FYI
Thought this was interesting as someone here ( forgot who) mentioned that Life Savers were invented with a hole to save people from choking, which really is an Urban Legend.
I always knew they were made to mimick a life perserver, the inventor, Crane, was from Ohio and it was a tidbit of info learned in childhood if you were from Ohio.
From my googling -
The legend goes- Crane, the inventor, his young daughter died from choking, and he didn't want other parents to suffer this tradgedy, so he made the hole.
Actually, around 1910, he was a chocolatier and wanted a candy that could withstand the summer's heat, so he wanted a hard mint that was different from current mints in the market, he went to a pharmacy and they created one in a flat, pill shape which could be multi- packaged easily, and with a hole., the form was of a life perserver, hence the name.
His ads show a seaman throwing a life perserver. They weren't fruit flavored then, only mint. They became fruit flavored after he sold the company.
The story of saving lives tells of his child dying from a hard candy.... he did have a child die, but that was 20 yrs after the invention.
I wondered why/how the false story came about, so I goggled....found many sites saying it was false, and the inventing, it's resemblance to a life perserver, had it's info correct.
conversational bit- I group texted my cousins from Ohio, no one had heard the choking story, they were amused by it...especially that the tiny hole could save you, not enough air exchange to maintain respiratory exchange.
This would have been a good Trivial Pursuit question.
