A Newfangled Potato Chip

Fredric Baur invented Pringles and the Pringles’ can and when he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one. Pringles are sold in more than 140 countries around the world and were originally developed by Baur who worked as a chemist for Procter & Gamble. P&G wanted to create the perfect chip, mainly due to complaints about broken, greasy, stale chips, and the air in the bags. Baur created Pringles’ saddle shape from fried dough and the storage can to go with it, but couldn’t figure out how to make them taste good. Another P&G researcher ultimately did improve on the taste and Gene Wolfe, a mechanical engineer-author known for science fiction and fantasy novels, developed the machine that cooks them into their consistent saddle shape, which is mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid. P&G started marketing them in 1967 and sold the brand to Kellogg’s in 2012.