Co-founding the Rumford Baking Powder Company in 1859, Eben Norton Horsford (1818-1893) graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic, NY [which has his papers] in 1838 as a civil engineer, became a chemist and in 1847 was honored by being selected the Rumford professor at Harvard. He invented Horsford's Cream of Tartar Substitute, the first calcium phosphate baking powder. Hulman & Co. purchased the Rumford Chemical Works of East Providence, RI in 1950. In 2000, the company was renamed for its Clabber Girl Baking Powder Co. The Hulman and Co. Clabber Girl Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana has two kitchens, one from the 1850s and one from the 1940s.
Royal Baking Powder was founded in 1866 and sold a packaged soda combining bicarbonate of soda with cream of tartar. Early on, baking powder was added to flour to create Self Raising Flour. Three recipes to mix baking powder can be found in the 1877 Wilcox book, which uses cornstarch or flour as the base. Baking powders work as a gas when in contact with liquids. Rumford doesn't use alum, and reacts with heat.
Pictured are a Rumford tin with biscuit cutter, Rumford Complete Cook Book, a pull-out recipe card for cookies, Rumford tin and bottle.
Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace. Providence RI: 1908
Buckeye Cookery Wilcox 1877
Chemistry and manufacture of Baking Powder
Timeline for Baking Powder
Advertising Archives
Jerediah Horsford & his son Eben Norton Horsford
US Supreme Court judgement on Rumford Chemical Works v. Hygienic Chemical Co. 1909
Rensselaer Research Libraries - Eben Norton Horsford Correspondence
Soda Bread history
Rumford Mill and RI mills restoration, short video
Count Rumford Roasters and Ranges
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Wedding Cakes