Search results
John B. Curtis. John Bacon Curtis (October 10, 1827 - June 13, 1897) was an American businessman and inventor. He was the first commercial gum producer. Curtis came up with how to use spruce gum and sell it like chewing gum. In the mid-1800s, John B. Curtis and his father experimented with the first manufacture of chewing gum sticks.
John B. Curtis (1827-1897) John Bacon Curtis was the one who started it all – he ushered in the world of chewing gum, bringing the nation a new pastime and treat. In the process, he ignited many other firsts, most so commonplace we forget anyone could be first to do them. Curtis was born in Hampden Maine in 1827.
- Early Life
- Mid-Life
- Later Life
- Personal
Curtis, son of John Curtis and Mary Brown (Bacon) Curtis, was born in Hampden, Maine, on October 10, 1827. His siblings were Charles H. and Mary E. Curtis. He attended normal schools while growing up. He never graduated, but worked instead for the family as a teenager to earn a living. Curtis worked as a farmhand and a swamper clearing roads throug...
While he worked, Curtis noticed loggers chewing spruce resin. He thought it could be a commercial product and went about gathering up spruce resin. He boiled it, skimmed it off, poured it, cooled it, rolled it, cut it up into small pieces, dusted the pieces with cornstarch and wrapped them individually. In 1848, Curtis sold two of these pieces for ...
In 1872, Curtis went into the dredging business. He worked on jobs that ranged from $50,000 (equivalent to $1,220,000 in 2022) to $500,000 (equivalent to $12,930,000 in 2022). Curtis was successful at this business as well. He later opened a shipyard and built ten large ships. He also owned the controlling interest in the ferry between Portland and...
Curtis married Alice Charlotte Bacon of Rockton, Illinois, there on August 13, 1878. That year, Curtis bought the largest and most expensive house in Deering Center, Maine. During the last months of his life, he took an interest in ancient Egypt and the pyramids. His creed was "do good." Curtis died at his home on June 13, 1897. In his will he bequ...
People also ask
Who was John Bacon Curtis?
How many employees did John Bacon Curtis have?
What did John Curtis do for a living?
What did William Curtis do in 1850?
Feb 13, 2015 · In the late 1840s, John Curtis developed the first commercial spruce tree gum by boiling resin, then cutting it into strips that were coated in cornstarch to prevent them from sticking together.
- Elizabeth Nix
- 1 min
Mar 1, 2015 · 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.
Nov 14, 2023 · In the United States, European settlers picked up the habit of chewing spruce from Native Americans as far back as the 1600s. But it wasn't until 1848 that a New Englander named John B. Curtis started selling it commercially. His Maine Pure Spruce Gum, and its natural spruce taste, became enormously popular.
Chewing Gum: First Gum Made to be Sold. While early Greeks and Mayans found various substances to chew on, it was Native Americans chewing on resin from spruce trees that inspired John Curtis (1827-1897) to create the first chewing gum that was sold commercially.
