Chewing Gum first goes on sale
The 18th of October 1911 AD
Unlike tobacco , which we adopted pretty much as soon as our forebears came across it the other side of the Atlantic, chewing gum was around for half a century or more in the USA before we picked up on the idea – or rather, before Wrigley’s launched their spearmint gum in the UK in October 1911. We caught up though: Wrigley’s soon had a factory in Wembley (1927), relocating in 1970 to Plymouth ; and our per capita consumption is now second only to the Americans it seems, averaging 120 or more sticks each annually. Of which far too much ends up on the streets and under public tables, costing a pretty penny to clean, though producers are working on ways to solve this sticky problem – how about biodegradable gum anyone? CSI DNA testing to find the annoying culprits? (We made that one up).
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