It
may be a simple question, who invented the teabag? But the answer is slightly
fog and mist filled and needs some detective work. We all love a cup of tea in
Ireland, the battle of Lyons v Barry’s or Garron Noone dissecting some awful TikTok
video of how not to make the perfect cup of tea. We have also in recent years
become more aware of ‘fake news’, ‘ai generated content’ and misinformation on
social media but it is not a new problem, and the following case illustrates
the importance that anyone who is researching news, content creation or
historical papers needs to do due diligence on so called facts.
Earlier
this year as I research the events of 1904, I came across a widely used ‘fact’
that a New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan was the man credited with
popularising the tea bag. It is said that the merchant despatched tea samples
in silk pouches and rather than emptying them into a cup and adding water, the
consumer dipped the silk pouch into the hot water to make their cup of tea. For
the moment I will ignore the factual discrepancies on various sites that Thomas
Sullivan began his business in 1904 or 1908.
It
is also reported that it was not Thomas Sullivan but two women in 1901, Roberta
C. Lawson and Mary Molaren of Milwaukee who are credited with delivering the
teabag to the world. They filed a patent for a "tea leaf holder" to
facilitate single-cup tea brewing and ease cleanup. According to the
Smithsonian in the United States the story of the tea has the two above origins
but site the US Patent was leaning towards the two ladies.
No.." 72 3,287. n Y PATBNTED MAR. 24, 1903 1
R. G.LAWSON & M. MOLAREN.
TEA LEAF HOLDER. APPLIGATIO? FILED AUG. 26, 1901.
UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.
ROBERTA C. LAWSON AND MARY MOLAREN, OF MILWAUKEE,
WISCONSIN.
TEA-LEAF HOLDER.
SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 723,287, dated March 24, 1903.
But
back to Thomas Sullivan. The first website I came across as I researched was
this from a 3D printing company, www.cadlad.ie
with their website declaring
‘Our journey started with a simple
idea and has evolved into something extraordinary. Discover how we’ve grown and
what’s next for Pathfinder Innovations.’
The main issue for this is the fact that the ‘Thomas Sullivan’ photograph is in fact Thomas Lipton as in ‘Lipton’s Tea’. But as I continued down the so called ‘teabag’ rabbit hole the misinformation got worse.
Another site, a gourmet tea site 'BRUU' also identified Thomas Sullivan.
The
identified Thomas Sullivan this time turned out to be a man of the same name
but a member of the Queensland parliament in Australia and had absolutely
nothing to do with tea selling. A tea with a constituent was the nearest he got
to the humble tea bag.
Then
finally yet another photograph from a Pinterest post of ‘Thomas Sullivan, the
inventor of the teabag’ but yet again the man in the picture had nothing to do
with tea bags or tea selling. This time the Thomas Sullivan used was an
Austrian born English and New Zealand professional rower who happened to have
the same name.
To
date I have not been able to find a photograph of the real ‘Thomas Sullivan’
but the search continues. But do your research.
