Innovation at Edible front

Invention: chewing gum
Inventor: Thomas Adams Sr.
Birth: 1818
Death: 1905
AT A GLANCE: After he was defeated by the Americans in Texas, Mexican General Santa Anna was exiled to New York. Like many of his countrymen, Santa Anna chewed chicle. One day he introduced it to inventor Thomas Adams, who began experimenting with it as a substitute for rubber. Adams tried to make toys, masks, and rain boots out of chicle, but every experiment failed. Sitting in his workshop one day,tired and discouraged, he popped a piece of surplus stock into his mouth. In 1870, he opened the world’s first chewing gum factory making Adams New York No. 1.



Invention: Coca-Cola in 1886

Inventor: John Stith Pemberton

Birth: July 8, 1831 in Rome, Georgia
Death: August 16, 1888 in Columbus, Georgia

AT A GLANCE: The product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola®, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink.