M&M's: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:54, 21 September 2011

Revision as of 08:01, 23 September 2011

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[[Forrest Mars, Sr.]], the founder of the Mars Company, got the idea for the confection in the 1930s during the [[Spanish Civil War]] when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting. Mars received a patent for his own process on March 3, 1941.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mars.html |title=Inventor of the Week: Archive |publisher=Web.mit.edu |date= |accessdate=June 27, 2010}}</ref> Production began in 1941 in a factory located at 285 Badger Avenue in [[Clinton Hill, Newark, New Jersey]]. One M was for Forrest E. Mars Sr., and one for Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey's Chocolate president William F. R. Murrie.<ref>[http://www.hersheyarchives.org/essay/details.aspx?EssayId=28&Rurl=%2fresources%2fsearch-results.aspx%3fType%3dBrowseEssay Murrie, William F.R.; 1873–1950] - hersheyarchives.com - Retrieved January 22, 2011</ref> Murrie had 20 percent interest in the product. The arrangement allowed the candies to be made with Hershey chocolate which had control of the [[ration]]ed chocolate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mars.html |title=Inventor of the Week: Archive |publisher=Web.mit.edu |date= |accessdate=January 15, 2010}}</ref> When operations were started, the hard-coated chocolates were made in five colors: red, yellow, brown, green, and violet. They were served in a cardboard tube (similar to [[Smarties]]).<ref name="virtualnewarknj.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.virtualnewarknj.com/memories/newark/bodianmm.htm |title=Looking Back at Newark Origins of World-Famous M&M Chocolates - virtualnewarknj.com - Retrieved August&nbsp;28, 2008 |publisher=virtualnewarknj.com |date=April 12, 1981 |accessdate=January 15, 2010}}</ref><ref name="cnn0620">{{cite news|title=M&M lovers pick purple|url=http://money.cnn.com/2002/06/20/news/companies/mandms/|work=[[CNNMoney.com]]|publisher=[[Time Warner]]|date=June 20, 2002|accessdate=June 14, 2008 }}</ref>

The practicality of the candies during [[World War II]] caused an increase in production and its factory moved to bigger quarters at 200 North 12th Street in [[Newark, New Jersey]] where they remained until 1958 when it moved to a bigger lolno factory at [[Hackettstown, New Jersey]]. During the war, the candies were exclusively sold to the military.<ref name="virtualnewarknj.com"/>

[[File:Candy-Peanut-MMs-Wrapper-Small.jpg|thumb|Peanut M&M's, introduced in 1954.]]