by I. Michael Akbar

Created on: April 04, 2009   Last Updated: December 25, 2009

"Cotton Candy! Get your sweet, fluffy Cotton Candy here!", the carnival vendor cries out in a sing-song rhythm.  The thought of cotton candy brings with it the nostalgia of fairs, carnivals and amusement parks everywhere. Cotton candy is almost pure sugar spun with a machine into a fluffy, sticky and (thanks to food coloring) colorful confection.  And it may be comforting to know that it is still pretty much the same as it has been since its modern day introduction.

EARLY DELICACY

Earlier forms of spun sugar confections can be traced as far back as the 1700's in Europe, where a difficult and tedious process produced strands of confection delicacies. The intricate process meant that these sweets tended to be rare and expensive treats reserved for the wealthy. Most "commoners" were not even aware of that spun sugar existed.

WORLDS FAIR INTRODUCTION 1904

While it has not always been called cotton candy, the spun-sugar treat as we know it today dates back to the turn of the twentieth century.

Cotton candy, or Fairy Floss as it was originally called, became popular at fairs and carnivals around 1900 though there are various individuals credited with its actual invention.

In 1897, William Morrison and John C. Wharton of Tennessee patented a machine that spun melted sugar into fine threads. Their machine used centrifugal force to throw the melted sugar through a fine mesh screen. The strands of sugar were then lightly wound around a paper cone.

The coming out party for cotton candy came at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904 when Morrison and Wharton introduced Fairy Floss to the massive crowds at the fair for twenty-five cents per box. Even at this relatively steep price tag, Morrison and Wharton sold over 68,000 boxes of cotton candy during the fair. The machine they used is still quite similar to the ones used to make cotton candy today.

THE OTHER ORIGINS OF COTTON CANDY

In 1900, Thomas Patton received a separate patent for his way of producing cotton candy, which used a gas-fired rotating disk to stream the molten sugar through a fork, then winding it on a paper cone, much like Morrison and Wharton did. He reportedly introduced his version of cotton candy at the Ringling Brothers Circus shortly after its invention, but history does not confirm this story.

Around the same time, Josef Delarose Lascaux, a dentist in Louisiana, introduced cotton candy in his dental clinic. While certainly a marketing genius, creating business by serving sugary candy to his dental patients, he did not receive a patent or trademark for his cotton candy.

The only major change in how cotton candy is produced came about 50 years after its invention.  In 1949, Gold Medal Products company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, came up with a smoother running, more dependable cotton candy machine that used a spring base. Gold Medal still produces almost all cotton candy machines to this day.

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