Bubble Gum

Have you ever wondered who invented bubble gum, or why it's pink? How do you go about getting the answers to these questions? Easy. Think way, way back, not to prehistoric times but close, 1928.

Popular With Children, Unpopular with Parents and Teachers. The first known bubble gum appeared in 1906, and was a dud. Known as Blibber Blubber, it was sticky, brittle, and insufficiently cohesive.

In 1928, an accountant, Walter Diemer, invented an improved version of bubble gum. The only food coloring he had on hand was pink, so for many years, pink was the common color of bubble gums. Diemer arranged to market the bubble gum in Philadelphia candy stores and the product became wildly popular with children. Fleer Company purchased the recipe, and named the product Dubble Bubble.

By World War II, the sales of bubble gum in the United States reached about $4.5 million annually. The war caused a shortage of Siamese jelutong, a latex secreted by the jelutong tree. The domestic production of bubble gums needed to be curtailed, but production resumed in the post-war years and surged to new heights. By 2000, children in North America spent about a half billion dollars annually on bubble gums, and used some 40 million pieces daily.

Bubble gum made the Guinness Book of World Records, with the largest bubble ever made measuring 22 inches in diameter. The greater the molecular weight of the gum, the stronger is the film, and the larger the bubble that can be blown. On the other hand, increasing the molecular weight or size also tends to make the gum more difficult to chew. A technical breakthrough in 1999 allowed manufacturers to create uniquely textured bubble gum by using soft candy or toffee manufacturing equipment. The resulting bubble gum is similar to chewy candy, but lacking the stickiness.

In the late 1970s, popular interactive candies for children were Pop Rocks and Space Dust. As children chewed these candies, tiny bubbles of pressurized carbon dioxide popped and fizzled, and resonated thunderously in the inner ear in a series of explosions that took place in the mouth. As described by children "it sounds like a storm in your mouth. If you swallow them fast, they crackle all the way down."

Later, General Foods rejuvenated its carbonated-candy technology and created carbonated bubble gum. This product also provided the crackling sensation of the original Pop Rocks and Space Dust. After the popping subsided, the product left a chewable pink, orange, or yellow bubble gum.

Novelty bubble gums abound. Some are produced in sticks, sheets, cubes, chubs, chunks, pellets, and tape dispensers with six feet of bubble gum tape. Others are packed in plastic tubes, and the bubble gum is squeezed out like toothpaste. Researchers have noted that children love to squeeze anything from tubes. Some tubes, made with eye-catching neon colors, have plastic ropes so that children can hang the tubes around their necks, and squeeze out luminous pink or green gum. One green bubble gum is shredded and looks like spinach. Appropriately, it is called Popeye. Other unusual bubble gums are Ectoplazm Tube Gum, Ouch Gum that looks like band aids, bubble tape in a role similar to a measuring tape, Slimer Tube Gum, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Giggle Gum, and pouring bubble gum with Candy Giggle Burst, Gibbl'in Silly Strawberry, and Tropical Tickle.

The popular baseball trading cards may be accompanied by bubble gum pouches, which serve as packaging for the gum, and later, to hold the trading cards. Other bubble gum packaging consists of a metal tin that looks like a miniature school locker, complete with graffiti.

In recent years, intensely flavored products, including bubble gums, have been marketed for children. According to a food trade journal, tapes with extreme flavors "are challenging kids with 'how much can you handle?'... So these little thrill seekers will love the six feet of bubble gum tape" with intense flavor: extreme sour lemon-lime; extreme freeze cherry, extreme sweet cotton candy, and extreme fruit raspberry.

In the early 1980s, gum-like tobacco