When: July 20
National Lollipop Day on July 20th celebrates the candy on a stick — one of the simplest and most universal confectionery forms. Hard candy on a stick appears independently in cultures around the world, from Chinese sugar sculptures on sticks to medieval European boiled sugar treats. The modern commercial lollipop was made possible by the industrial revolution and the automation of stick insertion.
The lollipop was one of the first industrially mass-produced candies — Samuel Born's 1916 machine inserted the sticks automatically, which was considered so innovative he received a key to the city of San Francisco.
The impulse to put food on a stick predates recorded history. Chinese sugar sculpture on bamboo skewers dates back centuries. Arab confectioners developed sophisticated boiled-sugar techniques that involved edible forms on sticks. Medieval European fair vendors sold candy on sticks for portability. The stick is not the invention — the stick is the obvious solution to the problem of handling hot, sticky candy without burning your hands. The invention is making the process efficient enough to sell at scale. Samuel Born, a Russian immigrant candy maker working in San Francisco, filed a patent in 1916 for a machine that automatically inserted sticks into hard candy. Before Born's machine, each stick had to be inserted by hand — one at a time, fast, before the candy hardened. Born's machine could insert sticks mechanically and consistently, making mass production economically viable for the first time. San Francisco gave him a key to the city for this contribution, which is a remarkable...