Reports
I/EC
Chewing gum provides volume chemicals market . . . . Sulfur delivered in all kinds of weather—undersea . . . . A manual literature search system . . . . Graphite fibers from rayon
Gum, Chum? . . . Don't Be Blue, Chew! C h e w i n g g u m is 3 3 5 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 - p o u n d m a r k e t for w i d e r a n g e of synthetics, n a t u r a l products, p a c k a g i n g VUUM chewing is big business today. Last year about $306,000,000 was spent on gum at the retail level in the U. S. This is a 250,000,000pound cud—equivalent to 36,000,000 sticks, enough laid end to end to reach, unstretched, over 1,500,000 miles, far enough to follow the moon in its orbit around this old earth. This adds up to 200 sticks for each man, woman, and child in the country, plus 50 sticks for each dog, statistically speaking. Some 8 5 % of domestic chewing gum business ($143,000,000 out of $168,000,000 at factory selling price) is done by the big three of the industry. Trade sources estimate Wrigley has about 42% of the market; American Chicle, 2 7 % ; Beechnut, 16%. This output is termed "adult gum"—mostly sticks, with a small proportion of candy-tablets—as opposed to "juvenile gum" (bubble gum), which amounts to some 1 1 % of the market. Ball gum accounts for another 3 % . Specialty gums make up the remaining 1%. Started in Mexico
The big chew began nearly a century ago when Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, deposed dictator of Mexico, was hiding out
in Staten Island. Always the shrewd operator, Santa Anna had sacrificed personal belongings on his hegira north to pack some 500 pounds of the dark dirty flakes of dried sap of the sapodilla tree, indigenous to the Yucatan jungles. With crude rubber selling for $1 pound, and dried sapodilla latex for 5 cents, Santa Anna foresaw the chance to replace hevca rubber, if some bright "Yanqui" could only make rubber out of his inexpensive substitute. With the profits he hoped to re-equip an army and again take over the Mexican government. He got in touch with Thomas Adams, photographer and jack-ofall-trades, who called himself an inventor as well. Experimenting, like Goodyear a quarter century before, on his kitchen stove, Adams couldn't get useful rubbery properties from the sap. Santa Anna suddenly skipped out, taking advantage of a political amnesty in Mexico, and left Adams holding the bag of sap. Having watched Santa Anna chew the stuff, Adams got the idea of purifying the dried chicle and marketing it as a substitute for chewing wax, popular among the small fry of that day. First sold to a phar-
Wrigley's packaging line 30 A
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
macist in Hoboken, N. J., these tasteless gum balls sold fabulously. Adams began to try to improve his product. Shredding licorice into the puttylike mass, he made the oldest flavored gum still on the market, "Black Jack." Bubble Trouble
Others began to get into the act, and in 1906 the first bubble gum appeared—"Blibber-Blubber. ' ' Unfortunately its bubbles were wet and sticky, and when they popped —you'd had it. (In 1928 a "dry" bubble gum, made with synthetic base, was developed.) Major problem in the early days was lack of taste:—the chicle wouldn't absorb flavors. But a Cleveland popcorn salesman, William J. White, found that corn sirup would take up flavorings and blend easily with the chicle. Settling on peppermint, White made and lost several fortunes, and in the process organized a gum monopoly (American Chicle Co.). White later died in an accident. The last big gum tycoon, William Wrigley, Jr., was originally a salesman for his father's soap company. By spectacular promotion a half century ago and bysettling on a spear-
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Analysis Interpretation
I/EC
mint flavor he h a d introduced (spearmint had been shunned because the odor—from early flavoring methods —was so strong that a single box in the display case would smell u p a whole store), y o u n g Wrigley's firm soon became the giant of the chewing-gum business. At one time it claimed 6 0 % of the m a r k e t ; it's still in first place. Big Chemical Market
