Chewing Gum: Snapping and Stretching | 1

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the mid-1800s and in Maine, John Bacon Curtis is back from clearing the spruce forests with a crazy idea. He’s going to sell ready-to-chew gum.

But his bold plan is only the start of what will become a decades-long search for the ideal chew. It’s a search that will see the nascent gum business butt heads with newspaper tycoons, strike an alliance with oil refineries, and get a helping hand from the self-styled Napoleon of the West.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American innovations, add free on Amazon music, download
0:06.0	the app today.
0:15.8	Southeastern Texas, April 1836.
0:19.9	On the flat, green wetlands, 1300 Mexican troops are preparing for a final showdown.
0:26.7	For three months, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and his troops have been fighting
0:31.7	the armed insurgents who want Texas to break away from Mexico.
0:36.5	Santa Ana is the former president of Mexico and self-styled Napoleon of the West.
0:42.0	He even wears a tray corn hat, just like the legendary French emperor he idolizes.
0:47.7	But he's also a proud, patriotic man, and he's determined to drive out these American invaders.
0:53.9	And now he's got them cornered.
0:56.4	He raises his binoculars and scans the trees where General Sam Houston and his men are
1:01.4	hunkered down.
1:03.4	As he watches for movement, he choose on a wad of chicle.
1:07.6	It's a habit he picked up during a visit to the southern Mexican jungles, where the trees
1:11.7	that produce this tasteless latex grow.
1:14.8	Now he carries chicle wherever he goes.
1:18.6	He lowers his binoculars and turns to his deputy.
1:22.1	They're trapped.
1:23.1	Almost either faces or try to escape across the river behind them.
1:26.9	Ha, we'll cut them down if they try to flee.
1:29.3	They stand no chance.
1:30.6	We have twice their number.
	...

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