Celebrating Bubble Gum Day the first Friday of February every year doesn’t burst many people’s bubble. It’s a fun way to chew your favorite flavor of bubble gum, blow some spectacular bubbles and raise money, too.
- Long before any substantial chewing gum formed bubbles, ancient human beings chewed bits of resin from trees. All around the world, people collected substances from the available trees and used them for dental care and general enjoyment.
- It wasn’t until 1928 after decades of failure by those before him, and several of his own, that Walter Diemer created the first bubble producing gum. His employer, the Fleer Chewing Gum Company, marketed it as “Dubble Bubble”.
- Kids in North America spend approximately half a billion dollars on bubble gum every year.
- 100,000 tons of bubble gum is chewed every year all around the world
- Sixty to 70 percent of bubble gum is sugar.
- The average American chews around 300 sticks of gum in one year.
- Another cool fact is that if your popped bubble gets stuck in your hair, you can remove it by rubbing the piece stuck with peanut butter.
- The color of the first successful bubble gum was pink, because it was the only color that was left with the inventor.
- The first bubble gum ever marketed was done so under the name “Blibber-Blubber”.
- Blibber-Blubber, a failed attempt at bubble gum, was invented in 1906 but deemed too sticky to sell.
- Turkey is the country with the most gum companies; the United States is second.
- During WWII, U.S. military personnel spread the popularity of chewing gum by trading it and giving it as gifts to people in Europe, Africa, Asia and around the world.
- Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from crying.
- Singapore has tried to completely forbid gum, with heavy fines of over $6,000 for possession or use without a prescription.
- Studies have shown that chewing gum actually helps people concentrate and may improve long-term and working memory. Chewing gum has also been shown to reduce muscle tension and increase alertness.
- Chewing gum burns around 11 calories per hour.
- In the U.S. alone, the total amount of chewing gum sold in one year would make a stick 3.5 million miles long. That’s long enough to reach the moon and back seven times or to circle the earth’s equator 150 times.
- Cinnamon, spearmint and peppermint are among the most popular flavors of chewing gum today.
- In 1869, doctor William F. Semple designed and patented a chewing gum from rubber he claimed could help with tooth decay and strengthen your jaw. The ingredients in his gum included powdered licorice and charcoal
- In 1848, John Curtis of Maine was the first to widely commercialize chewing gum, being ahead of his time. He developed a machine to mass-produce it and started up a factory that produced eighteen hundred boxes a day. However, this gum needed to be dipped in powdered sugar to stay sweet.
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