Benjamin Eisenstadt
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Benjamin Eisenstadt (December 7, 1906 – April 8, 1996) was the creator of Sweet'N Low and the founder of the Cumberland Packaging Corporation.
Born in New York City, he first operated a cafeteria across from the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. He then switched to making tea bags after his cafeteria declined in revenue. He came up with the idea of single servings of table sugar to utilize his tea bag machinery. He shopped the idea to the major sugar producers, but since he didn't get a patent, they used his idea without paying him proper royalties. In 1957 he came up with a formula for a powdered saccharin sweetener. Previously saccharin was sold as liquid drops, or tiny hard-to-dissolve tablets. He mixed the saccharin with dextrose to bulk it up to a teaspoon sized portion, added cream of tartar, and calcium silicate as an anti-caking agent. He marketed it in bright pink packets. His company was also the first to package soy sauce and other single serving condemints. After his company was successful he became Chairman of the Board of Maimonides Research and Development Foundation in Brooklyn.
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[edit] Marriage
He married Betty Gellman (1910-2001) on October 27, 1931 while living at 1250 44th Street in Brooklyn. They had the following children: Marvin Eisenstadt who married Barbara; Gladys Eisenstadt; Ira Eisenstadt who married Deirdre Howley, and Ellen Eisenstadt who married Herbert Cohen.
[edit] Death
Benjamin died at age 89, of complications from coronary bypass surgery at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. His daughter, Ellen Eisenstadt, had suggested the bypass surgery and her mother never forgave her for the death of Benjamin. When Betty died in 2001 she had written Ellen and her children out of the will.
[edit] Legacy
Maimonides Medical Center has the Eisenstadt Administration Building and the Gellman Pavilion. The Gellman Pavilion was named in memory of Dr. Abraham Gellman, the brother of Betty Gellman (1910-2001).
[edit] Patent
[edit] Timeline
- 1906 Birth in Brooklyn
- 1945 Cumberland Cafeteria closes
- 1947 Cumberland Cafeteria converted to Cumberland Packaging Corporation
- 1956 Marvin Eisenstadt joins the company
- 1970 "Sweet'N Low" registered trademark of Cumberland Packaging Corporation
- 1996 Death in Brooklyn
- 2001 Death of Betty Gellman, his widow
[edit] References
- New York Times; September 18, 2001. Obituary of Betty Eisenstadt
- New York Times; December 29, 1996. "Household Names"
- New York Times; April 10, 1996. "Benjamin Eisenstadt, 89, a Sweetener of Lives. Benjamin Eisenstadt, the innovative Brooklyn businessman who set Americans to shaking their sugar before sweetening their coffee and then shook up the entire sweetener industry as the developer of Sweet'N Low, died on Monday at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He was 89 and a major benefactor of ..."
- Rich Cohen; Sweet and Low : A Family Story; April, 2006 memoir; 272 pages; ISBN 0374272298
