In 1908, the Racine (WI) Confectioners' Machinery Company invented the first machine for making lollipops, sold under the exclusive trade name of "suckers" by the Bradley-Smith Company (CT).
The capacity of this new machine was forty lollipops a minute, a rate the company suggested could supply "more suckers in a week than they could sell in a year."
Question 1: What was the expected top number of suckers that could be sold in a year?
Times have changed. According to current data, the Spangler Candy Company makes more than one billion Dum Dum suckers a year, while the world's largest lollipop maker, Tootsie Roll Industries, produces 16 million lollipops per day.
Question 2: Combining the data for Spangler and Tootsie Roll, how long does it take to produce a "sucker"?
Question 3: Obtain population data for 1908 and the current year....for each, what is the ratio of suckers/person being produced/sold?
Source: J.N. Kane's Famous First Facts, 1964, p. 182
