In 1912, when American 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 centre 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 flavouring 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.
In 1913, Crane sold the rights to his Life Savers candy to Edward Noble for only $2,900. Noble then sold Life Savers in many flavours, including the original peppermint. Clarence Crane may have regretted that decision to sell, for ‘Life Savers’ earned the new manufacturer many millions of dollars.
