WEBVTT - Who's the Inventor Behind Tang, Pop Rocks, and Cool Whip?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum.

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<v Speaker 1>Here cool Quickset, Jello tang, pop rocks. These are the

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<v Speaker 1>packaged foods that shaped and were shaped by generations of

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<v Speaker 1>Americans coming of age in the nineteen sixties to the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen nineties, and they were all invented by one guy,

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<v Speaker 1>William A. Mitchell, a research chemist who's thirty five year

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<v Speaker 1>career at General Foods Corporation coincided with America's mid century

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<v Speaker 1>fascination with convenience foods. One Marv Rudolph worked with Mitchell

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<v Speaker 1>for six years at the company. In an interview with

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<v Speaker 1>Great Big Story, he said Bill was the inventor at

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<v Speaker 1>General Foods. He knew what amplified flavors, what colors to

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<v Speaker 1>use to make something more attractive. If you had a problem,

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<v Speaker 1>he was the guy to go to. Management tried to

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<v Speaker 1>promote Bill many times, but he said, no, just keep

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<v Speaker 1>me in my lab. It's what I want to do.

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<v Speaker 1>Mitchell was awarded more than seventy patents for foods he

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<v Speaker 1>invented while working there, but his success was not a given.

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<v Speaker 1>He was almost killed in an explosion before he ever

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<v Speaker 1>had a chance to concoct some of the world's favorite

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<v Speaker 1>junk foods. Born to a Minnesota farm family in nineteen eleven, A.

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<v Speaker 1>Mitchell was no stranger to hard work. His father died

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<v Speaker 1>while he was still an elementary school, so Mitchell harvested

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<v Speaker 1>peas and beans for area farmers to help supplement the

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<v Speaker 1>family income. By the time he was a teenager, Mitchell's

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<v Speaker 1>family had relocated to Colorado, where he earned money by

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<v Speaker 1>trapping muskrats and harvesting melons. During high school, he worked

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<v Speaker 1>an overnight shift operating the sugar crystallization tanks at the

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<v Speaker 1>American Beach Sugar Company, and after a shift frequently caught

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<v Speaker 1>a scant two hours of sleep. Before classes began, A

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<v Speaker 1>Mitchell worked as a carpenter to pay his way through

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<v Speaker 1>undergrad in Nebraska. Went on to earn a master's degree

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<v Speaker 1>in chemistry from the University of Nebraska, then stepped into

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<v Speaker 1>a research chemist role at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Lincoln.

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<v Speaker 1>Not long after he started working there, a laboratory explosion

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<v Speaker 1>from heating a cracked beaker of alcohol left him with

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<v Speaker 1>second and third degree burns over eighty percent of his body.

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<v Speaker 1>After months of recovery, he returned to the lab, this

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<v Speaker 1>time as a research chemist at General Foods Corporation in

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<v Speaker 1>White Plains, New York, where he would spend the next

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<v Speaker 1>thirty five years inventing one unique convenience food after another.

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<v Speaker 1>One of Mitchell's first food stuff inventions was a replacement

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<v Speaker 1>for tapioca, a staple that helped quell the hunger of

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<v Speaker 1>American forces fighting in World War Two. To combat a

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<v Speaker 1>shortage of naturally occurring tapioca, which is a starch extracted

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<v Speaker 1>from the cassava plant, Mitchell developed a tapioca adjacent product

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<v Speaker 1>derived from the starches of more readily available grains and gelatine,

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<v Speaker 1>which soldiers nicknamed Mitchell's mud. In nineteen fifty seven, he

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<v Speaker 1>went on to create a powdered drink that would eventually

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<v Speaker 1>wind up in space tang. A tang was composed primarily

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<v Speaker 1>of sugar with a bit of vitamin C and some

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<v Speaker 1>additives thrown in a When mixed with water, it turns

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<v Speaker 1>into a bright tangerine colored drink that tastes strongly of oranges.

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<v Speaker 1>Although sales of the drink powder were initially lackluster, it

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<v Speaker 1>captured the imagination and taste buds of many Americans when

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<v Speaker 1>it went into orbit. A tang was used in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixty two to make the water more palatable for astronaut

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<v Speaker 1>John Glenn's Mercury space flight. It masked the metallic flavor

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<v Speaker 1>of the stored liquid. Tang was subsequently brought a board

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<v Speaker 1>more space flights, and by the time the Apollo eight

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<v Speaker 1>mission was televised in nineteen sixty eight, a tang was

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<v Speaker 1>the major sponsor of ABC's space launch broadcast, though astronaut

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<v Speaker 1>Buzz Aldron much later admitted and I quote tang sucks.

