Subject: mundane science Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 14:05:23 -0400 From: "Downs, Bill" Mundane Science Capt. Bill Downs Who Dunnit? I thought we'd have some fun today. The last time you were lapping up that sweet frozen treat on a hot summer's day, did you wonder who invented the ice cream cone? This, on the 100th anniversary of the ice cream cone, is the most controversial subject in ice cream history. Six men claim to have invented the ice cream cone. All the action seems to revolve around the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis where a waffle cone filled with ice cream was a big hit. Italo Marchiony was a pushcart vendor on Wall Street who also owned a restaurant. He was issued a patent in 1903, #746,971, for a mold to make an edible cup with handles. He claimed that he was selling his edible cup with ice cream around 1896.=20 Ernest A. Hamwi ran a pastry stand selling the wafflelike Zalabia pastry at the St. Louis World's Fair. He watched patrons buy his pastry and go to his neighbor, who was selling ice cream, and eat them together. He decided to roll his waffle into a cone shape and fill it with ice cream and call it a cornucopia. Abe Doumar sold souvenirs at the fair. He says he gave Hamwi the idea for rolling the waffles into a cone and filling them with ice cream. David Avayou said he adapted the idea from the French, who sold ice cream in rolled paper cones. He eventually crafted an edible cone from a waffle. Nick Kabbaz was president of the St. Louis Ice Cream Cone Company in the early 1900's. He worked at the 1904 fair, possibly for Hamwi. His family claimed the he and his brother came up with the waffle-rolled-into-a-cone and filled with ice cream idea for Hamwi. Charles and Frank Menches sold snacks at the fair and claim to have invented the ice cream cone on July 23, 1904. The previous day, when they had run out of ice cream dishes, they watched an employee try unsuccessfully to serve ice cream in a rolled-up waffle. Charles tried wrapping the warm waffle around a tapered tool used to separate the strands of a rope. He filled the cone shape with ice cream. George F. Robinson claimed to be one of the first to eat an ice cream cone. He watched a man buy a deep-fried, wafflelike pastry shaped like a rose and have a scoop of ice cream placed on the rose. Robinson and others copied the man What is the opinion of Anne Cooper Funderberg, author of "Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream"? She says none of the above. "My gut feeling is that somebody was selling cones in New York City probably before the World's Fair opened," she says. Ice cream by the numbers: * For the period of February, 2002, to February, 2003, ice cream sales were $4.4 billion, up 2.3% over the previous year. * Total U.S. production of ice cream and related frozen desserts in 2001 was more than 1.6 billion gallons, or about 23 quarts per person. * Based on 2001 supermarket sales of ice cream, the top 5 flavors are vanilla (28%), chocolate (8%), Neapolitan (7%), butter pecan (4.5%) and chocolate chip (3.5%). * In 2001, the top 5 producers of ice cream and related frozen desserts were California, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio. Paul Lomartire, Cox News Service, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/18/2003, pgs L1, L4 enjoy --Bill--