> The potato chip (or
>Saratoga chip) was introduced in the 1850s as a variation on fried
>potatoes, which presumably have been around in one form or another
>since there've been potatoes and fat.
>
>

Recipes for extremely thin slices of fried potatoes were published in the 1820s
in the US and probably earlier in France. The first reference to the term
"potato chip" that I've found dates to 1870. This predates the first use of
"Saratoga chip."

But potato chips did not become important in the US until the 1930s. While
they had been manufactured since the late 19th century, a packaging revolution
using first wax paper was necessary before the chips became a commercially
viable product. (Don't know when they were first manufactured in the UK or
elsewhere-- after WW II?) And they really were a minor product until the dip
revolution of the 1950s.

Andy Smith