BookZealots

Chewing gum was made by Thomas Adam, who was introduced to chewing chicles by General Santa Anna. Adam experimented on it and tried making rain boots, masks and toys from chicle but failed. Tired and discouraged, Adam popped a small piece of his surplus chicle into his mouth and finally came up with the idea of the first chewing gum, opening a factory in 1870. Adam patented the gum-making process on February 14, 1871. He created the first flavored chewing gum called the "Black Jack" in 1880.

Added information you might find interesting:
The American Chicle Company was renamed Adams in 1997. Warner-Lambert was acquired by Pfizer in 2000 for $90.2 billion. After a two-year ban on selling the company's gum assets, Cadbury Schweppes purchased Adams in 2002 for $4.9 billion. Kraft Foods purchased Cadbury in 2010 for $19.6 billion. When Kraft split into two companies in 2012, the Adams gum unit remained under Mondelez International. Chiclets chewing gum was discontinued in 2016, but returned to production 2019.

By 2018, Mondelez sold off the Black Jack, Beemans, and Clove brands.[36] It then sold the remainder of its United States, Canada, and European gum assets to Perfetti Van Melle in 2023.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chicle_Company

Do you chew gum? And what's you're favorite?

7 hours ago |[YT] | 1

BookZealots

Have you heard of Emily Dickinson?

Born Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Largely unpublished and unknown during her lifetime, her work is now widely regarded as canonical. The Poetry Foundation describes her as having "created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized."

Here's a link for books she read:
www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/emily-dickinson/biogr…

7 hours ago (edited) |[YT] | 3

BookZealots

In the nineteenth century there were few labor laws and even fewer laws to protect consumers from shady business practices. The average work week was 60 hours (10 hours a day, six days a week, with Sundays off). Example salaries
• Masons earned 22.5 cents an hour ($13.50 a week, or $700 per year)
• Blacksmiths made 18 cents an hour ($10.80 a week, or $560 per year)
• Laborers made about 10 cents an hour ($6 a week, or $300 per year)
• Privates in the Union army earned $11 a week, or $572 per year.
• Farmhands: 8 cents an hour ($4.80 a week, or $250 per year).
• Slaves: $0
saradonati.com/wiki/wiki/cost-of-living-19th-centu…

1 day ago |[YT] | 4

BookZealots

Edward Lytton Wheeler (1854/5 – 1885) was a nineteenth century American writer of dime novels. One of his most famous characters is the Wild West rascal Deadwood Dick. His stories of the west mixed fictional characters with real-life personalities of the era, including Calamity Jane and Sitting Bull.

Do these books satisfy June on the Range?

1 day ago |[YT] | 3

BookZealots

Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965)
Known for her ICONIC photo of a woman and her two girls during the great depression.
www.britannica.com/biography/Dorothea-Lange

Want to read her work for Manifest Destiny? She counts, even though most of her work was long after the time period. It's a gray area, but she lived during the time period.

Are you familiar with her iconic photo?

2 days ago |[YT] | 3

BookZealots

Folgers Coffee (Founded in 1850): Established in San Francisco by James A. Folger, this brand grew explicitly to serve the rugged boomtowns and mining camps of the Gold Rush. It quickly became a staple for western travelers who demanded easily transportable, high-quality coffee.

Are you a coffee drinker?

3 days ago |[YT] | 6

BookZealots

Life on the Mississippi pdf
archive.org/details/lifeonmississipp00twa/page/n5/…

I just found this, so I don't know if it's free or how it works, but it's audio:
bdebooks.com/en/books/life-on-the-mississippi-by-m…

3 days ago |[YT] | 3

BookZealots

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain.

He was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He has been praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced" with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature". Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel". He also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and cowrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Which Twain books have you read and which one was your favorite?
Mine was Life on the Mississippi. I'll post a link to an online copy.

3 days ago |[YT] | 4

BookZealots

Condensed Milk & Canning: Gail Borden invented a reliable method for condensing and canning milk in 1856. The Inspiration: Borden was motivated to create a safe, shelf-stable dairy product after witnessing children and passengers fall ill and die from contaminated milk on a ship returning from London in 1851. Commercial Growth: He partnered with Jeremiah Milbank to form the New York Condensed Milk Company (later known as the Borden Company), which saw massive demand after supplying the Union Army during the American Civil War. www.bordendairy.com/our-story

Who likes fudge?

4 days ago |[YT] | 3

BookZealots

Manifest Destiny female author -

Born in Washington, DC in 1819, she was christened Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte.

E.D.E.N. Southworth (1819-1899) was the author of more than 60 novels and was the most widely read American novelist of last half of the 19th century. She invariably signed herself Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth, though she began writing in 1844 to support herself and her children after Mr. Southworth deserted her four years into their marriage.
I have two of her books I still need to read.


Have you heard of her?

4 days ago |[YT] | 3