Henry Perky invented Shredded Wheat, the breakfast cereal first produced in the United States in 1892.
Perky developed a machine that pressed cooked wheat into thin strands and shaped them into small biscuits. He demonstrated the product at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where it attracted public attention as a simple whole-grain food.
The cereal was first made commercially in Denver before production moved to Niagara Falls, New York. The National Biscuit Company, later known as Nabisco, acquired the Shredded Wheat company in 1928.
Shredded Wheat is sometimes confused with shredded wheat-based cereals that contain sugar or frosting. The original biscuit consists chiefly of whole-grain wheat and remains associated with a plain, high-fiber breakfast.