The History of Pop

Soft drinks can trace their history back to the mineral water found in natural springs. Bathing in natural springs has long been considered a healthy thing to do, mineral water was said to have curative powers. Scientists soon discovered that gas carbonium or carbon dioxide was behind the bubbles in natural mineral water.

In 1767, the first drinkable, man made glass of carbonated water was created by Englishmen, Dr. Joseph Priestley. Three years later, the Swedish chemist, Torbern Bergman, invented a generating apparatus that made carbonated water from chalk by the use of sulfuric acid. Bergman's apparatus allowed imitation mineral water to be produced in large amounts.

In 1810, the first U.S. patent was issued for the "means of mass manufacture of imitation mineral waters" to Simons and Rundell, of Charleston, South Carolina. Carbonated beverages did not achieve great popularity in America until 1832, when John Mathews invented his apparatus for the making carbonated water. Mathews mass manufactured his apparatus for sale to others.

The drinking of either natural or artificial mineral water was considered a healthy practice. American pharmacists, who were selling most of the mineral waters, started to add medicinal and other flavorful herbs to the unflavored beverage, i.e. birch bark, dandelion, sarsaparilla and fruit extracts. The early drug stores with their soda fountains became a popular part of American culture. Customers wanted to take the drinks home with them and the soft drink bottling industry grew from the consumer demand.

Over 1,500 U.S. patents were filed for either a cork, cap or lid for the carbonated drink bottle tops. The bottles were under a lot of pressure from the gas. Inventors were trying to find the best way to prevent the carbon dioxide (bubbles) from escaping. In 1892, the "Crown Cork Bottle Seal" was patented by William Painter, a Baltimore machine shop operator. It was the first very successful method of keeping the bubbles in the bottle.

In 1899, the first patent was issued for a glass blowing machine for the automatic production of glass bottles. Earlier glass bottles had all been hand blown. Four years later, the new bottle blowing machine was in operation. It was first operated by the inventor, Michael J. Owens, an employee of Libby Glass Company. Within a few years, glass bottle production increased from 1,500 bottles a day to 57,000 bottles a day.

Sometime in the 1920's, the first "Hom-Paks" were invented. "Hom-Paks" are the familiar six-pack carrying cartons. Automatic vending machines also began to appear in the 1920's. The soft drink had become an American mainstay.

In May, 1886, Coca-Cola was invented in by Doctor John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. The name was a suggestion given by Pemberton's bookkeeper Frank Robinson.

Being a bookkeeper, Robinson also had excellent penmanship. It was he who first scripted "Coca-Cola" into the flowing letters which has become the famous logo of today.

The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta.

About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss.

Today, products of the Coca-Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day.

Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina was a pharmacist. Like many pharmacists at the turn of the century he had a soda fountain in his drugstore, where he served his customers refreshing drinks, that he created himself. His most popular beverage was something he called "Brad's drink" made of carbonated water, sugar, vanilla, rare oils, pepsin and cola nuts.

"Brad's drink", created in the summer of 1898, was later renamed "Pepsi-Cola" after the pepsin and cola nuts used in the recipe. The name was trademarked on June 16th, 1903.

After seventeen years of success, Caleb Bradham lost "Pepsi-Cola" He had gambled on the stock market, he believed sugar prices would raise but they fell instead. "Pepsi-Cola" went bankrupt in 1923.

In 1931, "Pepsi-Cola" was bought by the Loft Candy Company Loft president, Charles G. Guth reformulated the popular soft drink.

In 1940, history was made when the first advertising jingle was broadcast nationally. The jingle was "Nickel Nickel" an advertisement for "Pepsi-Cola" that refered to the pepsi price and the quantity for the price. "Nickel Nickel" became a hit record and was recorded into 55 languages.

Charles Leiper Grigg was born in 1868 in Price's Branch, Missouri. As an adult, Grigg moved to St. Louis and started working in advertising and sales, where he was introduced to the carbonated beverage business.

By 1919, Grigg was working for a manufacturing company owned by Vess Jones. It was there that Grigg invented and marketed his first soft drink called "Whistle".

After a dispute with management, Grigg quit his job (giving away "Whistle") and started working for the Warner Jenkinson Company, developing flavoring agents for soft drinks. Grigg invented then his second soft drink called called "Howdy". When he eventually moved on from Warner Jenkinson Co., he took his soft drink "Howdy" with him.

Together with financier Edmund G. Ridgway, Grigg went on to form the Howdy Company. So far, Grigg had invented two orange-flavored soft drinks. But his soft drinks struggled against the king of all orange pop drinks, "Orange Crush". "Orange Crush" grew to dominate the market for orange sodas.

Grigg decided to focus on lemon-lime flavors and and by in October of 1929 he had invented a new drink called, "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas".

The name was quickly changed to " 7 Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime" and then again quickly changed to just plain "7 Up".

"7 Up" merged with "Dr Pepper" in 1986.