Typically, m o d e r n chewing g u m is m a d e u p of three p a r t s : 6 0 % sugar, 2 0 % corn sirup, a n d 2 0 % base. Considering total g u m production, this a m o u n t s to notable markets for chemical a n d food suppliers. Offhand, it represents a b o u t 150,000,000 pounds of sugar a n d 50,000,000 pounds of corn sirup. T h e base c o m p o u n d averages a b o u t 20,000,000 pounds of natural materials (Central American sapodilla, with other gums a n d resins from tropical South America and the Far East) plus 6,000,000 pounds of chalk (foodgrade CaC03) and 24,000,000 pounds of synthetic r u b b e r (butyl a n d SBR) and resins [chiefly poly-1
Equipment used for blending and mixing chewing gum ingredients
(vinyl acetate)], microcrystalline waxes, a n d glycerides (to control moisture). Glyceride content runs a b o u t 3,000,000 pounds, a n d flavorings 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 p o u n d s . Another factor is the 85,000,000 pounds of wrappings—foil, paper, cellulose or plastic film, c a r d b o a r d , Sand corrugated stock—required for
Making Chewing Gum
First, the gum-base materials are ground a n d spread on trays. After excess moisture is removed by currents of w a r m air, the materials are melted, purified, sterilized, a n d filtered. T h e g u m base, which looks m u c h like thick m a p l e sirup, is poured into 2000-pound mixers, where powdered sugar, corn sirup, a n d flavor are added. W h e n blending is completed, the doughlike mixture passes d o w n a chute to cooling belts t h a t move it slowly t h r o u g h currents of cool air to the kneading machines, which bring out added fineness of texture. Next the g u m moves to the rolling machines. T h e first rollers press it into a flowing ribbon 18 inches wide a n d a b o u t 2 inches thick. O t h e r rollers press it a n d d r a w it out to the thickness of sticks of g u m . I n cutting machines the g u m is cut into 18-inch square sheets, each scored in a p a t t e r n of single sticks. After receiving a light coating of powdered sugar, which prevents sticking together a n d enhances the flavor, scored sheets go to seasoning rooms. Seasoning at carefully controlled t e m p e r a t u r e and humidity gives the finished chewing g u m good keeping quality r . T h e final stage is packaging in specially air-conditioned rooms. I n one continuous process, each w r a p p i n g m a c h i n e makes complete 5-stick packages. It joins together the metal foil, wax paper, a n d cellophane, puts wrappers on the g u m , adds the h a n d y opener-tape, a n d seals the ends of each package. T h e n five-stick packages are assembled a n d automatically packed in 20-package boxes. T h e boxed g u m moves on conveyor belts for final check, each box is w r a p p e d in cellophane, and finally the boxes are packed in corrugated-board shipping cases.
last year's g u m o u t p u t . This represents reputable a m o u n t s of pulp, sizings, resins, adhesives, even pigments. As m a n y as 19 elements of w r a p p i n g material go into each five-stick pack. Chewing g u m sales in this country rose only 2 . 5 % last year over 1957, b u t this was a b o u t 5 0 % higher than population growth. T h e outlook continues bright, b u t some m a n ufacturers, feeling the squeeze of inflation, would like to see the end of the 5-cent pack. Higher priced specialties like sugarless dietetic g u m (normally g u m releases a b o u t 9 calories per stick) are spearheading this attack on the sanctity of the nickel. T h e U . S. leads in per capita g u m consumption, having doubled its "chewsiness" between 1930 and 1950. T h e market had reached 100 sticks per capita in 1939, considered then to be a saturation level. But during the w a r G I ' s chewed a n unbelievable 620 sticks per m a n per year. No longer incredulous, the g u m makers are aiming now at a n eventual peacetime high of 500 sticks. As stresses a n d strains of modern life take their toll, m e n and w o m e n tend to chew more g u m to relieve boredom or loneliness, tension, frustrations, anger, and irritations. T h e " p o o r m a n ' s tranquillizer" has a big j o b cut out for itself. D.G.W. VOL. 51, NO. 6 ·
JUNE 1959
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