Inventor: William Kellogg

William Kellogg was born on April 7th, 1860. He left school in the sixth grade and at the age of fourteen began working as a salesman in his father’s business. Later he worked with his brother, Dr John Harvey Kellogg, at the Battle Creek Sanatorium. He helped his brother to try and improve the vegetarian diet of the patients. The patients were not allowed to have caffeine, meat or alcohol or to smoke tobacco. One day in 1894, they left some corn boiling in the kitchen and forgot about it. When they returned, they found that the corn had turned into thin flakes. Accidentally, they had invented ‘corn flakes’. They started serving it to their patients and it immediately became very popular. In 1906, William Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company to produce ‘Kellogg’s Corn Flakes’. He expanded his business to Australia in 1924 and to England in 1938. In 1925, he established the Fellowship Corporation to help poor people. The Corporation helped to build an agricultural school, a bird sanctuary and an experimental farm. He also donated $3 million to build a school for handicapped children. Kellogg worked at the Foundation until just before his death, at the age of 91, on October 6th 1951.