The Pringles Can: The Man Who Invented it and his STRANGE Burial

Did you know the man who invented Pringles was BURIED inside a Pringles can? It’s true and we discuss it in detail in this episode. Then we invite Erik Tait on the show to quiz him about it! 

The Pringles can is sort of an iconic object. If I say Pringles Can, everyone knows what it looks like. That’s an amazing feat. I’ve certainly never heard this bit of trivia at all, so let’s look into it.

This story goes back to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1956. Proctor & Gamble, a company that started by selling candles, but who was famous for Tide Detergent, Ivory Soap and Crest Toothpaste wanted to offer a potato chip product that addressed common complaints about chips. They wanted a product that wouldn’t break, wasn’t greasy and didn’t come in a bag filled with air. They gave this job to Fredric J. Baur, a chemist.

Baur was an organic chemist who received a masters and phD from The Ohio State University – my alma mater. He was an aviation physiologist in the Navy and had invented various frying oils in addition to Freeze-Dried Ice Cream – side note – I love that stuff, so thanks Fred.

He spent 2 years developing the saddle-shaped product. The shape is called a hyperbolic paraboloid – the claim is that the unique shape of the chip provides an aerodynamic profile that keeps it in place during packaging and because they are stacked manufactured in a consistent shape and stacked tightly, they don’t break as much. 

Putting them in a cylinder style packaging container was Fred Baur’s idea. The tube worked together with the shape of the chip to allow them to stack without coming apart from each other during shipping. The whole point was to keep the chips fresh and keep them from breaking.

There are various theories on why the chips were called Pringles. One story is that they wanted the chips to have a Family appeal so they chose a name out of a phone book. Another story says they chose the name out of a hat. A slightly more plausible theory comes from the fact that two Proctor & Gamble advertising execs lived on Pringle Drive in a Cincinnati suburb. But maybe the most likely is that they were named as an homage to a man named Mark Pringle, who filed a potato chip processing patent that was cited in their own patent.

The flavor of the chips was created by a man named Alexander Liepa. The machine that made them was invented by Gene Wolfe, who was a mechanical engineer, but more well-known as a science fiction author.

So in 1968, Pringles were finally unveiled to the public in Indiana and were so popular, they were available across the U.S. by the mid 70s and available internationally in the early 90s.

Now owned by Kelloggs, Pringles are now available now in 21 flavors in the U.S. and other flavors internationally. In the UK, you can get Prawn Cocktail Pringles and in Asia they’ve offered grilled shrimp and seaweed flavors. Gross.

Frederic Baur passed away at the age of 89. Sadly he died of Alzheimers in 2008. Two months later, Time Magazine ran a story about the peculiar way in which he was buried. 

Baur had thought of the idea of being buried the Pringles can he designed in the 80s and joked with his kids about it. But they soon realized he was serious. He was cremated and on the way to pick up his remains, his children stopped at a nearby Walgreens and bought a can of original-flavor Pringles. They put part of his ashes in the can and buried this Pringles can below his headstone in Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati. If you visited the grave, you’d never know that 6 feet below the earth, there is a Pringles can full of the ashes of the man who invented it. 

Bonus content available at Patreon.com/MichaelKent

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