For those of us of a certain age who grew up in the US, Mister Rogers’ trip to a crayon factory remains a formative moment in understanding the world. There’s something fascinating about seeing the process through which the everyday objects we use are created (see also how highlighter pens are made at the link above). Today, via Wired, we offer a look at hard candy, specifically candy canes, drop candy and “image” candy. Here the process is much less industrial and instead requires a level of craftsmanship and touch in manipulating what are essentially non-Newtonian fluids. Most of the equipment and methods used date back to the 1800s. Whether the stretching process whereby a big log of melted sugar becomes a petite candy cane, or the “drop” in drop candy, this is fun to see.

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

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