The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-04-28
SALTWATER.
THE FACTORIES OF THE COOLING
BEVERAGE PREPARING FOR HOT
WEATHER.
Fortunes Made in the business Where the
Most Trade Is Done Consumption of
acknowledgements In the
South,
New York Mail and Exnress |

II
with the near approach ce summer thu
various soda water factories in the c;tv orc
blSily engaged preparing for the coming
nov season, when enough of the cooling fluid
WIN be quaffed to float the Great Eastern
ana the American navy thrown in. "The
SODA water business has grown to immense
proportions" remarked a wholesale manu-
tacturer Of soda-water and apparatu, I'D
town to a reporter.
Fifteen years ago it began to boom and
since then has more than doubled. Each
hamlet, village, and town in the far west,
on the mountain slope, in the valley and
AMID the burning sands of the plain. all
have their saltwater fountains and SQUIRT
the foaming beverage during the long sum-
mer months. Millions of dollars are speut
and fortunes are made in the course of sew
eral summers. A man at Coney island last
summer cleared over so, 900 alone on soda
water
How much marble do you use in your
factory per annumF
Last year we ground s, 37i tons Of white
marble into dust to generate carbonic acid
gas. 1t cost Sl.25 per barrel of 490 pounds.
This marble is quarried at Pleasantville, N.
Y. All the year round we have a machine
pounding it to fine DUST getting large
quantity for the summer rush 1t is a pop
uiar failacy that soda water is made of sui
phurlc acid and marble dust, but the fact
Is they never come in contact with the bev-
erage. Soda water is simply pure water
charged or saturated with carbonic acid
gas"
why don't you use cheaper material than
marble to generate carbonic acid gasp
ut is cheaper to use when conveniently
near than bicarbonate Of soda. Bicarbonate
of soda is utilized when marble can not be
had In England whiting is used extern
sively, and at one time it was universally
used both here and there This whiting is a
carbonate of hme-fossil, and the fossil con-
tains animalcule, which often gives the
water a fishy taste On that account we
dropped it, So much soda water is con-
sumed every year. and so many scares have
started about its being unhealthy from con-
tact with copper and other metals, that the
chief aim now OF manufacturers is to pro-
duce apparatus so lined with pure sheet
block-tin containing no admixture of lead
or other injurious metal, that absolutely no
danger is unprecedented. Last year the
board Of health passed an ordinance forbid.
ding the use of fountains lined with brass,
| lead, copper, or other metal or metallic sub
stance that will be affected by liquids, Sc
that dangerous, unwholesome, or deleter
ious compounds are formed therein. The
result Of this ordinance has been beneficial,
although many fountains had to be refined
and oyerhauled."
DO you expect to do large business thi,
summerN
"Ihe present indications are that more
saltwater will he used the coming season
than ever before Grand preparations al
| Coney island and all the watering places arr
! going forward to receive thousands o.
| pleasure-seekers, and as last season wa.
somewhat broken by cold spells this one i
| expected to he fine and unbroken?'
do you sell many fountains in the south?
! "Yes great many. We have seven o.
| eight men travelling in that section all thu
| time. The women and children drinl
saltwater, and the men, as a rule
prefer something stronger. But the fountain
is frequently made to pour forth good oil.
| rye instead of strip and sarsaparilla
These, though, are used in the prohibition
counties. But here in New York during tn
dead, hot, still summer days the great drink
ing of soda water is done. The factory
kept running all the time, marble by tn
ton is ground to dust, 10000 gallons O
water is filtered and purified day, an
many hundred gallons of extracts and frui
navors are prepared daily. This great rus
lasts frequently four months without cessa
ti1n, and often five. As Col Sellers sale
there are millions in it, if once started wit
the proper trim in the way of capital an
| enprpv