Going to the dentist is usually a pretty predictable experience. You sit in a bright room while someone tells you to stop eating so much sugar. They warn you about cavities and hand you a free toothbrush on your way out the door. But over a century ago, one specific dental professional completely betrayed his own industry.
He did not invent a better toothpaste or a painless way to clean teeth. He actually invented the most sugary and sticky snack in human history.
His name was William Morrison. He was a highly respected dentist working in Tennessee back in 1897. He spent his days pulling rotten teeth and filling painful cavities. But in his free time he had a bizarre obsession with sweet treats. He teamed up with an old friend who made candy for a living. Together they started tinkering with a strange new mechanical device.
A Machine Made for Pure Sugar
They built a large heated metal bowl that spun incredibly fast. When they poured pure liquid sugar into the center, the centrifugal force pushed the sticky hot syrup through tiny holes in the metal.
As the hot sugar hit the cooler air outside the spinning bowl, it instantly froze into incredibly thin threads. They gathered these sticky threads on a simple paper cone. The result was a massive fluffy cloud of absolute sweetness.
They did not call their new invention cotton candy. That famous name actually came much later. Morrison and his partner decided to call their sugary creation Fairy Floss. It was a perfect name for a strange treat that looked like a cloud of magic and immediately melted the second it touched your tongue.
The Magical Debut of Fairy Floss
They took their crazy electric candy machine to the massive World Fair in 1904. It was an absolute sensation. People had never seen anything like it before.
The dentist and his friend sold over sixty thousand boxes of the spun sugar in just a few months. They charged a premium price and made an absolute fortune selling pure sticky air to the massive crowds.
The deep historical irony of this invention is almost too funny to believe. A medical professional whose entire job relied on fixing rotten teeth had just unleashed the ultimate cavity machine onto the general public. Spun sugar sticks directly to the enamel of your teeth and creates the absolute perfect environment for massive decay.
A Brilliant Business Strategy
Some historians joke that Morrison was just trying to create a steady stream of new patients for his dental clinic. If you sell thousands of boxes of sticky sugar to your own neighbors, your waiting room is going to be packed with terrible toothaches for years.
The brilliant dentist eventually went back to his medical practice. But his sugary legacy lived on forever. A few decades later another candy-maker improved the machine and officially rebranded the Fairy Floss into the cotton candy we know and love today.
So the next time you go to a summer carnival and buy a massive pink cloud of spun sugar, you can thank a medical professional. Just make sure you brush your teeth incredibly well when you get home.
References: National Geographic, History Channel, Smithsonian Magazine