Hey everyone! A question for you: how often do you chew a bubble gum? Every day, several times a day? Or it became an everyday routine that you never care about it. However, did you ever wonder who the inventor of first chewing gum was? How it was invented? How long do we use this “sweet-and-need”? Then it’s time to know more about it, because on September, 23 the first chewing gum was invented. It was 165 years ago. Quite fine for the invention that is thought to be modern.

Actually, many ancient cultures such as Greeks, Mayans, Aztecs and Indians are believed to use various substances for instant chewing. Mastic gum, made from the homonymous tree, beeswax, chicle, grasses, sap from spruce trees and many other were used as ancestors of modern chewing gum. Or more briefly, chewing substances have a long history. One of the oldest found chewing gums was 5,000 years old.

The modern history of chewing gum is tightly related to the name of John Bacon Curtis, an American businessman. He made the first commercial chewing gum and sold it in year 1848 under the name of the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. John Curtis with the help of his father made first spruce chewing gum over the kitchen stove in his wife’s pot. Then he started the commercial production of his creation by founding a new business called “Curtis & Son” at Portland, Maine. This invention made him famous and wealthy.

Chewing gum after its invention in 1848 became incredibly popular. Chewing gum flavors vary from classic mint to the watermelon, strawberry, and ice flavors. Sugar free and nicotine substitute chewing gums were introduced. There are a lot of chewing gum brands such as Wrigley, Cadbury, Hershey, Perfetti Van Melle, Kent and many others. The names of Dirol, Eclipse, Dubble Bubble, Juicy Fruit, Hubba Bubba, Turbo, Love is have long been one of the most popular foods for hygienic purposes as well as the symbols of mass culture. Attractive American, European, Russian girls chew gum to look free, cool and sexy. However, the impact of environmental pollution in cities and towns is also very serious. You can see gum everywhere – on trails, on streets, on shoes, under tables, on sidewalks and so on. Today gum is considered to be one of the largest polluting world problems because of removal difficulty and non-breaking down. It is so-called gumfitti (similar to graffiti) problem. San Luis Obispo, California, is known by Bubblegum Alley, a local tourist attraction. It is 70-foot long and 15-foot high – a quite good example of utilizing waste gum products!