Rex Diamond at Desk (Framed Whipped Topping Patents)
Who
doesn't love whipped cream? The delicious topping for fruits, pies,
ice cream, hot chocolate, and whatever else your creamy imagination
can imagine is a simple, affordable treat. With a long history of
goodness, the first well known reference to it was when the
French chef, Vatel created a variation with sugar to serve at a
reception to honor King Louis the XIV in 1661. From then on, the
topping grew in popularity to its present status of convenient dairy
staple.
In
another brush with local history, Lucasville area residents can thank
a Valley High School graduate when they use this delightful topping
or when they enrich their daily cups of coffee with their favorite
creamer. Biochemistry, polymers,
and non-dairy “whip” toppings all play a part in the story of Rex
Diamond, a Lucasville native who helped elevate the worth of the
lowly soy bean. Diamond's life was full of sweetness and far too much
disappointment and grief. I present a biography to honor the
incredible man.
Rex Diamond
Holton Whittier
“Rex” Diamond was born in Lucasville, Ohio on June 15, 1915. Rex
was the son of Walter V. Diamond and Ethel Pigg. He was a very bright
boy, chosen valedictorian of his Valley High School class and, as
valedictorian, he presented “The Seniors’ Farewell Message” at
the graduation ceremony at Valley High School on May 10, 1932.
After entering
Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio, on a scholarship, the school
newspaper noted that he added “to a brilliant scholastic record”
by “being the first freshman to make a perfect grade in the
state-wide English examination. Diamond also holds national, state,
and county scholarship awards in Latin, French, chemistry and
English.” Another article reported that he was the first entering
freshman in the 60 year history of the college to score 100% on the
timed entrance exam.
Diamond graduated
from Wilmington College in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science and a
Bachelor of Science in Education degree (major in chemistry). Then,
he worked briefly as a surveyor in Scioto County, and after that, for
several years as a chemist for Mead Paper Company in Chillicothe.
Rex entered Drew
Seminary Graduate School of Theology for the fall 1938-Spring 1939
school year. (This was a term in the Methodist ministry; he had been
interested in YMCA and Gospel Team Work in college.) Then, he moved
to Detroit, lived at the YMCA in 1940, and worked as a chemist in the
lab of a steel mill, and as a “soda jerk” in a soda fountain. He
also attended the downtown Methodist church and often wrote poetry.
After obtained a
position in the research department of the Ford Motor Company, in the
synthetic rubber development department, he supervised a project
group on butadiene synthesis (synthetic rubber). More specifically,
his work was at Greenfield Village on “dum-dum,” a silencing
material for cars. In June 1943 he was transferred to the George
Washington Carver Laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan, which was
established by Henry Ford.
While in Detroit,
Diamond enrolled in night school at Wayne State University in Detroit
and took courses in advanced organic and high polymers, dyes,
biochemistry, and chemical literature from 1943 to 1945, but he did
not obtain a graduate degree.
At George
Washington Carver Laboratory, Rex worked under Robert A “Bob”
Smith, the chief chemist, on soybean milk, cheese, ice cream and
tofu, and he developed a whipped topping based on soymilk.
Throughout
his career he worked on the uses of soybean oil in creating non-dairy
foods such as whipped topping, coffee cream and ice cream. During his
work at the lab, Diamond acquired two patents, one for soluble
compound of chlorophyill and synythesis and the other for toppings
for salads and desserts. (Later, in 1955, Rex acquired one more
patent for soybean applications with whipped desserts.)
*
Note – Henry Ford disliked cows – and horses: As early as
1921, in an interview published in the New York Tribune, Ford
predicted that horses would be replaced by automobiles and tractors.
The horse is a "twelve-hundred-pound 'hay motor' of one horse
power," he quipped. The milk and meat from cows will be replaced
by man-made products. Ford notes: "It is a simple matter to take
the same cereals that the cows eat and make them into a milk which is
superior to the natural article and much cleaner. The cow is the
crudest machine in the world. Our laboratories have already
demonstrated that cow's milk can be done away with and the
concentration of the elements of milk can be manufactured into
scientific food by machines far cleaner than cows and not subject to
tuberculosis." This article was written 10 years before Ford
discovered soybeans and soymilk!
In the mid-1930s Henry Ford built a
soymilk plant in Greenfield Village (Dearborn, Michigan). It was just
a demonstration plant that made several hundred gallons of soymilk a
day. The plant was part of the larger research effort; none of the
milk was sold commercially. With the arrival of World War II, the
process was taken by Bob Smith, one of the men who developed it, and
used as the basis for a private plant [Delsoy Products] in Dearborn
where he sold a lot of soymilk for use in whipped toppings, baked
goods and frostings.
