Chewing+gum

The invention of chewing gum
The first chewing gum was made from 'chicle'. 'Chicle' is the sap from the Sapodilla tree which grows wild in Central American rainforests.

The gum was 'discovered' by a boy called Horatio (Hor-ay-shee-o) Adams in 1869. His father, Thomas Adams, was trying to make a new kind of rubber with 'chicle' and Horatio started chewing it because he was bored. Thomas Adams added licorice to flavour the chicle and then sold it in shops.

Getting the ingredients for chewing gum
It is not easy to get 'chicle' from the wild. There is danger from wild animals that live in the rainforest, and people often get sick in the hot and sticky weather. It is also dangerous to climb trees that are 20 metre high to get the sap.

Today most chewing gum is made from synthetic ingredients using the same kind of rubber that is used in tubeless tyres. Nowadays there are many flavours of chewing gum: lemon, strawberry, tutti-frutti, banana, mint and spearmint and many others.

**Chewing gum is made in factories.**
The gum base is heated up to 115° and melted. Then they add sweeteners, colours and flavours and mix them together. After that the gum is pushed through rollers to flatten it and machines make it into the right shape. The mixture goes through a refrigerator to cool and harden it, and then it is put on racks for three days to set firm.

Chewing gum pellets are put in a tumbling machine to rub off any sharp edges, and then they are tossed in a machine which adds a sugar or sugar-free coating. They are polished with wax to make them look shiny.

Finally the chewing gum is put into packets by a machine. The machine counts how many pellets go in each packet, wraps them up and seals the packet so that the gum stays clean. The packets are put into boxes, ready for sale. Another machine puts the boxes into cartons

Trucks take the cartons to warehouses. Supermarkets and shops buy the chewing gum from the warehouse.

For more information, try this site: [|Wrigley]

Source: [] and Chewing Gum, by Natalie Jane Prior, Hodder Children's Books, Sydney, Australia 2000.