Another Ohioan, Dr. Edward E. Beeman, gave the world one of the most popular kinds of chewing gum. Consumers today buy millions of dollars worth of Beeman's Pepsin Chewing Gum each year. Dr. Beeman was selling bottles of powdered pepsin, which people took to aid to digestion. Pepsin is an enzyme found naturally in the stomach that breaks down proteins. Nellie Horton, Dr. Beeman's bookkeeper, suggested that he put the pepsin into gum "since so many people buy pepsin for digestion and gum for no reason at all." He blended his pepsin compound with chicle, a natural substance obtained from the sapodilla tree, which is used in chewing gum. He sold the gum in a wrapper that showed the picture of a pig and carried the slogan, "With Pepsin, You Can Eat Like A Pig." The gum sold even better after a businessman bought the company and replaced the pig with a wrapper showing Dr. Beeman's kindly bearded face.



Who Dunnit? Who Really Dunnit?

Who "invented" chewing gum? Does Ohioan William F. Semple really deserve the credit? Or should credit go to other individuals – maybe John B. Curtis who in 1848 sold the first commercial chewing gum in the United States. It was made from tree sap and called "State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum." What about Thomas Adams, who in 1871 patented the chewing gum that people now spend about $2 billion a year on. Adams’ recipe also used chicle, along with sugar and sassafras flavoring. Chicle gave gum the right chewing properties, and eliminated the harsh taste and unpleasant texture in Semple's gum. His Chiclets, those little chunks of gum with a hard sugar coating, are still best-sellers. Adams also invented the first machine for mass producing gum.

People had been chewing gum for thousands of years before inventors like William F. Semple, John B. Curtis, or Thomas Adams lived. The ancient Greeks munched on chewed mastic gum, or mastiche, (pronounced "mas-tee-ka"). They made it with sticky resin obtained from the bark of the mastic plant, a shrub-like tree. The ancient Maya chewed sapodilla tree sap – the same chicle used in modern chewing gum. Humans probably always have had the urge to chew to keep their mouths moist when no water was available, or, psychologists think, because it brings back memories of nursing when they were infants.

Ohio can claim credit for an invention with global impact because Semple got the first patent on chewing gum. It was U. S. patent 93,304, issued on December 28, 1869. A patent is a document, granted by the government, which gives the inventor right -- for a limited period -- to stop others from making, using, or selling the invention without the inventor’s permission. Patents cover products or processes that work in new ways or have new features. They involve how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of, and how they are made.

A patent officially makes an invention the inventor's property. Like any other kind of property, the inventor can sell the patent to someone else or "rent" it. Renting out a patent is called "licensing" it. The owner charges a fee – a royalty – for others to use the patent so they can make and sell a product.

Remember that a patent doesn’t automatically stop others from using the invention. It just gives an inventor the right to sue others who do, in a so-called "patent infringement" suit.

Semple's patent became a milestone in chewing gum history, an official record of his role. Because it was the first for chewing gum, the patent makes it convenient for people to identify Semple as chewing gum’s inventor. We don’t know if other chewing gum pioneers ever paid Semple royalties to use ideas in U. S. Patent 93,304.

Inventors often tweak the technology in an existing patent, making changes and improvements that allow them to get their own patent. The huge majority of new patents granted each year are for small improvements in existing technology. In science and technology, the wheels of progress turn a fraction of an inch at a time, and innovation usually is evolution rather than revolution.

Fun Factoids About Chewing Gum