Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-06

/ u
American chewing gum establishment.
A report of the department of com
merce and labor declares that the
second cleanest factory of any klnd
inspected by that department was one
where chewing gum was made.
The process by which the gum is
made is full of interest. Its basis Is
chicle gum, and this is boiled 10 the
required consistency in copper Kettles,
after which is added the navoring and
the necessary sugar to give IL sWeel-
ness 1t is then transferred 10 large
centrifugal receivers, whipped INTO
dough and then removed to taples
where Ii Is kneaGed in powdered SUGAR.
After this 1t is rolled into sheets, out
to the desired size dried wrapped py
machinery and placed in poXes ior
marketing.
Repeated attempts have been made
to mix or adulterate chicle, or to get
a substitute for it, but there seems TO
| be no substitute except spruce gum,
| about IS 600 pounds of which are gain
| cred in the woods of Maine each year.
| OF course this is mere drop IN tne
bucket compared with the amount ol
chicle brought into the United states
! from Central America. Chicle is not
incidentally valuable. but has proved
an excellent vehicle for carrying such
drugs as pepsln. A British court has
| \
! held pepsin chewing gum to be drug,
and under the English pure drug act
druggist was fined for selling some
that contained less pepsin than was
called for by the label The mastl-
cation that goes with chewing gum
produces a flow of saliva which Is
| highly beneficial in certain forms of
stomach trouble. While gum chew
| ir- has been principally an American
| habit, the people of other countries are
| becoming initiated to its delights. A
| big American manufacturer estimates
that the United States produces
enough annually to give two sticks TO
| each man, woman and child on earth.
Chicle comes to us from tropical
| America at the rate of more than
| 5000 600 pounds a year, and costs in
the raw state about $2,000,000 annually.
| The tree which bears it is to be found
| In the dense forests of the tropics.
The operation in its gathering is not
dissimilar to that of gathering maple
syrup in the United States. A chicle
gatherer has little more equipment
than the versatile machete and piece
of rope. He places the rope around his
| waist and the trunk of the tree, which
enables him to scale 1t as convenient
| ly as a telephone lineman goes up
| pole with the aid of climbers. He
makes notches In the tree into which
the sap flows. Later he comes around
and gathers 1t, securing from ten to
| fifteen pounds a day In the height of
the season. A tree may be tapped
protfably for twenty-five years. An
effort is being made by the growers
| to induce the men to work by the
week, as their ambition to make good
wages by the so-much- pound sys-
tenn has resulted In great harm to the
| trees
! yield 2O00 pounds of gum annually.
Land where they will grow sells at
from So to SIS per acre. The wood re-
sembles mahogany, and door and win
| dow frames made of 1t are still in an
excellent state of preservation in the
prehistoric ruins of Mexico. 1t is in
great demand by cabinet makers. The
tree grows to maturity in little less
than fifty years.
When the sap is gathered II has
milky appearance. which changes to
yellow when exposed to the air. 1t is
| carried to the boiling sheds, where it
is concentrated to the proper consist
| ency, then 4neaded into loaves and
made ready for export. The duty on
| it is 10 cents a pound, and was laid
only after the hardest sort of fight
when the Payne-Aldrich bill was
framed.
The story of the discovery of the
availability of chicle for chewing pur-
poses reads like a romance and in
wolves some of the leading characters
of American history. If General Sam
Houston had not banished Santa Ana
from Texas, or if the attempt to make
gum shoes from chicle had not proved
failure, the chewing gum habit as
America knows it, might not have been
acquired by our people. Back in the
forties a young man from New Jersey
went to Mexico where he made the
acquaintance Of Santa Ana. He spent
some time in that country and then
returned home. When Santa Ana was
banished from Texas, he went to New
York, looked up the young friend of
his better days and, il is said, lived
with him incognito for some time. Dur
ing his stay he suggested to his host
that the sap of a certain Mexican tree
might be made into gum overshoes.
When he returned to Mexico he sent
bale of raw. hard gum for expert
mentation. The effort to prepare the
stuff for gum shoes was failure, and
a big chunk of it was relegated to the
woodshed as useless
But the boys of the neighborhood
soon set aside the ''useless" verdict.
They began whiting off pieces of the
gum for chewing purposes. This was
a suggestion to the father and he again
got out his kettle paraphernalia. This
time he made 1t into unfiavored gum
and placed it upon the market. BY
doing so he laid the foundation of a
princely fortune. The next proposition
was to get favoring into the gum.
This was a task to which the embryo
chewing gum millionaire was not
equal, so he employed an Englishman,
who was an amateur chemist, to con-
duct a series of experiments for him.
The chemist borrowed 5000 from out
side sources and with this perfected
the original process of flavoring chicle
gum.
Some of the big factories Of today
sell their own gum to the trade. 9th
ers are simply manufacturers for the
trade and advertise to make gum in
any quantity and in sticks of any size
prepared ready for the wrapper In
this way any person who is willing to
nav for the expense of manufacture
can put a brand of his own on the
market and tempt millions to come
his way. One can buy gum at all
prices from cents package down to
cent for five sticks.
1t is said that while the aggregate
sales of chewing gum are growing be-
cause of the increase of the habit in
rural districts, the competition of the
nickelodeon and other rivals for chill
drens pin money is seriously felt in
the cities. If the practices OF the
chewing gun factory were generally
adopted it would mean ruin to the
business The operatives are pro-
hibited from chewing gum while on
duty. on the other hand, berry grow
ers furnish their pickers with gum In
order to give them a happy frame OF
mind while pursuing their work.
The advent of the chewing gum slot
machine as an automatic salesman did