Crisps how did they first start I wonder ..

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George Crum .. a Native American Indian chief (and chef) who was employed at the Moon Lake Lodge restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York made them for a 'difficult' customer sometime during 1853 Apparently the difficult customer wanted some fries ... but returned his plate to the kitchens three times as the potatoes were cut too thick ... Crum decided to 'get even' and sliced the fries wafer thin .. and so the 'crisp' was born. The first crisps manufactured in the UK were from a company called Carters in 1913 .. and in 1920 Frank Smith and his wife formed the Smith's Potato Crisps Company Ltd .. she peeled and sliced .. he packaged the crisps into greasproof bags and sold them off a hand cart in London. Then in 1948 just after WW2 but with meat still being rationed ... a pork butcher named Mr Henry Walker decided to branch out and find a product that would make full use of his premises and staff ... to comply with the health and safety rules of the time his first choice of making ice cream products was ruled out ... crisps were becoming very popular and so they started making crisps ! Nowadays you can buy just about any flavour of crisps you care to think about ... (and including some I'd rather not) ... each year we chomp our way through some 300,000 tonnes of potato crisps .. Walkers alone produce over 10 million packets of crisps each and every day (population of the UK roughly 62 million!). But it's not all good news for crisps makers ... with the UK getting ever more health conscious .. we are now getting alarmed that a single packet of crisps is 3 times more salty than sea water, is loaded with fats of the 'bad' kind .. contains monosodium glutamate and other 'nasty' enhancers .. along with colourings and flavourings very few of which are natural .. and at just under 200 calories for a small packet makes a pretty rich snack. But you can of course buy Burts Crisps* ... a rather splendid company based in Kingsbridge, Devon ... the crisps come unsalted .. each packet will tell you just who fried the crisps for you and even which field the potatoes came from .. they even give a proportion of profit from each packet to Great Ormond St Hospital And my apologies that the facts are all about English crisps .. but then that's where I live .. !!