Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: Chewing Gum In History

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Cindy C.

September 30th, 2021

September 30 is National Chewing Gum Day.  Besides exercise for the jaw, the history of gum chewing is flavorful!   

Scientists have found a wad of birch resin with tooth imprints that was chewed in Finland from 9,000 years ago.  Why did they chew it?  Maybe for the same reason we do: enjoyment.  Maybe they also like the fresh breath sensation created by chewing gum.  Or maybe it filled the simple needs of sustaining hunger.  It may have had antiseptic or medicinal values as well. 

Not only has birch resin been used as chewing gum, ancient peoples also chewed globs of wax, bark tar and other sap resins.  Native Americans taught the New England Colonists to chew spruce resin, which was both aromatic and astringent for oral health.  Peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula have chewed a latex product called chicle, of the evergreen sapodilla tree in the rainforest for centuries.  It is a milky product when removed from the tree that hardens.  It was used to quench thirst and fight hunger. 

Ancient Aztecs also used chicle.  Only single women and children were allowed to chew it in public; married women could chew it privately and men could only chew it in secret.  The Greeks chewed gum made from the mastic tree, which has been found to have beneficial oral health attributes.  The Chinese chewed ginseng plant roots and Eskimos used blubber.  The South Americans used coca leaves and the South Asians (India) prefer betel nuts. 

By the 1840-50’s, the first commercial gums were being made.  One of the first factories was built by John Curtis in Portland, Maine.  The gum was called “The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.”  It was made from spruce tree resin that was boiled, cut into strips and sprinkled in corn starch to keep it from being sticky.  It didn’t taste very good, so he tried other formulas including paraffin wax.  People would use a plate of powdered sugar to dip their gum into to keep it sweet. 

Thomas Adams of New York experimented with chicle first as a substitute for rubber and then as an improved chewing gum.  His formula was patented in 1871.  By the 1880’s his products were sold across the USA as something better to chew than paraffin or spruce resin and that came in multiple flavors.  Black Jack (1884) and Chiclets (1899) are early gums that are still available today. 

By the 20th century, William Wrigley Jr. had ventured into several markets, including soap and baking powder.  He used packs of gum as bonuses for store owners who bought his baking powder.  He created Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint gums in 1893.  A highly competitive field, Frank Fleer created a product that could be blown into bubbles.  This first product was called Blibber-Blubber.  One of his employees, Walter Diemer, then created Dubble Bubble after the failure of Blibber-Blubber because it was too sticky.  He saved the company from failure.  He added cinnamon, wintergreen and vanilla flavors to the gum and eventually added the trademark pink colorant.  This gum was added to ration kits for American soldiers serving in WWII.  They could then use the gum to trade with others to obtain things they needed while overseas. 

Sources: 

Books at the Library: 

Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum.  By McCarthy, Meghan.  New York: Simon & Schuster.  2010. 

On Account of the Gum.  By Rex, Adam.  San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.  2020. 

Cindy C.

Miss Cindy has been circulating in Ohio libraries for many years. She creates programming for all ages because even though she likes the little ones, her passion is making ‘stuff’. Cindy’s husband requests that you do not show or tell her about any new ‘stuff’.  But Cindy knows you will bend her ear, and she will turn it into a program lickety-split! 

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.