Blibber-Blubber was the first
bubble gum
Bubble gum or bubblegum is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble.
Bubble gum flavor
While there is a bubble gum "flavor" – which various artificial flavorings including esters are mixed to obtain – it ...
formulation, developed in 1906 by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
confectioner
Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...
Frank H. Fleer.
The gum was brittle and sticky, with it containing little cohesion; for these reasons, the gum was never marketed. It also required vigorous rubbing with a
solvent
A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
to remove from the face after the bubble had burst.
Subsequent developments
In 1928, after a number of unsuccessful tests using various formulas,
Walter Diemer
Walter E. Diemer (January 8, 1904 – January 8, 1998) was an American accountant who, in 1928, invented bubble gum.
Life
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Diemer was working as an accountant at Fleer in 1926 when the company pre ...
, an accountant at the
Frank H. Fleer Company, improved the Blibber-Blubber formulation by adding
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
. As stated in a 1996
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal interview by Mr. Diemer, the results of one experiment that would lead to the common chewing gum today were completely accidental. The result was the first commercially successful bubble gum brand,
Dubble Bubble
Dubble Bubble is an American brand of fruit-flavoured, usually pink-colored, bubble gum invented by Walter Diemer, an accountant at Philadelphia-based Fleer Chewing Gum Company in 1928. One of Diemer’s hobbies was concocting recipes for chewi ...
. Diemer colored his creation pink because it was the only
food coloring
Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food ...
he had at the time. The pink color came to be associated with bubble gum and was adopted by nearly all subsequent bubble gum manufacturers.
The improvement in physical properties due to latex's introduction facilitated significant growth in the bubble gum market, which is nowadays produced by many different brands and in a diverse range of colors and flavors around the world.
See also
*
1906 in the United States
*
List of chewing gum brands
This is a list of chewing gum brands in the world. Chewing gum is a type of gum made for chewing, and dates back at least 5,000 years. Modern chewing gum was originally made of chicle, a natural latex. By the 1960s, chicle was replaced by butadi ...
References
Chewing gum
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