Soda and Carbonation....

[Guest NoCalMike]

My question is, was soda around before the figured out how to carbonate drinks?? I mean the syrup/sugar/water mix probobaly still worked without the carbon dioxide, so I am wondering if there was soda-esque product on the market anywhere before it was carbonated, and then suddenly someone tried it and it was just thought to be better with carbonation.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

This may/may not be what you're looking for. I did a Google search and came up with this. It's the Internet so take it for what you will...

 

http://www.gono.com/vir-mus/painted.htm

 

THE DISCOVERY OF MINERAL WATERS:

The name "SODA" was coined in the early nineteenth century, but the product's true beginnings go back several centuries to biblical times when bubbling waters from natural springs were a much sought after delight.

 

The first recorded history leading up to our modern soft drinks began with the discovery of natural mineral waters created by the flow of water through rocks and soil where mineral salts are dissolved. The exact date of the discovery by man is unknown, but as early as 400 B C, the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote a book enticed, "Airs Waters, and Places".

 

As the Roman Empire expanded, many of the renowned springs of England, Germany, Belgium, and Italy were touted for their miracle medicinal cures, and promotion of good health.

 

EVOLUTION OF THE BOTTLE:

 

The universal container we take for granted, the glass bottle probably had its humble beginnings in Syria about 100 years before Christ when the art of blowing air through a hollow tube into a blob of molten glass forming a hollow vessel was discovered.

 

Glass is made from a mixture of sand and lime which is slowly heated to a temperature of 2500 degrees Fahrenheit where the ingredients fuse. The early glass blowers would then let the molten glass cool to about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit to achieve the right consistency for blowing into bottles.

 

Conditions were harsh in the early bottle factories. Heat and grime were always present and production in the typical shop was limited to about 1500 bottles per day by crews of three blowers and three helpers.

 

Many of the blown bottles produced were varying shades of green and blue (sometimes referred to as aqua). These colors were most prominent because of the iron impurities found in the raw materials.

 

By purposely adding certain impurities to the raw glass mixture, many bottle color combinations became available to the early bottle makers.

 

COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF MINERAL WATERS:

 

In Europe beginning in the late seventeen hundreds, it became fashionable to visit the natural mineral springs to either drink of the "healthful" waters or to bathe in them. The wealthy promoted and gathered at these "watering places" or spas which catered to their needs and their pocketbooks.

 

Spas were also becoming popular in the New World, and as early as 1767, the waters of Jackson's Spa in Boston were bottled and sold to satisfy a rapidly growing demand for its therapeutic miracles.

 

About 1800, the waters of a mineral spring near Albany, NY were bottled commercially, and in 1820, the first Saratoga Springs bottled water was sold.

 

The bottling of natural mineral waters peaked in the late 1800's, and by 1900 was being phased out by the increasing use of "Soda Waters".

 

SODA WATERS TAKE OVER:

 

The chronological separation between the bottling of "natural spring waters", and artificially produced "soda waters" is vague at best, and the bottling of each proceeded together for a number of years in the early 1900's. Commercial development of soda water was hastened by several technological breakthroughs.

 

In 1767, an English scientist named Joseph Priestly began experiments to "stimulate the fixed air found in natural waters". In one of his attempts, he used a primitive apparatus to pour water from one vessel to another held near fermenting vats at a local brewery. He found that the water easily absorbed gas later identified as carbon dioxide, the same modern-day "fizz" that tickles our tonsils in our favorite sodas. Priestly published his findings in a paper titled "Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air".

 

As early as 1806, a Professor at Yale University, Benjamin Sillman was reported to have produced small quantities of artificially carbonated water in New Haven, CT.

 

It is believed that the first carbonated soft drink was made in Philadelphia in 1807, when Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the father of American Surgery, asked a chemist to prepare carbonated water for a patient. Flavor was added to make the drink more palatable. The main problem at the dawn of soda pop was finding a way to add natural juices to carbonated water without fermentation ruining the drink.

 

Carbonated beverages did not achieve widespread popularity until 1832, when John Mathews invented an apparatus for charging water with carbon dioxide gas.

 

THE BOTTLE REVOLUTION:

 

Thus far, the development of mineral and soda waters has been traced to the beginnings of our modern day flavored sodas. This is a good point in the discussion to outline the evolution of containers used for the rapidly growing soda industry.

 

In the early days of mineral waters, the closure of choice was the cork stopper. In order to maintain a proper seal, it was necessary to keep the cork stopper moist. One of the methods used most commonly in Europe was to invert the bottle to keep the liquid in continuous contact with the cork. The bottoms of the bottles were rounded to prevent them from standing upright.

 

As noted, the early bottles were hand blown and rather crude compared with later machine made bottles The first bottles used for mineral and soda waters were called blob tops, named for the mass of glass used to form the lip on the bottle. Tops were applied in a separate operation during manufacture.

 

In 1857, Henry Putman of Cleveland, Oh, invented a wire clamp retainer for cork stoppered bottles. Putman's "better way" was closely followed by John Matthews, Jr's "gravitating stopper. In 1873, the ball stoppered bottle closure referred to as the "Coda stopper", was patented in the U.S. by Hiram Cold of England. In 1874, Charles de Quillfeldt of New York, patented the "Lightning Stopper".

 

Finally in 1879, Charles G. Hutchinson, the son of a prominent Chicago bottler invented a spring-type internal bottle closure known as the "Hutchinson Stopper" whose popularity during the period made it almost a standard. In fact, so many were used that the bottles produced during the years to follow are referred to as "Hutchinson Bottles".

 

Stoppered bottles were still being used by some small American companies as late as the 1920's, but laws restricting their use because they were unsanitary, brought an end to an exciting era in bottling.

