The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-04-15
MILLIONS IN SODA WATER.


With the near approach of summer the
various soda water factories in the city are
busily engaged preparing for the coming
hot season, when enough of the cooling
fluid will be quaffed to float the Great East
ern and the American navy thrown in.
The soda water business has grown to
immense proportions" remarked whole
sale manufacturer of soda water and appa-
ratus uptown to a reporter for the Mail and
Express.
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 soda water fountains and squirt
the foaming beverage during the long sum-
mer months. Millions of dollars are spent
and fortunes are made in the course of sew
eral summers. A man at Coney Island last
summer cleared over $40, 900 alone on soda
water"
How much marble do you use in your
factory per annum ?"
" Last year We ground 1874 tons Of
white marble into dust to generate carbonic
acid gas 1t cost SLIPS per barrel of 42O
pounds. This marble is quarried at Pleas.
sntville, N. Y. All the year round we have
machine pounding it TO fine dust, getting
\ large quantity ready for the summer rush.
1t is apopular fallacy that soda water is made
of sulphuric acid and marble dust, but the
fact is they never come in contact with
the beverage. 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
" 1t is cheaper to use when conveniently
near than bi-carb Of soda. Bi-carb of soda
is utilized when marble cannot be had. In
England whiting is used extensively, and al
one time it was universally used both here
and there. This whiting is carbonate of
lime-fossil and the fossil contains animal
cul@, which often give the water q fishy
TASTE On that account we dropped it, So
much soda water is consumed every year
and SO many scares have started about its
being unhealthy from contact with copper
and other metals, that the chief aim now of
manufacturers is to produce an apparatus SO
lined with pure sheet block-tin containing
no admixture of lead or other injurious
metal, that absolutely no danger is appre-
hended. Last year the Board of Health
passed an ordinance forbidding the use OF
fountains lined with brass, lead, copper Oh
other metal or metallic substance that will
be affected by liquids, SO that dangerous,
unwholesome or deleterious compounds are
formed therein. The result of this ordi-
nance has been beneficial, although many
fountains had to be refined and overhauled.
Do you expect to do q large business
this summer ?n
" The present indications are that more
soda water will be used the coming season
than ever before. Grand preparations at
Coney Island and oil the watering places are
going forward to receive thousands of pleas
ure seekers, and as last season was some
what broken by cold spells this one is expect.
ed tc be fine and unbrokep."
"Do you soil many fountains in the
South ?"
a. Yes, great many. We have seven or
eight men travelling in that section all the
time. The women and children drink soda
water, and the men, as a rule, prefer some.
thing stronger. But the fountain is fire.
quently made to pour forth good old rye in
steod of syrup of sarsaparilla These
though, are used in the prohibition counties
But here in New York during the dead, hot,
still summer days the great drinking of soda
water is done. The factory is kept running
all the time, marble by the ton is ground to
dust, 10000 gallons of winter is filtered and
purified day, and many hundred gallons
of extracts and fruit favors are prepared
daily. This great rush lasts frequently four
months without cessation and often Ave.
As Col. Sellers said, there are millions it,
if once started with the proper trim in the
way of capital and energy"