Chew on this
The origins of aadaamss
By Pedram Missaghi
August 24, 1999
The Iranian
I had no idea the word "aadaamss" comes from an old American
brand name: Adams chewing gum.
The story is similar to "Kleenex", which is also commonly
used in Iran to refer to paper tissues. In the case of chewing gum, the
Adams brand was the first of its kind and thus people went on to call it
by that name. (Remember aadaamss-e khorus neshaan?).
Here's a little history of chewing gum which I found on the Net ...
: - )
The first chewing gum producer was formed in 1876 by the glass merchant
Thomas Adams (1818-1905) and his two sons. They named their firm Adams
Sons and Company.
As a result of experiments in a warehouse, Adams made chewing gum that
had chicle as an ingredient, large quantities of which had been made available
to him by General Antonio de Santa Anna of Mexico. Santa Anna, who was
in exile in Staten Island, had encouraged Adams to use the chicle to make
rubber.
Adams sold the gum with the slogan "Adams' New York Gum No. 1 --
Snapping and Stretching." The offices and factory were on Vesey Street
and later moved to Murray Street.
The firm was the nation's most prosperous chewing gum company by the
end of the century: it built a monopoly in 1899 by merging with the six
largest and best-known chewing gum manufacturers in the United States and
Canada, and achieved great success as the maker of Chiclets.
It was renamed the American Chicle Company, with headquarters on 44th
Street in Manhattan (moved in 1923 to Thomson Avenue in Long Island City,
where the firm had two factories).
During the Second World War many of the facilities were used for packing
and shipping war rations.
The firm merged with the Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company in 1962
and soon left New York; its factories in Long Island City closed in 1981.
- Send a comment for The Iranian letters
section
- Send a comment to the writer Pedram
Missaghi
