A Brief History of Chewing Gum
Think of articles of human culture that have been around for thousands of years. You might name cave paintings, hammering tools, bows and arrows. Did you think of gum? Betcha didn’t.
We’re not sure what it says about people that we have been finding things to chew on for all these many years, but at least we’re consistent. The ancient Greeks chewed on tree resin, as did the Mayans and Native Americans. Archaeologists have found tree resin with teeth marks in it from places like Finland and Sweden, dating back more than 5,000 years.
Native Americans showed the early settlers their chewing gum secrets, and the Curtis family in Maine harvested the resin from spruce trees and began selling bits of it for a penny each in 1848. With the addition of flavor to make it tastier and paraffin to make it softer, the Curtis family had invented the modern form of chewing gum, which they named “The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.”
Dr. William Semple, a dentist from Ohio, got a patent for his chewing gum formula in 1869, which was a mix of rubber, sugar, licorice, and charcoal. Yummy. He never sold his gum on the mainstream market, however, leaving plenty of room for New Yorker Thomas Adams to do the job.
*** You are looking for a small tube , log only BYOP , please make sure top is on securely to keep log dry***