In about July 1942, during World War
II, Henry Ford created the George Washington Carver Laboratory in
Greenfield Village (Dearborn, Michigan), in honor of George
Washington Carver (who shared many of Ford’s beliefs, including
those about cows; Carver made milk from peanuts). There Ford
assembled a team of scientists to intensify his research on
alternatives to dairy products – including soymilk and “soy whip
topping.” He served this soymilk to patients in the nearby Ford
Hospital, and he offered to give the soymilk recipe to anyone who was
interested. Bob Rich was one of the first to accept this offer.
In August 1944, Delsoy, a soymilk-based
non-dairy whipped topping was launched by Russell-Taylor Inc. of
Dearborn, Michigan. The world’s earliest known whip topping, it had
been developed at the Henry Ford’s Carver Laboratory, largely by
Bob Smith and Holton W. “Rex” Diamond.
In
1949, Rex Diamond acquired a job as a chemist with the American Maize
Products Company in Roby, Indiana. The company wanted him to develop
a dried dairy-free whipped topping. He continued his research with
aerated dessert products, but American Maize dropped the project.
In early April 1949 Bob Smith of Delsoy
Products offered Rex a job any time he wanted it. Smith also
expressed interest in acquiring Diamond's pending patent applications
as well as the name of his company, which he thought was better than
his own “Delsoy Products Inc.” However, the company, Delsoy
Products did not last long.
* Note – Rex Diamond was never
employed full time for Delsoy Products. In the early days he worked
at the company for a day or two now and then in the plant doing
soybean extraction–not as a consultant, but as a friend of Bob
Smith’s.
According to authors William Shurtleff
and Akiko Aoyagi, then Rex pulled “a fast one” ….
“He left, set up his own company
named Vegetable Products Corp. in Saline, Michigan (located inside
Henry Ford's old soybean extraction plant there), and began to make a
soy-based whipped topping named Wonder Whip (non-pressurized in a
cone-shaped container), which was designed to be whipped with an egg
beater. But, he did not know how to run a food plant. One day Bob
Smith was visiting one of his chain store accounts when the buyer
told Bob that Rex Diamond was telling all the distributors that
Delsoy Products had quit making their topping – so that Rex could
take over the accounts. Diamond had so many problems with the quality
of his product that his company never got off the ground, and in less
than a year went out of business.”
In
March 1949 Rex wrote several food corporations to see if they might
be interested in manufacturing Wonder Whip and paying the royalty.
General Food Corp in New York said they were not interested. Sadly,
Diamond was ahead of the market for about 8 years later General Mills
launched Dream Whip, and about 15 years later Whip'n Chill, both
similar products.
In November 1952,
Bob Rich of Rich Products hired Rex and there he was successful in
developing a product named Coffee Rich. Bob Rich and Rex Diamond set
up a separate corporation named Coffee Rich Inc. just to manufacture
and sell the Coffee Rich. It did very well financially.
In May 1956, Rich Products added a
completely new formulation of Whip Topping to its line. Developed by
Holton W. “Rex” Diamond, it was named Rich’s Whip Topping –
The Diamond Process.” It contained no protein. Soy oil was replaced
by coconut oil, which had a better flavor. During
the development stage, Mr. Rich discovered that the soya bean
substance could be frozen, thawed and whipped. The new product, was
immediately hailed as “the miracle cream from the soya bean.”
Rich's® Whip Topping® was the world's
first frozen non-dairy whipped topping. The “miracle cream”
revolutionized the food processing industry, serving as the
springboard for a series of groundbreaking, non-dairy products. It
sparked the advent of Rich Products Corporation, still one of the
largest family-owned companies around the globe.
At the time,
Diamond was in the process of building a large home in Buffalo New
York but then he was unexpectedly fired by Bob Rich. One of the
contingencies of the stock agreement between Rich and Diamond was
that if either person was terminated or left the company, he had to
sell his stock back to the corporation. Diamond felt he had been
fired because the company (and Diamond) had made so much money that
Rich had to fire Diamond to get control of the stock.
Diamond, who had
signed a bad contract, was very upset. The same thing happened to the
sales manager for Coffee Rich. Again Rex approached Delsoy Products,
asking if he could manufacture topping in their plant, but again they
declined. Meanwhile diamond returned to his home town in Detroit and
went to an attorney. The attorney settled with Rich Products for a
much smaller sum than Diamond hoped to get. Within a year or two of
his termination from Rich Products, Diamond committed
suicide in Detroit.
Sources
William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi. Henry
Ford and his Researchers - History of their Work with Soybeans …
2011.
William Shurtleff & Akiko
Aoyagi.“History of Non-Dairy Whip Topping, Coffee Creamer, Cottage
Cheese, and Icing/Frosting (With and Without Soy) 1900-2013.” 2013.
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/170/Whip.pd
Talk (print) with David and Harvey Whitehouse,
formerly of Delsoy Products. February 4, 1992.
Rex Diamond and Coffee Rich
