Tom Smith Crackers is still one of the largest manufacturers of crackers in the world, and are pulled by thousands of people around the world, including the Royal family! The Fact Site requires you to enable Javascript to browse our website. Find out the facts on Christmas crackers here! He was especially interest in the wedding cake decorations and experimented in his spare time with new, creative designs. However in January demand virtually ceased and once again he was reliant on sales of cake and table decorations.
Tom Smith Photo Credit: c Peter Kimpton. He was able to successfully market these to many of his regular customers and as sales and his profit continued to increase he knew that he had come upon a unique and potentially valuable new product.
It was the crackle of a log in his fire one day that gave him the inspiration which eventually led to the cracker as we know it today. The chemical was silver fulminate, a compound discovered by the English chemist Edward Charles Howard — in and further developed in by the Italian chemistry professor, Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli — Tom soon decided to explore the export market and took his cracker abroad.
After a foreign manufacturer copied his initial cracker design and delivered a consignment of crackers to England for the upcoming holiday season, Tom immediately designed 8 different kinds of cracker and distributed stocks throughout the country also in time for Christmas. After this he never looked back. Tom Smith lived to see the new branch of his firm grow to swamp the original premises in Goswell Road, but passed on March 13 th , probably from stomach cancer, at the young age of When he died he left the business to his three sons, Tom Henry and Walter.
A few years later, a drinking fountain was erected in Finsbury Square by Walter Smith in memory of his mother, Mary, and to commemorate the life of the man who invented the great British Cracker. Walter Smith, the youngest son, introduced a topical note to the mottoes which had previously been love verses. Special writers were commissioned to compose snappy and relevant maxims with references to every important event or craze at the time from greyhounds to Jazz, Frothblowers to Tutankhamen, Persian Art to The Riviera.
The original early Victorian mottoes were mainly love verses but these were eventually replaced by more complicated puzzles and cartoons, and finally by the corny jokes and riddles which characterize the crackers of today. But who came up with the idea and where can the history of the Christmas cracker be traced back to? Follow our Santa tracker live blog for the very latest updates on his location. Tom Smith of London invented the first version of the Christmas cracker in It used two narrow strips of paper layered together, with silver fulminate painted on one side and an abrasive surface on the other — when pulled, friction created a small explosion.
To stave off competition, the company introduced a range of cracker designs, which were marketed as a novelty for use at a wide range of celebrations. The success of the cracker enabled the business to grow and move to larger premises in Finsbury Square, employing 2, people by the s, including many female workers. Crackers and paper hats were made by hand, which involved cutting tissue paper with heavy guillotines, pasting, folding and carefully packing for a perfect presentation.
This short film from shows 'Lion Head Brand' crackers being manufactured in an Edwardian factory. Novelty crackers followed topical trends — writers were commissioned to compose snappy lines, and the artwork for cracker boxes referenced popular crazes, from jazz to Tutankhamun, new-fangled motorcars, Charlie Chaplin and the wireless. The brightly coloured cracker boxes were collected and traded in their own right.
Batger and Company, an 18th-century sugar refiner which had branched into confectionery and novelties following Smith's success, became well known for its cracker labels.
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