When was baking powder invented

Geologists were aware of U. But by the beginning of the Civil War, Horsford and Wilson had solved the supply problem and were producing sufficient amounts of calcium acid phosphate to satisfy production needs for baking powder. Horsford chose the corporate name which recognized the scientific achievements of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, as well as the Rumford Chair which he occupied at Harvard and which had been founded by a grant from Count Rumford.

In the boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode Island was adjusted with the result that East Seekonk Massachusetts, became part of East Providence, Rhode Island, so the corporation had to be chartered again in Rhode Island. In addition to marketing Horsford's pulverulent phosphoric acid, the firm was producing hydrochloric and nitric acids and tin chloride.

In Horsford obtained a patent for a self-rising flour containing calcium acid phosphate and sodium bicarbonate. While Horsford was developing processes, Wilson invented equipment for the implementation of Horsford's discoveries.

For example, in Wilson received patents for a phosphoric acid pump with vulcanized rubber valves and for the use of porcelain-lined iron kettles for concentrating phosphoric acid. Wilson also devised methods for using bone and spent bone black in the manufacture of agricultural fertilizers.

Baking powder was the main output of the Rumford Chemical Works. By the mid's "Horsford's Yeast Powder" was on the market as an already mixed leavening agent, distinct from separate packages of calcium acid phosphate and sodium bicarbonate. This was packaged in bottles, but Horsford was interested in using metal cans for packing; this meant the mixture had to be more moisture resistant.

This was accomplished by the addition of corn starch, and in Rumford began the manufacture of what can truly considered baking powder. Benjamin Thompson—better known to history as Count Rumford—was one of the two preeminent scientists, along with Benjamin Franklin, born in eighteenth-century America. Thompson was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, on March 26, As a thirteen-year-old, Thompson was apprenticed to a Salem merchant for three years. After that, he served as an apprentice clerk in Boston, enrolled as a medical student, and taught school.

He also occasionally attended lectures at Harvard University on physical science. Within a few months of arriving in Concord, Thompson married the Reverend's daughter, Sarah Walker Rolfe, whose deceased first husband left her a large estate.

Through his wife, Thompson met the colonial governor, John Wentworth, who commissioned him in the New Hampshire militia. This appointment apparently caused resentment among his neighbors who felt there were veterans of the French and Indian War better qualified for the commission. Also, Thompson did not participate in the growing fervor in the s against British rule. His unpopularity in Concord forced him to leave his wife and infant daughter to return to Massachusetts.

In May Thompson was arrested on the charge of "being inimical to the liberties of this country. He also may have been the author of a secret letter to British General Gage which conveyed military information about colonial troops during the siege of Boston. In late Thompson sent General Howe, Gage's successor, a lengthy report on the numbers, disposition, and equipment of American forces surrounding Boston. Thompson entered the British Colonial Office, becoming an advisor to the Secretary of State for North America, Lord George Germain, at whose estate in he performed a series of experiments in the interior ballistics of small arms.

In he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He also continued his ballistic experiments, switching to studying cannons in the Royal Navy. He contributed an original design for an armed frigate to a treatise on naval architecture published in The following year he received a commission in the British Army as a lieutenant colonel and left for America, shortly before Germain was drummed out of the colonial service by critics who accused him of incompetence in prosecuting the war with the rebellious colonies.

He returned to England in , but soon left for travel on the continent. It appears that Thompson envisioned a brighter future outside England since the influence of his friends and patrons had waned. After several months wandering Europe, Thompson entered the service of the Elector of Bavaria, in whose employ he remained for fifteen years, achieving prominence as a public servant. He cleaned the streets of Munich of beggars, giving them clean quarters and putting them to work.

He reformed the organization of the military, which raised morale, lessened the paper-work required of officers, and improved the pay, provisions, and leisure time of enlisted men. He planned and developed the English Garden, which still exists. Thompson was allowed to choose his own title; he selected Count Rumford, after the name by which Concord, New Hampshire, had been known before In the early nineteenth century Rumford raised money for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, founded in for "teaching the application of scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures in this country and to the increase of domestic comfort and convenience.

Rumford played a major role in the early success of the Institution, which was founded at a time when there were no institutional laboratories, and scientists conducted experiments in their homes. The first educational establishment to provide laboratories for students was Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in in the United States. It was not until the s that the famous Cavendish Laboratory opened in Cambridge, England.

