Professor Walter's History Lessons

How do you name a soda?

In 1958 RC Cola released Diet Rite, their first Diet Soda to strong success.  Soon other companies followed suit.

In 1963 the Coca-Cola corporation had developed their first diet soda.  The marketing research department decided to utilize the IBM 1401 computer to accomplish the task.  The revolutionary IBM 1401 was a mainframe computer released by IBM in 1959 and stayed on the market until 1971 which had the capability to utilize punch cards or magnetic tape.  The marketing research department used the computer to create a list of over a quarter million four-letter works with one vowel and added names suggested by the company's staff.  All "inappropriate" words were removed and from a final list of about twenty names Tabb was chose.  During development it was shortened to Tab. 

Tab was a success in name and sales.  Unfortunately for Tab when the FDA banned cyclamate in 1969 the formula had to change, then again when 1977 when it looked like the FDA would ban saccharin more changes came.  In 1982 Diet Coke was released and Tab's sales declined.  To further impact sales, the formula never matched the original flavor and was changed repeatably over the next two decades.  The current Tab uses saccharin as the dominant sweetener and has a flavor that more closely matches the original.

-Professor Walter

Joseph Friedman - Changing the world one drink at a time.

Born on October 9th in 1900 Joseph B. Friedman would grow into quite an inventor.  At the tender age of fourteen he had his first idea, a lighted pencil.  Over the course of his life he would be issued nine patents. The first was for improvements to the fountain pen which he sold to Sheaffer Pen Company in the mid 1930s.  He supported his family utilizing his education in optometry and real estate while inventing.  While working as a realtor in the 1930s he would create his most successful invention, one that is still in use today across the globe. 

While sitting in his brother's fountain parlor in San Francisco, Friedman watched his young daughter Judith struggling to drink a milk shake out of a paper straw.  Inspiration struck and Friedman took the straw and inserted a screw.  Using dental floss he impressed the grooves into the straw and handed it back.  The world's first bendable straw had been created. 

The Flexible Drinking Straw Corporation was formed in 1939, but the impact of WWII prevented Friedman from completing his drinking straw manufacturing machine until after the war.  In 1947 the first sales of the flexible drinking straw were to hospitals. Soon the straws began to sell to the general public.  On June 20, 1969, the Flexible Straw Corporation sold its patents, licensing agreements, and trademarks to the Maryland Cup Corporation whose current descendant is the Sweetheart Cup Company.

-Processor Walter

From blood plasma to the breakfast table

The ancient Peruvian Incas from the Andes developed a basic process of freeze-drying with is the removal of water content from frozen food.  The freezing temperatures of the mountains combined with the high altitudes made this possible.  With the advent of World War II this technique was considered as a solution to the problem of storing and preserving blood plasma and penicillin.

In 1940 Richard Stetson Morse founded The National Research Corporation in Boston, MA. to research vacuum packing and freeze-drying.  The US Army had a request for 500,000 lb powdered orange juice.  Under the leadership of John M. Fox NRC's new branch, Florida Foods Corporation won a contract to provide the powder for $750,000.  However, the war ended before the factory could be built.  The company chose to proceed forward despite the end of the contract, but decided against powered orange juice.  Instead they developed a procedure to remove 80% of the water from the orange juice and invented the first concentrate frozen juice product on the market.  From a slow start, going door to door, the product quickly became a hit with the name of Minute Maid.

In 1949 the company changed its name to Minute Maid and in 1960 it was purchased by Coca-Cola.  As of today Coca-Cola is the worlds largest producer of fruit juices.

-Professor Walter

Break me off a piece of that... Hershey bar?

In the early 1930's a worker at a Rowntree's confectionery factory in York they they develop a product that would be a snack that a man could have in hit lunchbox for work.  The resulting product was a chocolate covered biscuit known today as the Kit Kat launched in 1935.  The name is believed to have been derived from the Kit-Cat Club, witch was an eighteenth century political club for artists.

