live and act

The inventor Thomas Adams sold the chewing gum in strips based on the dried sap of the sapotilla tree ( chicle ) instead of the previously existing chewing gum balls made of paraffin wax or spruce resin . The decisive factor was his contact with the Mexican general and multiple President of Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna .

Adams previously tried his hand at various trading businesses, also worked as a glass dealer and became a photographer in the 1860s. Santa Anna was temporarily in exile on Staten Island , New York. Here he met Thomas Adams in 1857. He gave Adams Chicle, a natural latex made from the milky sap of the pomegranate tree that has been used by Central American Indians for centuries. Santa Anna suggested that the inventive photographer experiment with chicle as a rubber substitute. Adams bought some of his imported supplies from Santa Anna and began his experiments.

Adams believed there was a way to improve rubber and began experimenting with toys, masks, rubber boots, and bicycle tires, all of which failed. He then wanted to throw the rest of the chicles into the East River , disappointed with the many unsuccessful attempts . Then while shopping he heard a little girl asking for a penny of paraffin wax chewing gum.

After he learned that chicle was also chewed in Mexico, he and his sons came up with the idea in 1859 to shape chicle into small balls and sell it as chewing gum.

He put the rest of his fortune into this idea and produced chewing gum in small strips wrapped in colored paper. In February 1871, New Yorkers bought his tasteless Adams' New York Gum No. 1 en masse in drugstores, a penny each. Together with his two sons, he built the world's first chewing gum factory. In the same year he received a patent for his machine for making chewing gum in strips, of which chicle was an integral part.

Adams continued to try to improve the taste of the product and then launched Black Jack , a liquorice- flavored chewing gum. This variety sold for almost a century.

Adams chewing gum tutti-frutti was first available in 1888 from vending machines placed in a New York train station.

By the late 19th century, his company was the most prosperous chewing gum factory in the States. In 1899, the six largest and best-known companies in the United States and Canada, including those of Adams, joined together in a monopoly , the American Chicle Company , to produce chewing gum under the Chiclets brand . Adams became the first chairman of the board . This company became part of the chemical company Warner-Lambert in 1962 and then merged with the British Cadbury Schweppes group .

Others

According to the former Wrigley manager Wilfried Schmidt, there was a gentlemen's agreement between Thomas Adams and his competitor William Wrigley junior: While both companies were competing on the US market, Adams should be allowed to work exclusively in Central and South America while Europe was reserved for Wrigley . Both companies have adhered to this agreement for many decades. Only after several resales (Cadbury Schweppes to Mondelez and Wrigleys to Mars), no one felt bound by this agreement. Since then, Wrigleys has also expanded into the Latin American market and Mondelez has entered European markets and a. with Trident / Stimerol brand chewing gum products.

literature

• Michael R. Redclift: Chewing Gum: The Fortunes of Taste. New York 2004, ISBN 0-415-94418-X .

Web links

• Book excerpt: "Fries, fat and wrinkle cream"
• The History of Chewing Gum and Bubble Gum (English)
• Thomas Adams, inventor of chewing gum ( Memento from July 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jennifer P. Mathews, Gillia P. Schultz: Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas ... Univ. of Arizona Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8165-2624-6 , pp. 40-43.
2. ↑ Oliver Numrich: Ex-Wrigley's-Manager Schmidt: Successful thanks to the high margin and cash register displays. April 1, 2018, accessed March 1, 2019 .