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Citation Information
How to Cite
Hendrickson, Robert. "Adams' New York Gum No. 1—Snapping and Stretching." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 18 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOAR12552>.
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Adams' New York Gum No. 1—Snapping and Stretching

Region
New York City

Definition 
The world's first modern chewing gum (previously there were gums made of spruce sap, paraffin and other substances), concocted by Thomas Adams Sr. on his Jersey City kitchen stove around 1869 and later manufactured in New York City. Adams' was the first commercial gum to be made with chicle and this milky liquid from the sapodilla tree was supplied to the inventor by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican conqueror of the Alamo, who was exiled in Staten Island at the time. Adams first tried to make a cheap rubber substitute from the chicle, as Santa Anna had urged him to do; he failed but then came up with the great gum idea. Later his company merged with eight others into the American Chicle Company.

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