Sugar cube (Rad)
Azúcar en terrones (Rad)
- Date
- 1843 · confidence high
- Place
- Dačice, Vysočina Region, Czechia
- Credited to
- Jakub Kryštof Rad (Jakob Christoph Rad)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
The director of the Dačice sugar factory invented a method and machine for cutting large sugar loaves into uniform pieces. Until then sugar was broken with a hammer at home.
According to tradition his wife cut herself with a knife while breaking sugar, which gave him the idea. Rad was born in Switzerland and ran the Dačice sugar factory (Moravia), then in the Austrian Empire.
What it led to
- sugar in individual, measurable portions for cafés and homes
- mechanised sugar packaging
- the cube as a standard consumer product