Who invented chew

In , Walter Diemer, an accountant for Fleer Chewing Gum, accidentally created a batch of gum that was different than the rest, a recipe that became bubble gum. Fleer introduced the recipe to the world as Dubble Bubble and yes, we carry that, too. Now the world has sugarless gum, organic gum, all-natural gum, and bubble gum and chewing gum in a full spectrum of flavors and colors. Wrigley recently secured a patent for a biodegradable gum. Whatever your favorites are, we have them here, so enjoy shopping knowing that by chewing on a piece of gum, you are keeping up a very, very old tradition.

Wonder What's Next? The bubble was 23 inches in diameter! Did you get it? Test your knowledge. What are you wondering? Wonder Words tree sap wad Mayan Indians mastiche chicle latex dissolve chemist synthetic palatable glycerin saliva neutralize Take the Wonder Word Challenge. Join the Discussion.

Riley Feb 19, This is so interesting I never thought this would be so good. Feb 20, Thanks, Riley! Noelle Dec 18, Dec 20, Dec 10, Thanks, dolphin lover floradin! May 1, That would be a good question to ask your friends, blake! Dylan Apr 26, Apr 26, That' some good stuff, right there. Ryan Oct 18, Brenden Oct 11, Oct 15, Hopefully this Wonder helped you learn more about chewing gum! Ryan Oct 11, Jazzy Sep 4, Ginger May 14, That video is cute! I love that my teacher told me about wonderoplis.

May 21, Can you add publishers and dates so I ay cite this an a source? Sep 30, Feb 11, Richie Mar 26, Apr 4, Celena Erazo Feb 1, I love gum Feb 9, That would be awesome! Maybe you could create this type of chewing gum one day, Celena!

Oct 1, Hi, alexis! Not everyone likes gum, and that's OK! Thanks for being our Wonder Friend! Patrick Mar 20, Mar 21, Jan 6, Kevin Blitz Mar 16, Mar 17, Madeline Jan 29, Jan 31, Olivia Sep 17, I have heard that if you chew gum while you study and then the next day chew the same flavor it helps you remeber Desairay Matadamas Nov 5, Gavin person Jan 29, Nov 6, Sep 19, Jan 20, Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis!

We appreciate you exploring the comments! I love, love, loooooooove chewing gum but My second favorite is Mint. When I chew gum I make sure to brush my teeth after because some gum is bad for your teeth. I can do all sorts of tricks with bubblez. Aug 11, Hunter Mar 6, Wonderopolis Mar 10, Izabella Apr 1, Did you know, if you swallow gum, it stays in your system for 7 years!? Mayan archaeologist Jennifer P. Mathews has thought about it so much that she's written an entire book on the subject: " Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas , from the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley," published last month.

As Mathews explains, chewing gum has been around on this continent for hundreds of years in the form of chicle, a resin extracted from the sapodilla tree in southern Mexico and Central America. The resin is the tree's equivalent of a natural Band-aid, meant to form a protective layer over cuts in the bark. Same principle as rubber —both are latexes. The Mayans and the Aztecs figured out a long time ago that by slicing the bark strategically, they could collect this resin and create a chewable substance from it.

The Mayans cooked and dried it into "cha," which Mathews says "quenched thirst and staved off hunger," and the Aztecs recognized chicle's function as a breath-freshener.

Interestingly, however, the Aztecs seemed to view public gum chewing as socially unacceptable for adults, especially men. Of course, as Mathews notes, the Mayans and Aztecs weren't the earliest cultures in the world to chew gum.

Pliny the Elder wrote about a plant-derived substance called mastich chewed or masticated, as it were by the ancient Greeks, and archaeological evidence suggests that chewing birch-bark tar was popular with Scandinavian young people thousands of years ago.

In other words, the gum you chew is essentially plastic and rubber. According to the Washington, DC—based International Chewing Gum Association, gum is so shelf-stable that there is no law requiring an expiration date for it.

Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that. Natural and artificial waxes, which act as lubricants between strands of polymers, are sometimes combined to give the gum a better consistency. Other gum ingredients might include natural and artificial flavors; emulsifiers, which keep the gum soft; antioxidants, which keep it fresh; and humectants, like glycerol, to keep it moist.

Then, of course, there are sweeteners, both natural and artificial. The reason I can capture my daughter's attention with those huge bubbles I blow is thanks to a high proportion of the aforementioned elastomers—either natural or synthetic latexes—added to bubble gum bases. According to John Milton, author of Vanity, Vitality, and Virility: The Science Behind the Products You Love to Buy , bubble gum is often made with styrene-butadiene SBR , a food-grade polymer that swells when it comes into contact with saliva, or food-grade butyl rubber—oddly, the same stuff that's used to make bicycle inner tubes.

Reading over the ingredient list of my mainstay sugarless Orbit Bubblemint, I noticed that artificial sweeteners occupied the lion's share of the text. In fact, it contains a virtual cocktail of the stuff, including sorbitol, mannitol, aspartame, acesulfame K, sucralose, and xylitol.

Other ingredients on the list: glycerol, the above-mentioned humectant; soy lecithin, an emulsifier; the antioxidant BHT butylhydroxytoluene , a synthetic preservative that's also used in rubber and— gasp —embalming fluid; and colors and flavors both natural and artificial. Of course, the most important quality to most of us gum-chewers is that last one: flavor.

Throughout your lifetime, you've no doubt been inundated with ads touting a gum's "long-lasting" flavor, a quality scientists and gum manufacturers have spent decades trying to improve, with good reason.

As Mestres points out, "What other foodstuff remains in the mouth for a long time, like chewing gum does? One solution, according to Mestres, is using varying concoctions of natural and artificial flavors with different degrees of solubility, so that "waves" of flavor are released in our mouths as we chew.

In other words, once the complementary sweetness is gone, that watermelon bubble gum you're chewing will lose most of its lusciousness. This is a phenomenon I seemed to understand on a base level even as a kid. Back then, I often took the gum I was chewing out of my mouth, rolled it in sugar, and placed it in the freezer for future use.

It tasted okay, but my mother, practically dry-heaving each time she opened the freezer, eventually put the kibosh on this practice. According to Mestres, the main problem with flavor loss isn't the gum itself but our own mouths. Part of the reason gum loses flavor, he says, is that the receptors on our tongues become saturated to the point that, after a while, we simply don't taste it anymore.

He claims that if we remove the gum we're chewing for a few minutes, take a sip of water to clear our palate, and start chewing the gum again, we'll find it has more flavor than we previously detected.

Still, over time anywhere from two to five minutes, based on my own unscientific research , our saliva absorbs both the flavoring and the sweeteners, leaving us with a flavorless wad that, unless you're a certain White House press secretary , eventually gets discarded.

Until recently, I assumed the gum I chewed was at least kind of natural. Sure, I suspected it contained a 21st-century combo of artificial colors, preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, much like the one just described. But I mistakenly thought the base itself was derived from a naturally occurring something-or-other.

For years, that was true. Until around World War II, most gum came from the sapodilla trees that grow in the rain forests of southern Mexico and Central America. Workers known as chicleros would scale them and cut zigzag patterns into the bark on their way down.

In response to the shivving, the trees would secrete a Band-Aid of sorts—that chicle I mentioned above. The connection between her field and the name of the book is simple: The Mayans loved chewing chicle.

They started gnawing on it as early as the year , to freshen their breath or work the maize out of their teeth. But they weren't the first to fall in love with chewy saps and resins. Mastic, a resinous substance produced by a tree native to southern Europe, was chewed by the ancient Greeks; the Scandinavians chewed birch sap; native North Americans gnawed on the sap of the spruce tree.