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| The Original Popcorn Machine |
By:
Dave Swegle |
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The American Popcorn Institute states that consumption of popcorn in the United States exceeds 17.3 billion quart on an annual basis. It is believed that popcorn is perhaps the oldest snack food on the face of the earth. In 1949, two Harvard graduate students discovered the remnants of the food in a cave in central New Mexico. The amazing thing about this discovery, beyond the fact that the popcorn was carbon dated and found to be about 5,600 years old, was the fact that the popcorn popped when a few kernels were dropped into some hot oil.
The food became pretty commonplace by the 1800's. The increase demand had people scrambling to find a simple way of cracking the corn shell to create the product. At first, blacksmiths would create metal cones made of iron and used a metal skewer, which fitted into the center of the apparatus. This would enable them to hold the mechanism over the fire as the corn popped. Then, people started making corn poppers out of wire baskets with wire handles covered with wood. Users would hold the basket over a fireplace flame.
Charles Cretors, a businessman and candy-maker from Decatur, Illinois, is credited with inventing the first popcorn machine; in 1885, he founded C. Cretors - Co. From his original confectionary shop, employees made candy products in the window of the store. At some point, the entrepreneur purchased a peanut roasting machine for his operations. Roasted peanuts were very popular as a snack food and it only made good business sense for Cretors to expand his business to include roasted peanuts.
At some point after buying the roaster, he realized that it was poorly designed and built. He decided that he would build a better machine to roast the popular snack. So, he created patterns for a new peanut roaster and proceeded to build the castings necessary for producing the machine, from iron and brass. He then fabricated a superior peanut roaster.
Soon after, Charles Cretors moved his business to Chicago, Illinois. He purchased a peddlers license and set the new peanut roaster up on the street in front of his new shop. He eventually teamed up with a traveling salesman and began selling the peanut roasters from his store and throughout the area. It was fairly common for vendors to use the peanut roasters for roasting coffee. Some people also used the roasters for parching corn.
During this time, most popcorn vendors were still making popcorn by popping the corn over an open flame. They would sprinkle on some salt and poured melted butter to flavor the popcorn. The final product was often dry or too soggy, which, didn't make the product very popular. As with the peanut roaster, Cretors believed that he could fashion a better way to pop popcorn.
The original popcorn machines were fashioned with long legs; however, they were small and mobile hand-pulled carts that could be effortlessly transported to the locations of customers. His invention popped the popcorn in a blend of butter oil and leaf lard. The new process created popcorn that was vastly superior to previous products.
By early 1890, Cretors built a steam-powered machine that was capable of roasting 12 pounds of peanuts and 20 pounds of coffee and bake chestnuts. The featured food was fresh popcorn. The wagon contained a small boiler, which was powered by a fuel called Naphtha. The boiler provided the energy necessary to operate the device for the popcorn popper container and the roasted peanut drum.
This new machine, called the popcorn wagon, was introduced at the Midway of Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Initially, the popcorn did not sell as well as expected. So, it was given away for free. However, in just a matter of time, the aroma of fresh-buttered popcorn, and the animated clown on the popcorn wagon, attracted hordes of people. From this point, popcorn became a major snack food that is now enjoyed around the world.About Author:Manufacturefun.com offers a wide range of possibilities for businesses, schools or concessionaires. Visit them online for more information on their popcorn machine, snow cone machines or cotton candy machines.
www.punjabitarka.com |
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