Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Accidental Discoveries: Saccharin
Have you ever licked your fingers after finishing off a tasty treat? In 1879, a chemist named Constantin Fahlberg was working on a project at Johns Hopkins University to find uses for coal tar. After a day at work in the lab, Fahlberg went home for supper. His wife had prepared rolls to go along with the meal. After Fahlberg took a bite of a roll, he thought it tasted especially sweet. He asked his wife if she had added anything to sweeten the rolls. She told him she hadn't. She thought the rolls tasted the same as always.
Fahlberg wondered where the extra sweetness came from. He looked at his unwashed hands. He thought perhaps they still had residue from his experiments with coal tar on them. He figured out that the chemicals on his hands might be the source of the sweetness.
