Beverage Vending Machine: History Related to Soft Drinks, Especially in the United States

Whether you call it a coke, cola, soda, soda, soda pop, or soda, the name still rings in the proverbial mind of conscientious Americans. That name, is one of tradition and sugary success that has a long road of challenges and innovations along the way. The United States has seen firsthand the impact of these soft drinks and considered it a good thing. Perhaps we take pride in knowing that most of our soda flavors helped our story grow. Perhaps you brought families and extended families together, during those very special moments in history. We know our grandmothers and grandfathers liked the stuff, and we continue to enjoy the refreshing appeal of soda today. So sit back, relax and have a drink because it’s a fascinating topic to talk about.

The history of soft drinks can go all the way to the source (so to speak). In the United States (particularly in the Yellowstone National Park region), there are a large number of springs that gush naturally from the earth’s surface. We call these natural carbonation springs and natural mineral springs, in part because they come from the very rocks we call home today. Even in the encapsulated ancient times, when soda was a foreign term, societies (like the Romans, for example) thought of these natural mineral sources as a healthy and almost revitalizing source of life. They thought that going to the baths and drinking these mineral waters would make them feel better (the invariable source of life, I guess). Naturally, there were a large number of scientists later who wanted to study the effects of these mineral waters. For example, Joseph Black (a Scottish doctor) whose studies discovered gases present in carbonation, such as carbon dioxide, for example. Interestingly enough, Glasgow’s chemistry department is named after Joseph Black. Another important scientist to study these mineral waters was Friedrich Hoffmann, a German physician and chemist, who also discovered some of the first information about the nervous system and German measles. Obviously, many more people investigated the health benefits of this early sparkling mineral water.

The first known soft drinks were called sherbet, which is now known more as a Middle Eastern drink made with rose hips, cherries, roses, licorice, and a variety of spices. These drinks originated in early times by Arab chemists, who applied many different spices and flavors to them, such as crushed fruits, herbs, and aromatic flowers. Even at the end of the 13th century, soft drinks began to have a name with the introduction of a drink of English origin called Dandelion & Burdock, which was made from the fermentation of dandelion and burdock. This drink is similar to what we call Root Beer in the United States today. Most of these ancient beverages were naturally carbonated from naturally recurring sources of carbon dioxide, such as the mineral waters mentioned above.

The first commercially marketed non-carbonated soft drinks in the West occurred during the 17th century. Most of these still drinks were made from lemon juice, sweetened with honey. In the late 17th century, a French company by the name of Compagnie des Limonadiers had a monopoly on the sale of lemonade-type soft drinks. Businesses that sold these drinks offered them behind the backs of sales agents and distributed them in glasses to thirsty customers. On top of this, during the 18th century there was a lot of progress in terms of trying to find a process to produce chemically formulated carbonated water, like the water found in natural mineral springs. In the late 17th century, an Englishman named Joseph Priestley found a process to implement carbon dioxide into normal water, thus producing carbonated water in the laboratory. His invention of carbonated water would lead to great innovations in soft drinks. The paper in which he published his findings was known as Fixed Air Water Impregnation, in which he says that dripping sulfuric acid onto chalk would produce carbon dioxide gas. This would allow the gas to dissolve in a container of water, thus starting the carbonation process. Another Englishman named John Nooth got hold of this information and made a machine capable of commercial use. There was also a Swede named Torbern Bergman who made a machine that generated carbonated water in a very similar way (using sulfuric acid and chalk). One of the first chemists to add flavorings to carbonated soft drinks was Jons Berzelius, who added spices, juices, and wine to carbonated water in the late 18th century.

The most important moment for the soda industry in the United States was the innovation of the soda fountain. In the early 19th century, a Yale chemistry professor named Benjamin Silliman sold these soft drinks in New Haven, Connecticut. Business owners in Philadelphia and New York City also began selling these soft drinks in the 1800s. Also in the early 19th century, John Matthews and John Lippincott (New York and Philadelphia respectively) began manufacturing soda fountains. They succeeded and built large factories to make the soda fountains.

People started drinking mineral water because as we stipulated above, it was found to be a healthy practice. In the United States, many pharmaceutical companies began to sell mineral waters for these reasons. They also began adding herbs and other chemicals to mineral water. Some examples of things they added were birch bark, dandelion, sarsaparilla (early root beers), and fruit extracts. These flavorings and additions were included to improve the sales value of the mineral waters and offer more flavor to the consumer. These pharmacists become a popular part of American culture. Americans loved going to these pharmacies with soda fountains, every day. Most of the soft drinks Americans consumed during parts of the 19th century were found at soda fountains, drug stores, or ice cream parlors. After this period, canned soft drinks became one of the most attractive markets for American consumers.

When the bottling industry began, more than 1,500 patents were created for the bottling process for these soft drinks. Since carbonation put a lot of pressure on the soda, there were many innovations in the way the soda was bottled. I didn’t want carbon dioxide escaping from the bottle, or I would lose all carbonation and flavor. During the latter part of the 19th century, William Painter (originally from Baltimore) created the “crown cork bottle seal”. It was the first successful method of storing carbonated soft drinks, without wasting the gas. During the turn of the century, a patent was issued for the glass blowing process used to create the bottles used in carbonated drinks. Previously, the glass that had been used for this process was blown by hand, which was time consuming. The inventor of the machine was called Michael Owens (he worked at the Libby Glass Company). The production of glass bottles increased exponentially after this patent from 1,400 bottles a day to about 58,000 bottles a day.

Now that we have soft drinks available in many forms, such as aluminum cans and plastic bottles, we can enjoy the wide variety of offerings from soft drink companies. The soft drinks themselves are made by mixing the ingredients and flavorings with water. Most of the production of soft drinks is done in factories. Most of the time, soda companies will use a syrup (such as corn syrup) to sweeten the drink. Syrups are also related to drink machines that mix the syrup with the carbonated water separately. There is a rich tradition of soft drinks and now we are in a period where the famous soft drinks enrich our daily life; when we grab a soda we know the story behind it, who in our family drank it and who didn’t.