History
In 1905 in San Francisco, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was mixing a white powdered flavoring for soda and water out on the porch. He left it there, with a stirring stick still in it. That night, temperatures reached a record low, and the next morning, the boy discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored 'Popsicle', a portmanteau of soda pop and icicle. In 1922, he introduced the frozen treat at a fireman's ball. It was a sensation. In 1923, Epperson sold the frozen pop on a stick to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Alameda, CA. Seeing that it was a success, in 1924 Epperson applied for a patent for his "frozen confectionery" which he called "the Epsicle ice pop". He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children.
It was originally available in seven flavors and marketed as a "frozen drink on a stick." The form is unique, with two parts joined together on two sticks, so the two sections could be divided and shared. The stick, similar in shape and size to an emery board, with round ends used as a handle became as well known as the treat, commonly used for craft projects by children and adults.
In 1925, Epperson sold the rights to the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company of New York. "I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets," he recalled years later. "I haven't been the same since." In 1989, Good Humor, a subsidiary of Unilever, bought the rights. In June 2006, Popsicles with "natural flavors and colors" were introduced, replacing the original versions in some cases. In addition, Popsicle provides several sugar-free flavors.
Read more about this topic: Popsicle
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)