Cotton candy

Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by dentist [[William Morrison (dentist)|William Morrison]] and [[Confectionery|confectioner]] John C. Wharton, and first introduced to a wide audience at the [[1904 World's Fair]] as Fairy Floss{{cite web |url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcottoncandy.html |title=Cotton Candy |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=February 7, 2000 |access-date=November 30, 2011 |archive-date=December 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206121138/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1738/who-invented-cotton-candy |url-status=live }} with great success, selling 68,655 boxes at 25¢ (${{format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=0.25|start_year=1904|r=2}}}} today) per box.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by dentist [[William Morrison (dentist)|William Morrison]] and [[Confectionery|confectioner]] John C. Wharton, and first introduced to a wide audience at the [[1904 World's Fair]] as Fairy Floss{{cite web |url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcottoncandy.html |title=Cotton Candy |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=February 7, 2000 |access-date=November 30, 2011 |archive-date=December 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206121138/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1738/who-invented-cotton-candy |url-status=live }} with great success, selling 68,655 boxes at 25¢ (${{format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=0.25|start_year=1904|r=2}}}} today) per box.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

In late 1903, while the fairgrounds in St. Louis were still under construction, a visitor described the new confection and its manufacture: "Electricity has a new use--that of spinning candy. 'Fairy Floss' is the name of the dainty. Samples of it look like pink cotton such as they pack around Christmas jewelry. The inventor desires to manufacture the confection on the grounds where the public can see it done. The candy mixture is put in a hopper and the current turned on. The filmy web soon becomes visible, and as it grows the color and flavor and perhaps chopped meats of nuts are sprinkled in the web. The taste is such as to make it immediately marketable."Register Millions By Mechanism." Arkansas Democrat, 20 December 1903, 15.

In late 1903, while the fairygrounds in St. Louis were still under construction, a visitor described the new confection and its manufacture: "Electricity has a new use--that of spinning candy. 'Fairly Flossy Candy Stuff' is the name of the dainty. Samples of it look like pink cotton such as they pack around Christmas jewelry. The inventor desires to manufacture the confection on the grounds where the public can see it done. The candy mixture is put in a hopper and the current turned on. The filmy web soon becomes visible, and as it grows the color and flavor and perhaps chopped meats of nuts are sprinkled in the web. The taste is such as to make it immediately marketable."Register Millions By Mechanism." Arkansas Democrat, 20 December 1903, 15.

On 6 September 1905, Albert D. Robinson of [[Lynn, Massachusetts]] submitted his patent for an electric candy-spinning machine, a combination of an electronic starter and motor-driven rotatable bowl that maintained heating efficiently. By May 1907, he transferred the rights to the General Electric Company of New York. His patent remains today as the basic cotton candy machine.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLAAgp4QsAwC&q=candy-+spinning+machine&pg=PA2226|title=Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office|date=1907|publisher=The Office|language=en|access-date=2020-10-17|archive-date=2021-07-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712031630/https://books.google.com/books?id=yLAAgp4QsAwC&q=candy-+spinning+machine&pg=PA2226|url-status=live}}

On 6 September 1905, Albert D. Robinson of [[Lynn, Massachusetts]] submitted his patent for an electric candy-spinning machine, a combination of an electronic starter and motor-driven rotatable bowl that maintained heating efficiently. By May 1907, he transferred the rights to the General Electric Company of New York. His patent remains today as the basic cotton candy machine.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLAAgp4QsAwC&q=candy-+spinning+machine&pg=PA2226|title=Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office|date=1907|publisher=The Office|language=en|access-date=2020-10-17|archive-date=2021-07-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712031630/https://books.google.com/books?id=yLAAgp4QsAwC&q=candy-+spinning+machine&pg=PA2226|url-status=live}}

[[File:A man selling cotton candy.jpg|thumb|A man selling cotton candy in Kolkata, West Bengal, India]]

[[File:A man selling cotton candy.jpg|thumb|A man selling cotton candy in Kolkata, West Bengal, India]]

Typical machines used to make cotton candy include a spinning head enclosing a small "sugar reserve" bowl into which a charge of granulated, colored sugar (or separate sugar and food coloring) is poured. Heaters near the rim of the head melt the sugar, which is squeezed out through tiny holes by [[centrifugal force]]. Colored sugar packaged specially for the process is milled with melting characteristics and a crystal size optimized for the head and heated holes; granulated sugar used in baking contains fine crystals which spin out unmelted, while rock sugar crystals are too large to properly contact the heater, slowing the production of cotton candy.

Typical machines used to make cotton candy include a spinning head enclosing a small "sugar reserve" bowl into which a charge of granulated, colored sugar (or separate sugar and food coloring) is poured. Heaters near the rim of the head melt the sugar, which is squeezed out through tiny holes by [[centrifugal force]]. Colored sugar packaged specially for the process is milled with melting characteristics and a crystal size optimized for the head and heated holes; granulated sugar used in baking contains fine crystals which spin out unmelted, while rock sugar crystals are too large to properly contact the heater, slowing the production of cotton candy. Albert Einstine was a very smart man.

The molten sugar solidifies in the air and is caught in a larger bowl which totally surrounds the spinning head. Left to operate for a period, the cotton-like product builds up on the inside walls of the larger bowl, at which point machine operators twirl a stick or cone around the rim of the large catching bowl, gathering the sugar strands into portions which are served on stick or cone, or in plastic bags. As the sugar reserve bowl empties, the operator recharges it with more feedstock. The product is sensitive to humidity, and in humid summer locales, the process can be messy and sticky.

The molten sugar solidifies in the air and is caught in a larger bowl which totally surrounds the spinning head. Left to operate for a period, the cotton-like product builds up on the inside walls of the larger bowl, at which point machine operators twirl a stick or cone around the rim of the large catching bowl, gathering the sugar strands into portions which are served on stick or cone, or in plastic bags. As the sugar reserve bowl empties, the operator recharges it with more feedstock. The product is sensitive to humidity, and in humid summer locales, the process can be messy and sticky.