 

The demise of stoppered bottles was brought about at the turn of the century by two historic innovations in the bottling industry.

 

In 1892, William Painter, a Baltimore machine shop operator was awarded a patent on the crown-cork bottle seal, an invention that quickly became a standard for the industry and replaced over a thousand different types of bottle sealing devices in use at the time.

 

The second major change in bottling occurred in 1903 when the first successful automatic bottle blowing machine was put in operation by its inventor, Michael J. Owens, an employee of Libby Glass Company. By 1910, the new machines were producing over 57,000 bottles a day, a dramatic improvement over the 1500 bottles per day produced by hand a few years earlier. These automatic bottle machine bottles are sometimes referred to as ABM bottles by collectors to separate them from the "blob-top" and Hutchinson bottle era

 

One of the primary features of a soda bottle that makes it a collectable of interest is the labeling on the face and bottom of the bottle.

 

The earliest form of labeling was embossing where raised glass letters and decoration was created as part of the bottle mold. This label was used primarily as a means of getting the bottle returned for refills.

 

As labeling machines, better glues, and improved printing techniques evolved more bottlers began to use paper labels to identify their soda brands. Not only did this technique reduce cost, but it made the use of bottles more flexible as flavored soda demands increased. Many bottles of this era contained both embossing and paper labels.

 

In 1934, the bottling industry made first use of Applied Color Label referred to by collectors as ACL or Painted Label Soda Bottles. This baked on coloring on the face of the bottle eventually made bottle embossing and paper labels almost obsolete on glass soda bottles, and created an outstanding collectable.

 

SODA INDUSTRY MILESTONES:

 

1794- SCHWEPPS opened for business in Bristol, England.

 

1820- SARATOGA SPRINGS Mineral Water was first bottled and sold.

 

1861- Ginger Ale was first bottled in the U.S. by DOWS of Boston, MA.

 

1866- CANTRELL & COCHRANE - began exporting ginger ale to the U.S. from Ireland.

 

1871- The first soda pop trademark was issued for LEMON'S SUPERIOR SPARKLING GINGER ALE.

 

1876- Charles E. HIRES began the manufacture of "root beer extract" in Philadelphia.

 

1880- James VERNOR perfected the formula for a unique ginger ale drink.

 

1881- CLIQUOT CLUB of Millis, MA, began the manufacture of ginger ale and other flavored sodas.

 

1883- WHITE ROCK of Waukesha, WI began bottling mineral water.

 

1885- The Moxie Nerve Food Company began distribution of MOXIE.

 

1885- W. B Morrison at the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, TX, developed a distinctively flavored drink at his soda fountain. DR PEPPER was not sold in a bottle until 1888.

 

1886- John S Pemberton, an experimental pharmacist standing over an old brass or iron kettle in Atlanta' GA, tried over 300 combinations of herbs and spices during a period of over four years before he finally came up with a liquid that tasted in his words "all right". That magic brew was named COCA-COLA, and speculation still exists as to whether the potion was developed as a soft drink or as a "cure all" headache tonic.

 

1889- Mineral water from the mountains of Northern California was bottled as Shasta Mountain Spring Water, and later evolved to the SHASTA Beverage Company.

 

1890- John J McLaughlin opened a plant in Toronto, Canada to bottle soda water and sometime later a Belfast style ginger ale. In 1907, the name CANADA DRY was given to a pale dry ginger ale.

 

1893- The Crystal Bottling Company began bottling HIRES Root Beer.

 

1898- Another pharmacist, Caleb Bradham from New Bern, SC, developed and marketed a cola drink. In 1903, he registered the PEPSI trademark.

 

1899- Benjamin Thomas, and Joseph Whitehead from Chattanooga were granted the first hauling rights to the whole U.S. for COCA-COLA.

 

1905- Claude A Hatcher, a Georgia grocer began bottling a ginger ale and a root beer under the brand name of ROYAL CROWN.

 

1906- ORANGE CRUSH was introduced by J M Thompson of Chicago.

 

1924- The NEHI brand was created by Royal Crown, and production began on a large for the time 9-1/2 ounce bottle.

 

1928- The Uncola was developed by C I Grigg of the Howdy Company, St.Louis, Mo, and called 7UP.

 

1930- BIRELEY'S introduced an orange soda drink.

 

1933- Bottling commenced for MISSION Orange in a distinctive black bottle.

 

1934- ROYAL CROWN COLA was introduced by the Nehi Corporation.

 

1936- The first soda in a can, CLIQUOT CLUB Ginger Ale, was test marketed in a Continental low profile cone top can. Leakage, flavor absorption problems, and difficulty in stacking and handling spelled failure for the initial introduction.

 

1937- DAD'S Old Fashion Root Beer began bottling in Chicago, ILL.

 

1938- SQUIRT, a grapefruit citrus drink, made its debut.

 

1940- GRAPETTE introduced a tasty grape drink in a tiny six ounce bottle.

 

1948- Continental Can Company in conjunction with PEPSI-COLA tried again, but cans proved too expensive compared with returnable bottles.

 

1952- NO-CAL BEVERAGE, the first low calorie soft drink, was pioneered by the Kirsch Beverage Company of Brooklyn, NY.

 

1953- CANTRELL & COCHRANE introduced its SUPER COOLA line of nine flavors, in an improved 6 and 12 ounce cone top can.

 

1958- FANTA was introduced by COCA-COLA, its first major marketing in the U.S. of a non-cola soft dunk.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Orange Sunkist owns them all.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

In a 2 Liter bottle of soda there is 4 liters worth of Carbonation (the gas).