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<v Speaker 1>Even as Tang was taking American shopping list by storm,

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<v Speaker 1>Mitchell had set his sights on food inventions that would

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<v Speaker 1>make meal preparation faster and easier for home cooks. In

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty seven, he patented a quick set form of

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<v Speaker 1>cello that could be made with cold water rather than hot,

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<v Speaker 1>saving a step and a bunch of setting time, and

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<v Speaker 1>just a few months after that, Mitchell came up with Coolwhip,

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<v Speaker 1>the first freezer safe non dairy whipped cream. Unlike dairy

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<v Speaker 1>cream whipped into a foam which would collapse or even

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<v Speaker 1>separate if it freezes, a cool whip is stabilized so

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<v Speaker 1>it can be stored frozen, making it easier to ship

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<v Speaker 1>and saving consumers from the labor involved in making fresh

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<v Speaker 1>whipped cream. Cool Whip also starred in many recipes of

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<v Speaker 1>the mid twentieth century, like flag cake and Mississippi Mudpie. Nowadays,

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<v Speaker 1>coolwhip does include some milk and cream, as American consumers

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<v Speaker 1>tastes have swung away from artificiality, though of course we

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<v Speaker 1>still like to save time. Perhaps mitchell most endearing invention

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<v Speaker 1>was pop rocks from nineteen fifty six. It came about

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<v Speaker 1>when he was experimenting with ways to add carbonation to

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<v Speaker 1>powdered kool aid. The carbonated drink mix didn't quite work

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<v Speaker 1>as hoped, so Mitchell gave up on it. But twenty

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<v Speaker 1>years later another scientist tweaked the formula and the result

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<v Speaker 1>was the explosive candy called pop rocks that crackles and

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<v Speaker 1>fizzles inside your mouth. By the way, contrary to the

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<v Speaker 1>popular myth, consuming pop rocks along with soda won't make

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<v Speaker 1>your stomach explode. General Foods had to take out full

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<v Speaker 1>page ads in newspapers in the nineteen seventies to refute

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<v Speaker 1>that claim. But it was this commitment to the science

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<v Speaker 1>of discovery and his willingness to fail that made Mitchell's

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<v Speaker 1>career accomplishments so enduring. Take for example, his efforts to

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<v Speaker 1>create dry alcohol by mixing wet alcohol with an intensely

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<v Speaker 1>processed absorbent starch called multodextron. It didn't work out, but

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<v Speaker 1>each discovery was a learning experience that informed his future efforts.

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<v Speaker 1>For the article, this episode is based on how Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>Spoke with Claire Conagan, who's the associate director of content

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<v Speaker 1>at Data Essential of food and beverage market research and

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<v Speaker 1>intelligence platform. She said pop Rocks was an attempt at

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<v Speaker 1>instant soda that found a different purpose. Tang was made

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<v Speaker 1>to simulate fresh orange juice via flavor crystals, making it

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<v Speaker 1>easier to transport and longer to store. A cool whip

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<v Speaker 1>was made to ease the handwhipping cream process for people

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<v Speaker 1>and to allow it to be stored frozen. They all

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<v Speaker 1>remain nostalgic today and are often reintroduced to new generations

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<v Speaker 1>by their parents or grandparents who are nostalgic or appreciate

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<v Speaker 1>the convenience. Mitchell retired from General Foods in nineteen seventy six,

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<v Speaker 1>and he passed away in two thousand and four, a

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<v Speaker 1>father of seven who was married for sixty years, and

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<v Speaker 1>whose daughter Cheryl, became a food scientist too. He was

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<v Speaker 1>remembered in his obituary as a devoted, stimulating, and loving parent.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, he's also remembered, even if not always by name,

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<v Speaker 1>by the millions of consumers who have startled their taste

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<v Speaker 1>buds with pop rocks or pretended they were an astronaut

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<v Speaker 1>while drinking tang. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>Meet the Man who invented Poolwhip, Tang and pop Rocks

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<v Speaker 1>on Housteworks dot com, written by Laurel Dove. Brainstuff is

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my

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<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows.