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The American Chicle Company was a chewing gum trust founded by Thomas Adams, Jr., with Edward E. Beeman and Jonathan Primle.
Thomas Adams (May 4, 1818 – February 7, 1905) was a 19th-century American scientist and
The company was incorporated in
The American Chicle Company was a chewing gum trust founded by Thomas Adams, Jr., with Edward E. Beeman and Jonathan Primle.
Thomas Adams
Thomas Adams (May 4, 1818 – February 7, 1905) was a 19th-century American scientist and inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...
who is regarded as a founder of the chewing gum
Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/ plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its ...
industry. Adams conceived the idea while working as a secretary to former Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),Callcott, Wilfred H., "Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez De,''Handbook of Texas Online'' Retrieved 18 April 2017. usually known as Santa Ann ...
, who chewed a natural gum called chicle
Chicle () is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus ''Manilkara'', including '' M. zapota'', '' M. chicle'', '' M. staminodella'', and '' ...
. Adams first tried to formulate the gum into a rubber which was suitable for making tire
A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...
s. When that didn't work, he turned the chicle into a chewing gum called New York Chewing Gum.
In 1870, Adams created the first flavored gum, black licorice, which he named Black Jack. In 1871, Adams patented the first chewing gum making machine. In 1888, his gum was the first to be sold in vending machines.
Company history
The company was incorporated in Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.preferred stock
Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt in ...
and 6% with cumulative dividends. The business was composed of the chewing gum concerns in Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, beh ...
(Adams Sons & Company); Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
(W. J. White & Sons); Chicago (J. P. Primley); Louisville, Kentucky (Kis-Me Gum Company);
and Toronto (S. T. Britten & Co.). The corporation operated factories and gum forests in Yucatan.
On January 8, 1920, Dr. Don Ricardo Moreira, of San Salvador of the Coldwell & Moreira firm, registered American Chicle Co. trademarks in El Salvador.
American Chicle utilized Dancer Fitzgerald Sample in 1950 to promote its products via radio, newspapers, and television.''Advertising News and Notes'', ''The New York Times'', July 25, 1950, pg. 42. American Chicle was acquired by the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert in 1962; Warner-Lambert was acquired by Pfizer in 2000.
The American Chicle Company was renamed Adams in 1997; Cadbury
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational corporation, multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods Inc, Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest ...
purchased Pfizer's candy brands in 2003. Kraft Foods (now Mondelez International
Mondelez International, Inc. ( ), often styled Mondelēz, is an American multinational confectionery, food, holding and beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual revenue of about $26 billion and operates in ...
) purchased Cadbury in 2010. Many of American Chicle's brands are out of production. Its best known product was probably Chiclets
Chiclets is an American brand of candy-coated chewing gum manufactured by Mondelez International. The brand was introduced in 1900 by the American Chicle Company, a company founded by Thomas Adams.
History
The Chiclets name is derived from t ...
chewing gum which was discontinued in the early 2000s.
See also
* American Chicle Company Building, New Orleans *Charles Ranlett Flint
Charles Ranlett Flint (January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934) was the founder of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which later became IBM. For his financial dealings, he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts". He was an avid sportsman a ...
References
External links
* — ''(not yet digitized) {{Authority control Chewing gum Confectionery companies of the United States Companies based in Trenton, New Jersey American companies established in 1899 Food and drink companies established in 1899 1899 establishments in New Jersey Cadbury Adams brands Mondelez International brands History of Queens, New York Historic American Engineering Record in New York (state) 1962 mergers and acquisitions