Chewing Gum The practice of chewing, gum (口香糖) has been with us for more than a century. Millions of people all over the world chew billions of pieces of gum every year. Chewing gum became popular in the United States mainly because of the work of one man, William Wrigley, who for many years was head of the Wrigley Company. Earlier, Thomas Adams first began to experiment with chewing gum in about the year 1870. It was he who first made gum softer and pleasant to chew. But it was not until Wrigley entered the business in about 1890 that people everywhere began to learn about chewing gum and to use it widely. Wrigley liked to do things in a big way. In his first year, he borrowed money and spent more than a million dollars on advertising. For years, there was a large Wrigley's advertisement in every streetcar (有轨电车) in the United States. People complained that they could not go anywhere without seeing Wrigley's name. Wrigley even sent, free of charge, pieces of gum to every person in the telephone book of every city and town in the United States. Finally, he began to advertise that it was good for the health to chew gum and that it helped to keep the teeth clean. He used to send free gum to every child in the United States on his second birthday. He employed young women who, in beautiful dresses, would go from city to city in groups of four or five, stand on street corners, and give free chewing gum to every person who passed by. In this way, each woman gave away about five thousand pieces of Wrigley's gum every day. As a result of this continuous advertising, people in the United States naturally began to buy more and more chewing gum. William Wrigley first started to experiment with chewing gum.