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Off Topic / The Chewing Gum Megathread
« on: December 15, 2013, 04:27:13 PM »What is this chewing gum thing that these kids put in their mouths while they're loving around on my lawn?
source: wikipedia
Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance intended for chewing but not swallowing. Humans have used chewing gum for at least 5,000 years. Modern chewing gum was originally made of chicle, a natural latex. By the 1960s, chicle was replaced by butadiene-based synthetic rubber which is cheaper to manufacture. Most chewing gums are considered polymers.
Chewing gum in various forms has existed since the Neolithic period. 5,000-year-old chewing gum made from bark tar, with tooth imprints, has been found in Kierikki, Yli-Ii, Finland. The tar from which the gums were made is believed to have antiseptic properties and other medicinal advantages. The ancient Aztecs used chicle as a base for making a gum-like substance and to stick objects together in everyday use.Women in particular used this type of gum as a mouth freshener.
Forms of chewing gums were also used in Ancient Greece. The Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the resin of the mastic tree. Many other cultures have chewed gum-like substances made from plants, grasses, and resins. The American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees. The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in 1848, John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum called The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. Around 1850 a gum made from paraffin wax was developed and soon exceeded the spruce gum in popularity. William Semple filed an early patent on chewing gum, patent number 98,304, on December 28, 1869.
Modern chewing gum was first developed in the 1860s when chicle was brought from Mexico by the former President, General Antionio Lopez de Santa Anna, to New York, where he gave it to Thomas Adams for use as a rubber substitute. Chicle did not succeed as a replacement for rubber, but as a gum, which was cut into strips and marketed as Adams New York Chewing Gum in 1871. Black Jack (1884) and “Chiclets” (1899), it soon dominated the market. Synthetic gums were first introduced to the U.S. after chicle no longer satisfied the needs of making good chewing gum. The hydrocarbon polymers approved to be in chewing gum are styrene-butadiene rubber, isobutylene, isoprene copolymer, paraffin wax, and petroleum wax.
How can this help you?
Sugar-free gum with xylitol has been shown to reduce cavities and plaque. Also, when you chew gum after colon surgery, you will recover faster. If you chew gum for fifteen minutes for at least four times per day, it will speed up your recovery by a day and a half faster.
What happens when you swallow chewing gum?
When you swallow gum, it'll just past through your system as fast as any food. Though, there were some cases when swallowing gum can result in complications requiring medical attention. One of the most famous cases, happening in 1998 was when a boy 4 years old, had a 2 year history of constipation because he swallowed too much gum which was given as a as a reward for using the potty sucessfully. This boy always swallowed his gum after chewing five to seven pieces of gum each day. This resulted in a solid mass which could not leave the body.
If I hate gum, where do I go?
Go to a school, if you're still young enough for it. Obviously they ban chewing gum in most schools, because it's too distracting during class. Plus, students can throw it away wrongly and gum can pass on bacteria or diseases from other students.
Singapore also bans chewing gums because vandals can abuse it in many ways. (ex: sticking it on train door sensors, put in inside keyholes, etc.)
Now that the BORING facts are over, discuss chewing gum!
