Love it or hate it, the sight of gum being chewed, stretched and snapped is a worldwide phenomenon. New Yorker Thomas Adams (1818-1905) is regarded as the father of chewing gum - though he wasn't its inventor.

The ancient Greeks chewed gum from resin, as did North American Indians. Early American settlers combined it with beeswax to make gum. And the ancient Mayans chewed "chicle" from the sapodilla tree. Chicle formed the basis of Adam's "Tutti-Frutti", the world's first mass-produced chewing gum. It was an improvement on the "penny gum" then for sale - a mix of paraffin was and beeswax.

A businessman and inventor, Adams first tried, unsuccessfully, to sell glass and then photographs. He was looking for a business idea when he met the exiled former president of Mexico, Antonio de Lopez de Santa Anna, in the mid-1860s. Santa Anna, who had a large supply of chicle, suggested Adams try turning it into synthetic rubber products. This did not work, however. Frustrated, Adams decided to throw him chicle into the East River. But before he did this, he saw a girl selling penny gum, reminding him of chicle's original use. So he put a piece in his mouth - and it tasted good. That same year, 1869, he patented Tutti-Frutti, building a factory in 1871 to produce it. His advertising slogan was "Adams New York Gum No. 1 - snapping and stretching". In 1881, Adams introduced the first chewing gum vending machines. By 1889, his company, Adams & Sons, had built up a monopoly, after taking over the six biggest chewing-gum producers in the US and Canada. From then on, the firm produced Chiclets chewing gum, still produced today, by Cadbury Adams.