Advances in infrigidation engineering lead to an blowup in the world of ice cream and other frozen kickshaw in the early 1900s . The ice cream strobilus , trash ointment stripe , Eskimo Pie , disposable ice cream cupful , and ice tonic were all invented or popularized within the first two decades of the century . Just a few years later , Harry Burt and Frank Epperson almost simultaneously invented what would become two of America ’s most enduring trade name of quick-frozen fallal .
Burt , a Youngstown , Ohio , confectioner , hit upon a “ fresh , uncontaminating , convenient direction to eat ice pick ” when he enter a stick into a deep brown - covered ice cream bar . He call it the Good Humor Bar .
Epperson ’s invention was less knowing . As a young mankind , he ’d pass on a sweet , syrupy balmy beverage with a stirring control stick outside on a cold night . When he go to remember it in the sunrise , he found the drink freeze around the stick . subsequently , he recreated his accident for manufacture . He dubbed it the “ Epsicle , ” but his Kid quick rename it the “ Pop ’s Sicle . ”
The Popsicle , as it was finally branded , was what you would call sherbet or water ice on a peg , while the Good Humor Bar was chocolate - covered ice cream on the same conveyance . They seem different enough , but the law of similarity were a small too close for the comfort of the inventors . Both Burt and Epperson held letters patent on the methods for making their products and on a few piece of specialized equipment involved , and had filed lawsuits against imitators before . The almost - instant succeeder of their various delicacy brought them to each other ’s attention , and a effectual battle break out .
Burt had received his patents first and , through them , insist that he had the sole rightfield to all kind of glacial confection on sticks . In 1925 , Good Humor sued the Popsicle Corporation for infringement of its rights . The company reached an out - of - court correspondence that fundamentally split the market . Popsicle would pay a licensing fee to Burt , and would limit their products to treats “ comprising a mass of flavored sirup , water ice or sherbert frozen on a stick . ” Burt , meanwhile , would keep the exclusive rights to create “ frozen suckers from ice-skating rink cream , frozen custard or the like . " They also agree to that Popsicle ’s products would keep a “ cylindric shape , ” while “ orthogonal human body ” would be Burt ’s .
Got Milk Popsicles?
The agreement keep the ataraxis for a while , but some of Popsicle ’s licensee pressured the company to capitalize on a fall in dairy farm Leontyne Price with an ice - cream - on - a - joystick production of its own . In 1931 , Popsicle draw near Good Humor with the thought of redefining the part of products to tolerate them to fabricate products with less than 4.5 % butter avoirdupois , like a “ Milk River lollipop . ”
Good Humor rebuffed them , but their agreement allow Popsicle to make “ sherbert , ” without chip in a fixed definition to the term . Popsicle felt convinced that an ice milk with 4.48 % butter fat ( and a cylindrical variety ) counted as sherbert and did n’t violate the agreement . They began roll the mathematical product out in 1931 and Good Humor get them back to court of law almost now .
The testimonial from both sides largely revolved around the definition of sherbet , with Good Humor arguing that it was " season weewee ice , ” and Popsicle claiming that a Milk River sherbet was still a sherbert in the idiom of the ice ointment industry .
The jurist at last decided that “ sherbert ” in the 1925 accord was stringently mean to mean a " water sherbet , " and issued an injunction against Popsicle ’s new product . Permanent peace only came years afterwards when both the Good Humor Bar and the Popsicle came under the ownership of Unilever .