In 1969 the company merged with Mackintosh and became Rowntree Mackintosh.  In 1987, the company went public, and in 1988 was acquired by Nestle.  Throughout the world the Kit Kat remains one of Nestle's most popular products, except in the United States.  Rowntree Mackintosh had an agreement with Hershey, where Hershey would sell the Kit Kat under license.  Despite the fact that Nestle is well established in the US, the agreement is still in place, and as such any Kit Kat purchased in the United States is a Hershey product.

-Professor Walter

Excuse me, but you look a little yellow

In 1964 Doric Foods of Mount Dora, Florida created a new drink called Sunny Delight.  The drink enjoyed much success in the United States and in 1999 was launched in the UK.  Within a year it became the third best selling soft drink behind Pepsi and Coke, based on the claims that it was a healthier alternative.  The Sunny Delight in the UK was very similar to the Sunny Delight in the US, however it used beta carotene for the coloring and additional vitamin A.

Since Sunny Delight was primarily water, high fructose corn syrup, and less than 2% juice, its heath properties were brought into question by the press and authorities.  Just as the negative backlash was reaching a peak something would happen that would cause Sunny Delight change their name and image to try and put the past behind them.

In 1999 Dr Duncan Cameron from Glan Clywd hospital had a patient who was a four year old girl whose hands and face had turned yellow and orange.  Further investigation found the beta carotene to be the cause.  The child had been consuming too much in the form of 1.5 liters of Sunny Delight a day.  Fortunately the condition disappears within a few weeks of not consuming Sunny Delight.  While the same affliction can occur from the consumption of too many carrots, the damage to Sunny Delight's reputation was severe.  By 2001 sales had more than halved.

In 2003 Sunny Delight disappeared from store shelves.  In its place was SunnyD, which contained 5% juice in the US and 70% juice in the UK.  Sales have not recovered to previous levels, but no one has turned yellow.

-Professor Walter

It's not east being first in the cola business

Introduced in 1958 Diet Rite cola was the first no-calorie soft drink on the marked.  It was distributed by the RC Cola company as a dietetic, healthy product due to it's lack of sugar.  The key to it's no sugar formula was the use of cyclamate and saccharin for sweetening.  Imitators came soon including products such as Patio which eventually became Diet Pepsi.  Problems arose for Diet Rite in 1969 when the FDA banned cyclamate (for things such as testicular atrophy).  Quick to react the RC Cola corporation reformulated the drink to use saccharin exclusively.  In the strive to stay innovators Diet Rite was reformulated again in 1983 to eliminate sodium (the fist commercial diet drink to do so).  And, in 1987 it was changed again replacing saccharin with aspartame and removing the caffeine.  Then again in 2000 Diet Rite was changed to eliminate aspartame with the introduction on sucralose and acesulfame potassium as the sweeteners.  With this new change Diet Rite was the first major diet drink to not use aspartame or saccharin.  

As an early innovator Diet Rite has struggled to reach the kind of success held by it's followers.  Only by continuing innovation has the brand survived and held on to it;s market share.  As of today Diet Rite is part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group as is one of their core diet soda offerings.

-Professor Walter

I'll trade you this recipe for a lifetime supply of chocolate

In 1937 Ruth Wakefield owned and operated the Toll House Inn in Whitman Massachusetts.  Wakefield was making chocolate cookies and ran out of baker's chocolate.  In a moment of inspiration she decided to substitute broken pieces of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate thinking it would melt in just as bakers chocolate did.  Much to her surprise it did not and the first chocolate chip cookies had been made.  (Another account has the Nestle chocolate falling into the mixer from a shelf as the cookies were mixed).  From that day forward chocolate cookies were known as Toll House cookies.

Wakefield contacted Nestle and made a deal with them.  The company would put her recipe (or a slight variant) on the cover of all their semi-sweet chocolate bars, and she would get a lifetime supply of chocolate.  At that time Nestle began to market chocolate chips specifically for cookies.  Every bag of chips contains her recipe.

-Professor Walter