Question #40876. Asked by mancandy.
Last updated Jun 25 2021.
mancandy
Answer has 0 votes
mancandy 21 year member
17 replies
Answer has 0 votes.
hahah stop!! it has a hole in the middle for air if it gets lodged in your throat!
Nov 08 2003, 1:06 PM
Brainyblonde
Answer has 9 votes
Currently Best Answer
Brainyblonde 24 year member
1455 replies
Answer has 9 votes.
Currently voted the best answer.
In 1912, when candy maker Clarence Crane first marketed "Crane's Peppermint Life Savers," life preservers were just beginning to be used on ships-the round kind with a hole in the center for tossing to a passenger fallen overboard. But that is not the whole story. Crane had been basically a chocolate maker. Chocolates were hard to sell in summer, however, and so he decided to try to make a mint that would boost his summertime sales. At that time most of the mints available came from Europe and they were square in shape. Crane was buying bottles of flavoring in a drug store one day when he noticed the druggist using a pill-making machine. It was operated by hand and made round, flat pills. Crane had his idea. The pill making machines worked fine for his mints, and he was even able to add the life preserver touch by punching a tiny hole in the middle. Later Crane was to sell his rights to his new candy for under three thousand dollars. He may have regretted that decision, for "Life Savers" earned the new manufacturer many millions of dollars.