Constantin Fahlberg Tasted Saccharin Accidentally

In 1879, Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin after leaving Ira Remsen’s Johns Hopkins University laboratory without washing his hands. At dinner, he noticed that his food tasted strangely sweet and traced the taste back to benzoic sulfimide, a compound he had worked with that day. Fahlberg and Remsen published their findings, but Fahlberg later patented saccharin on his own. The discovery became the first widely used artificial sweetener and also sparked a bitter credit dispute with Remsen.

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