A Dentist Invented “Cotton Candy”

A Dentist Invented “Cotton Candy”
Sugar was once an expensive treat enjoyed only by the elite. In the 1400s, confectioners in Italy began experimenting with sugar. They heated it in a pot and spun it on a fork. Then they dried out the sugar strings to decorate cakes, pastries, and fruit for wealthy lords and ladies. Spinning sugar was a very time-consuming process. In 1897, American candy makers William Morrison and John C. Wharton invented the first electric machine for spinning sugar. Their machine heated sugar in a spinning bowl that had special holes in it. These American candy makers called their machine-made treat “fairy floss”. Fairy floss made its big debut at the St. Louis World Fair in 1904, where it sold for 25 cents a box. This was a very expensive treat, but the candy makers still sold over 60,000 boxes. In the 1970s, a Louisiana dentist named Joseph Lascaux invented and patented a more advanced device for spinning sugar. He tested the sticky treat out on his patients, and changed the name to “cotton candy”.

1. Confectioners heated sugar in a pot and spun it with a fork. They had to dry the strings of sugar before using it to decorate cakes and pastries.
2. The Nashville candy makers named their treat “fairy floss”.
3. The man who invented the word “cotton candy” was a dentist.