At some point in history our ancestors must have decided to put corn and fire together and realized the outcome was what we call popcorn. Who invented the popcorn machine is a great question and looking back at its history lets me know why it is being asked. I believe that there must have been popcorn makers all over the country – in every kitchen, with mom knowing exactly how it works. But – a popcorn machine? Something automatic? Well clearly there was one invented and the creator of this phenomenal automatic popcorn popper was none other than Mr. Charles Creator.
Charles Cretors, a man with experience both in the construction and the food industry, loved to put two and two together and see how he could make things easier when it came to roasting peanuts. He didn’t like the results of the original designs and thought he could do better – and he did. He moved to Chicago in 1885, and found out soon that he could create much-wanted pop-corn with his improved design.
Funny: the original popcorn popper was designed to roast. True: much of what was roasted was liked, and this resulted in many different off-spring of the original machine. The Cretors were able to see the need and understood that different food reacts in different ways – and they were on to something, indeed. You want popcorn? Baked chestnuts? Roasted peanuts? They had it.
They finally patented a machine designed specifically for popcorn in 1893, two years after the application of it. I would understand it if it took two years because lots of competitors could see the potential of the automatic popcorn maker – the machine that would start a tradition. A patent would mean disaster for the competition. Yet it happened.
The machine was a break-through, because it started the quest for ultimate perfection in popcorn making, for both small and big businesses. The design was still simple enough, but sophisticated for its time. It consisted of a roaster that could ensure the perfect roast for coffee, peanuts and, of course, corn popped to near-perfection.
Since then, there have, of course, been many innovations – each and every one of them to be attributed to somewhere (and it is a shame not much information is available about that). Once the entrepreneurs realized popcorn was a great commodity, it didn’t take long for them to get into action and get innovation going.
Something that was designed specifically for creating popcorn: hard to say, but there’s no doubt that Charles Cretors can be considered the father of automated popcorn machines- and this last phrase I use in a kind way, because I personally wouldn’t want to go back to the days when men held their corn cobs over the fire and counted it a blessing if one of them came up fluffy. It is surely Charles Cretors who designed first what was to inspire a whole array of popcorn makers, popcorn machines and popcorn poppers.