Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1922-04-17
FORTUNE IN
ESKIMO PIE
An Onawa Boy is the 1nven-
tor of This Popular and
Widely Sold Con-
lection.
ROYALTY $4,000 WEEK
Son of Village Confectioner
Makes Fortune in
Invention.

New York Times Royalties amount
ing to probably $4,000 Il week are
being paid the manufacturers of
'Esk imo pie" the little oblong block
of ice cream covered with chocolate.
to its inventor. G. X. Nelson, son of the
village confectionery of Onawa, Iowa,
and associates have backed him in the
marketing of product which Went
begging for almost four years. Prob.
ably no innovation of recent years
designed to meet the cravings of Il
sweet tooth has met with such inStan-
taneous success in New York, Chicago
and other cities.
The consumption of Eskimo pie
since it was placed on the market last
January has encouraged its sponsors
to believe that the gross income from
royalties may amount to $1,5OO,O0O in
the next II months. The CHOCOLATE
covered cake of ice cream is being sold
by the millions every day. and Il COM
pany has been organized by Russell
Slower. of Chicago, to issue licenses
for its manufacture.
Although the royalties represent only
small fraction of the price, at the
rate Of ) cents a dozen cakes. the total
is one of the biggest incomes ever re-
ceived from similar product. At the
present time checkers are employed in
ice cream manufacturing plants operat
ing under the Nelson license to check
the exact number of Eskimo pies
made and sold each day.
Combining Hot and Cold.
c. *. Nelson, the young man who per-
formed the seemingly impossible feat
of coating Il bar of ice cream with hot
chocolate, was brought up and cdu
Gated in the LITTLE town Of Onawa,
where his father operated an ice cream
manufacturing establishment. After
Nelson got through school his father
put him in charge of the plant, where
Ire gained Il knowledge of ice cream
manufacture. Nelson conceived the
idea of dipping ice cream in chocolate
and he worked on the plan with
varying success for several years. His
main difficulty arose from the fact
that the chocolate would not stick to
the cream. The elder Nelson turned
his ice cream plant over to another
man aud failure resulted
With little else but an idea to sell.
Nelson, set out to find capital to per-
feet his Eskimo pie scheme. He went
from town to town and met with con-
slant rebuffs. Cover ice cream with
hot chocolate! Ridiculous - said
the man before whom he laid his plan
for a new confection. Finally he reach
ed Omaha where he met Russell Slower.
then connected with the Graham Ice
Cream company of that city.
Stover recognized possibilities in
Nelson's idea. He had been superinten-
dent Of Il big chocolate factory in
Chicago and he saw Il way in which il
was possible to- supply what Nelson
lacked, namely. a method to make the
chocolate stick to the ice cream.
Success Comes ut Last.
The experiments were resumed upon
large scale, with the result that
Eskimo pie is enjoying an enormous
sale through out the middle west. and
its fame is spreading to both coasts.
The process of manufacturing
'Ekkimo pie is apparently simple.
Brick ice cream is cut into oblong bars
and dipped in chocolate which has
been heated to 10 degrees and allow
ed to cool to 30 degrees, the proper heat
for dipping. 1t would seem that hot
chocolate must cause ice cream to melt
and run before it could he placed in
hardening room. This however. is not
the case. The ice cream causes the
chocolate to harden. The bar is then
wrapped III foil and placed in Il hard
cning room where it remains until
ready to be marketed. Its inventor
says that it is possible to leave bar
exposed in a warm room FOR as long
as 80 minutes before it will melt.
Nelson and Slower. having perfected
the process of manufacturing Eskimo
pie" interested capital in its manufact-
urc and obtained money to form the
Russell Slower company with offices in
this city. Slower was made president
Nelson, vice president il, charge of
manufacture. and III. T.. Watson. Sccrc-
tary.
Held to be Sane.