No doubt, Rumford's interest in public facilities for scientific research stemmed from his own scientific inquiries. In addition to his interest in gunpowder, Rumford did research on light, some chemical studies, and wrote at least one paper on mechanics. His inventions include a photometer and a calorimeter, and, given his interest in the "useful arts," he devised a stove, a roaster, and a lamp with multiple wicks.

But his major scientific focus was on heat and his most important discoveries centered on the contention that heat is a form of motion.

Rumford spent the last dozen years of his life in Paris. In —his first wife having died in —he married the widow of the famous French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier.

It was not a happy marriage; the couple separated in , and Rumford moved to Auteuil, where he died in The commemorative plaques read:. In the midth century, Eben Horsford, Rumford Professor at Harvard University, devised a unique mixture for baking, which he named "yeast powder" and later called baking powder. The acid component, calcium acid phosphate, originally manufactured from bones, replaced cream of tartar, an expensive byproduct of the European wine industry.

The mixture of acid with sodium bicarbonate was stabilized by addition of starch and marketed in one package. In the presence of moisture carbon dioxide is released, leavening biscuits, cookies, or other quick baking products.

As a result of Horsford's work, baking became easier, quicker, and more reliable. Development of Baking Powder. Learn more: About the Landmarks Program. Careers Launch and grow your career with career services and resources. Communities Find a chemistry community of interest and connect on a local and global level. Discover Chemistry Explore the interesting world of science with articles, videos and more.

Awards Recognizing and celebrating excellence in chemistry and celebrate your achievements. Funding Funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research projects. National Historic Chemical Landmark. History of Bread The cultivation of wheat predates recorded history. Back to top. Development of Baking Powder For more than three millennia, the method of baking bread did not change substantially; that is, until the s when bakers began adding sodium bicarbonate bicarbonate of soda and sour milk to their dough.

Rumford Chemical Works Professor Eben Horsford and George Wilson joined forces to establish a plant to manufacture chemicals needed by New England's many and varied industries. Baking powder could be made at home, but was easier to buy readymade, and it became one of the first mass market branded products. Baking powder became a big, very competitive business.

The baking powder wars kick-started much of the modern consumer goods world, from mass advertising to pure foods legislation to modern packaging.

Manufacturers eventually started packaging fully baked products and now most baking powder is used by them. Home baking is a much smaller category. But baking powder use in India has expanded due to demand for eggless cakes from strict vegetarians. Some of the first eggless recipes used here were American ones, dating from war times when eggs were scarce. Baking powder is still reinventing baking, just in another context and country.

Accept Reject. Update Consent. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email. Ziegler went into the baking-powder business way back in with the Hoaglands, a firm of druggists at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The young man mastered the business, technically as a pharmacist, commercially as a salesman. He fought for his share in the profit; he left them and established a competitive business to force his point, and in they let him in. Ziegler organized the Royal Baking Powder Company in , with himself as treasurer.

The Business grew for three or four years, when it was discovered that alum and soda made a stronger leaven, and cheaper. Worse still, alum was plentiful. Anybody could go into its manufacture, and many did. The Royal, to control the cream of tartar industry, had contracted to take from European countries immense quantities of argol, the wine-lees from which cream of tartar is made. They had to go on making the more expensive baking-powder or break a contract.

Wright and chemist George Campbell Rew developed a double-acting baking powder whose leavening action began in the dough and repeated in the oven. They marketed the product under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Wright was the master of Calumet Farm, the single most successful racing stable in American history with six Kentucky Derby winners, first near Chicago and later at Lexington, KY.

Wright was also the cousin of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Following graduation, the young chemist was hired by William M.

Wright, a food salesman who was attempting to develop a new and better baking powder. In he was made Vice-President, and later he became President of the company. In , two years after his death, the company was bought by General Foods. About , he and three other men drove overland from Chicago to the Pacific coast in a promotion for F. Stearns of Cleveland, Ohio.

To make better progress over rough terrain, they removed the tires and lifted the car onto the railroad tracks thereby riding on the wheel rims. Although the trip was made entirely for pleasure and no night driving was attempted, the drive took only 19 days and set a record for daylight travel.

One puncture was the only cause for stoppage in the entire 2, miles. You forgot to mention Argo aluminum-free baking powder. It comes in a good size for the serious home baker 24 oz. Click here to cancel reply. Pin Share 7. Yum 1. Available in the United States. Owned by Clabber Girl Corporation.