Faculty of Design

Illustration

Ashlyn Mundy

Mining for Saccharine

In 1879, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University named Constantine Fahlberg was trying to find a new use for coal tar. One day after eating one of his wife’s biscuits after work he noticed that they tasted sweeter than usual; he realized that he had forgotten to wash his hands before leaving work and that the chemical, which turned out to be saccharine, on his hand was causing the sweet taste.