An 11-year-old accidentally invented ice. The next time you pop a Popsicle in your mouth, always reflect on this: You’re enjoying the creativity of an 11-year-old entrepreneur’s labor.
Popsicles and the lazy, hazy days of summer go hand in hand, but the conveniently portable frozen treats on a stick weren’t always so ubiquitous. The very idea of dipping a stick into a sweetened liquid and letting it freeze was an accidental discovery.
We owe the fruity treats all to an entrepreneurial 11-year-old boy who left a mixture of water and sweet soda powder (mixing stick inside) out on a cold San Francisco evening, where it froze overnight.
History about Popsicles
Back in 1905, a San Francisco Bay Area kid by the name of Frank Epperson accidentally invented the summertime treat. He had mixed some sugary soda powder with water and left it out overnight. It was a cold night, and the mixture froze.
In the morning, Epperson devoured the icy concoction, licking it off the wooden stirrer. He declared it an Epsicle, a portmanteau of icicle and his name, and started selling the treat around his neighborhood.
Furthermore, in 1923, Epperson decided to expand sales beyond his neighborhood. He started selling the treat at Neptune Beach, a nearby amusement park. Dubbed a “West Coast Coney Island,” the park featured roller coasters, baseball, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Neptune flourished in the pre-Depression days, and consumers eagerly consumed Epsicles and snow cones (which also made their debut at Neptune).
Buoyed by this success, Epperson applied for a patent for his “frozen confection of attractive appearance, which can be conveniently consumed without contamination by contact with the hand and without the need for a plate, spoon, fork or other implement” in 1924.
The patent illustrates the requirements for a perfect ice pop, including recommendations on the best wood for the stick: wood bass, birch, and poplar. Eventually, Epperson’s children urged him to change the ice pop’s name to what they called it: A Pop’s ‘Sicle, or Popsicle.
This origin story is charming, if somewhat apocryphal (sources differ on the details), but it didn’t have a happy ending for the inventor. A broke Epperson sold the rights to his creation to the Joe Lowe Co. in the 1920s, much to his regret: “I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets,” he later said. “I haven’t been the same since.”
The Lowe Co. went on to catapult Epperson’s invention to national success. During the Great Depression, the company debuted the two-stick version of the Popsicle to help consumers stretch their dollar — the duo sold for 5 cents.
But this delicious duo faced competition from Good Humor, which had recently debuted its chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick, and Lowe was sued for copyright infringement.
The court’s compromise? Popsicle could sell water-based treats, and Good Humor could sell ice cream pops. Popsicle tested the limits of the agreement, selling a “Milk Popsicle,” and the two companies tussled in court about the definitions of sherbet and ice cream over the years through a series of lawsuits.
The giant food corporation Unilever scooped up the Popsicle brand in 1989, expanding the brand beyond its original fruity flavors. It also bought Good Humor, ending the feud between the two icy competitors.
Over the years, Epperson’s childhood invention has achieved iconic status, standing in for any frozen treat the way Kleenex means a tissue.
That explains why also over the years, Unilever has worked to keep the name Popsicle and its alone: In 2010, the company threatened legal action against artisan Brooklyn ice pop makers People’s Pops for using the word “popsicle” on its blog.
As for Epperson, he died in 1983 and is buried in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery, where he’s featured on a tour celebrating local food luminaries including chocolate mogul Domingo Ghirardelli and mai tai inventor Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron.
His story lives on in many forms — from the official Popsicle website, where it’s illustrated in comic form, to an inspirational Christian self-help book about trusting in God’s grand plan for your life.
Epperson’s childhood invention, born randomly on a freezing night, has also proved to be resoundingly successful and long-lived: These days, some 2 billion Popsicles are sold each year.
Just two years after securing a patent for his invention, Epperson sold the Popsicle brand to the New York-based Joe Lowe Company, a bakery and ice cream concern. Sadly, what should have been a small victory was the act of a desperate man.
After the transaction, Epperson reportedly stated, “I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets. I haven’t been the same since.”
The buyer capitalized on the market for frozen confections, selling Popsicles for five cents apiece, establishing the brand as a leader in the frozen dessert category, and securing its place in Americana.
While he quickly recognized the cleverness of the idea, he didn’t quite know where to take it from there. He was content running the business within the bounds of his neighborhood for almost two decades before it occurred to him that expansion was the natural next step.
Finally, in 1923, he applied for and was granted a patent for the Episicle and began producing the frozen treats in a variety of flavors, opening a storefront at nearby Neptune Beach, then known as “West Coast Coney Island.”
How the Name Popsicle Came About
The name Popsicle was another inadvertent discovery. By the 1920s, Epperson had kids of his own who called him you guessed it Pops. The name stuck, and the treats he created were still able to bear his name.
Just two years after securing a patent for his invention, Epperson sold the Popsicle brand to the New York-based Joe Lowe Company, a bakery and ice cream concern. Sadly, what should have been a small victory was the act of a desperate man.
After the transaction, Epperson reportedly stated, “I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets. I haven’t been the same since”.
The buyer capitalized on the market for frozen confections, selling Popsicles for five cents apiece, establishing the brand as a leader in the frozen dessert category, and securing its place in Americana.
No longer under the purview of Epperson’s happy accidents, the Joe Lowe Company was forced to innovate when even frozen sugar water was a luxury during the Great Depression with twin popsicles.
Saving the trouble and cost of individual wrapping, these laterally joined pairs of pops were so two kids could share a Popsicle for (nearly) the price of one. In 1965, the Joe Lowe Company sold Popsicle to Consolidated Foods.
Other transactions and acquisitions occurred until, in 1989, the current owner Unilever bought the brand.
Conclusion
Frank Epperson may be gone, but he’s not forgotten. Epperson died in 1983, and his body is interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California where his gravesite was at one time featured on a tour, along with San Francisco food icons Domenico Ghirardelli and Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron, whose bodies are also buried at the cemetery.
