In 1901, Alexander P. Anderson became the Curator of the Herbarium at Columbia University, a position which allowed him time to pursue a hobby: scientific experimentation. One of his goals was to increase the digestibility of starches. Furthering that goal, he traveled to Munich, Germany to witness a new cooking technique, where they were heating rice in a test tube until the grains cooked. The scientists warned Anderson to be careful when experimenting with the technique, because sealing the tube would cause intense pressure and the contents would explode. It's unclear whether Anderson simply forgot their guidance, but the end result was that, sure enough, the tube exploded. What he found would change the world -- or at least how the world ate breakfast.
Among the shards of glass, he discovered puffed rice. The high pressure heat and sudden release caused the rice to expand to ten times its original size. It turns out a tiny amount of water was flashed into steam causing the "puffed" effect. He patented the approach immediately and set about perfecting the process. Through a series of dangerous experiments, he worked to perfect a way to make the puffed rice, without the inclusion of broken glass. At one point an explosion damaged the floor of his workshop and workers refused to enter it again while he was working on the problem. The solution came in an unusual form: a surplus Spanish-American War cannon.
Anderson found that when he fired rice from the canon, the sudden pressure and release would puff it properly. After some tweaking, he partnered with Quaker Oats to develop puffed rice and wheat products through the Anderson Puffed Rice Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quaker Oats. At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 puffed rice made its debut. Eight bronze cannons exploded puffed rice over the heads of the crowd and breakfast was never the same again.
-Professor Walter
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