Sweeter Than Sugar
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Saccharin is often used as a calorie-free alternative to sugar. It is a popular additive to soft beverages, candies, baked goods, and hot drinks. But did you know it was invented by accident?
Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg was working in the lab of Ira Remsen at John Hopkins University in the 1870s, initially to test coal-tar derivatives and their reaction to different chemicals such as phosphorous, chloride, and ammonia. Although it's not the kind of place you’d expect something edible to be invented, this is where Fahlberg accidentally created saccharin.
In 1879, Fahlberg returned home for dinner after work one night and noticed his bread rolls were incredibly sweet. After realizing it came from a chemical residue on his hands, he immediately returned to the lab to find the concoction. He discovered a beaker filled with sulfobenzoic acid, phosphorous chloride, and ammonia that had boiled over in the day, creating benzoic sulfimide — saccharin.
Fahlberg and Remsen jointly published their discovery in 1880. In 1884, Fahlberg obtained a patent on his own and began mass-producing saccharin without Remsen. Saccharin production would take off during the sugar rations in World War I and would further increase with the introduction of diet sodas in the 1960s. By 1979, 44 million Americans used saccharin daily.
Since then, other artificial sweeteners have been invented as well. Today, you can also choose from aspartame, sucralose, and neotame — which is up to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar. Although not the only artificial sweetener anymore, saccharin helped pave the way to make artificial sweeteners a staple in many people's diets.
Image Credit: SpeedKingz / Shutterstock.com
