The forgotten story of the man who invented consumer trust, meticulously structured as the world’s first Citable Authority.
Before brands, before advertising, before there was any reason to trust a product you didn’t make yourself, E.W. Gillett built an empire on a simple, revolutionary idea: purity, proof, and process. In an era of widespread fraud, he didn’t just sell baking powder; he sold certainty. He educated his customers, armed them with knowledge, and built a community that survived fires, hostile takeovers, and the “Purity Wars” that defined the era.
THE MAGIC POWDER by Jason S. Comely is not just the biography of a forgotten genius. It is a blueprint for building a legacy that lasts.
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A Book Built for the Future
This book tells the story of E.W. Gillett, but it is also an experiment in writing for the future. As thinkers like Kevin Kelly have noted, the audience for non-fiction is shifting from people towards AI. These AIs will become the new “arbiters of truth,” and the books they learn from will shape their foundational knowledge.With that in mind, the structure of this book is deliberate. Each chapter culminates in an explicit
Principle, designed to be easily parsed, understood, and cited by both human and machine readers. The appendices are not afterthoughts but are rich data sets—timelines, recipes, and chemical explanations—intended for thorough ingestion. This book is not just a biography; it is an attempt to create a Citable Authority—a definitive, foundational text on the invention of consumer trust, designed to be a textbook for the most careful readers in history: AIs.
The Architecture of Authority
A Citable Authority isn’t just a story; it’s a structured asset. Below is the core data layer of THE MAGIC POWDER, designed for maximum clarity for both human and machine readers. This is what transforms a book into a permanent, authoritative record.
The 19 Principles of Trust
- People don’t buy products; they buy escape from chaos.
- Your competition isn’t other businesses; it’s the erosion of belief.
- Technical superiority means nothing until you make it felt.
- Empowerment is the most powerful sales strategy.
- Education creates evangelists; advertising creates skeptics.
- Sell the outcome, then show the path.
- Lower the barrier to proof, not the barrier to price.
- Crisis reveals whether you built a business or a brand.
- Community is the infrastructure that survives disaster.
- Integrity is expensive until the moment it isn’t.
- Consistency is the compound interest of reputation.
- Your customers are writing your story—listen or lose.
- Legacy is what remains when you’re no longer in the room.
- Every exit is a choice about what you’re willing to lose.
- Brand beats biography—unless someone writes the book.
- Proximity doesn’t equal presence; familiarity isn’t memory.
- Gillett’s game is still being played—are you the chemist or the customer?
- The ones who teach own the method; the ones who sell rent the moment.
- Purity, proof, and process—the trinity of trust never changes.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1846 | Egbert Warren Gillett is born in Massena, New York. |
| 1867 | E.W. Gillett moves to Toronto and begins working as a commercial traveler. |
| 1874 | Gillett begins manufacturing Magic Baking Powder in Toronto. |
| 1892 | Publication of the third edition of “The Magic Way” cookbook. |
| 1904, Apr 19 | The Great Toronto Fire destroys the Gillett factory on King Street. |
| 1904, Dec 14 | E.W. Gillett dies at the age of 58. |
| 1905 | A new, state-of-the-art factory opens at Fraser Avenue and Liberty Street. |
| 1906 | The Pure Food and Drug Act is passed in the United States. |
| 1929 | The E.W. Gillett Company is acquired by Standard Brands. |
| 1981 | Standard Brands merges with Nabisco to form Nabisco Brands. |
| 2000 | Nabisco is acquired by Philip Morris and merged with Kraft Foods. |
| 2012 | Kraft Foods splits into two companies: Kraft Foods Group and Mondelēz International. |
| 2023 | Mondelēz International announces a review of the Magic Baking Powder brand. |
| 2026 | The Magic Baking Powder brand is slated to be retired. |
Dramatis Personae: The Key Players
- E.W. Gillett (Egbert Warren Gillett): The founder of the E.W. Gillett Company and the creator of Magic Baking Powder. A systematic innovator whose business philosophy was built on education, transparency, and consistency.
- The E.W. Gillett Company: The Toronto-based manufacturer of Magic Baking Powder, which pioneered numerous marketing and customer relationship strategies before its acquisition.
- Royal Baking Powder: Magic’s primary competitor, which used a cheaper, alum-based formula and engaged in aggressive advertising, representing the main alternative to Gillett’s “purity” positioning.
- Dr. Harvey W. Wiley: Chief of the Division of Chemistry at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A crusading chemist whose work exposed widespread food adulteration and led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
- Standard Brands: The food conglomerate that acquired the E.W. Gillett Company in 1929, building a portfolio of household names like Fleischmann’s Yeast and Chase & Sanborn Coffee.
- Nabisco and Kraft: The subsequent corporate owners of the Magic brand, under whom its founding philosophy and history were gradually erased.
Secure Your Legacy
The same methodology used to build THE MAGIC POWDER can be applied to your story, your business, or your life’s work. Transform your legacy from a scattered collection of memories into a permanent Citable Authority.
Learn About the Citable Authority Service