The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-10-03
Excellent soda Wseer costs but
Fifteen Cent? a Gallon.
[Washinslon start

TWashinflon start
A temporary luri in the business gave
,,enorter an o5porsunity to ask the
clerk behind tb counter how it was that
he manufactp ed his soda water But
he laughed . he replied;
"Most reople seem to have notion
that eyerS apothecary makes his own
soda woSer in tank down cellar, where.
as the act is that he never manufactures
it hiriself under any circumstances. but
buy it by the quantity all ready for use.
Itcomes In ten gallon receptacles. and
che business of producing it is an enor-
nous one in this country.
1--WE get ours from Baltimore, but
there are factories in all the big cities.
Each factory has thousands of such ten
gallon receptacles as / speak of, of steel
and heavily bound with metal ribs. so as
to Withstand the tremendous pressure to
which they are subjected. 1t is their
business to send these tanks filed to the
apothecaries and others who dispense the
stuff. The latter put the tanks beneath
their fountains, one at time, draw from
them until they are empty, and then
send them back to be refilled and re-
turned, loaded as beforehand so ON ad
infinitum."
HOW SODA WATER is MADE.
"But how is the stuff made at the fac
tory?"
SIN the simplest way imaginable.
though in vast quantities. Of course it
is merely water charged with carbonic
acid gas. Water is plenty from the hy-
drant, and ordinary marble is full of
carbonic acid, which was combined with
the lime ages ago when the earth's sur
face was forming under the influence of
fire. To get the carbonic acid out of the
marble it is only necessary to reduce it
to powder and pour sulphuric acid on it.
"Violent chemical combustion results,
and the carbonic acid parts from the
lime in the shape of carbolic acid gas.
At the factory they put the marble dust
in big metal receiver, a couple of bar
rels at time, with about as much wa
ter, and close it up SO tight that there is
no vent save one small pipe leading out
of the top. Machinery keeps the water
and marble dust constantly stirred,
while from receptacle above sulphuric
acid drips slowly down upon the MKT
ure.
"The carbonic acid gas filing the re-
ceiver passes out as fast as it is gen.
Grated through the pipe, bubbles through
water in little reservoir to purify it,
and makes its way through tube that
is fastened to the mouth of the ten gal
Ion tank which is to be charged"
MINERAL WATERS.
"The ten gallon tank is two-thirds full
of water and is kept shaken violently on
sort Of swinging cradle while the gas
is passing into it, in order that the water
shall take up as much of the gas as pos
sible. When it is thoroughly charged
the tank is Theoretically sealed and is
ready to be delivered to the apothecary
for serving his customers. The business
is dangerous one, for once in while a
generating receiver bursts and blows the
factory to flinders.
"We pay fifteen cents gallon for our
soda water, and that much will make at
least sixteen glasses, so that it costs us
less than one cent glass. Add another
cent for strip, and at five cents a glass
the profit is very satisfactory. Four
fifths of the soda water fountains made
are manufactured in Boston by two great
firms, which are the largest users Of
fancy marbles in the world. The most
costly of them are worth $4,000 apiece,
and are sold in the west, where gorgeous
ness in such ways is highly appreciated.
Immensely valuable patents cover the
inside works of the modern fountains,
with their hundreds of feet of block tin
tubing, cylinders and fblacking box
cells by which the soda water is chilled
almost to freezing point before coming
out at the spigot."
GLOW is it about mineral waters?"
"They are nearly all manufactured
artifcially. You can take your choice
Of the mineral springs at any apothe-
cary's shop, but what you get is almost
invariably chemical solution put up by
formula corresponding to the analysis
of this or that real medicinal water.
There is very little of the actual stuff on
the market, comparatively speaking; the
limitations are so very much cheaper.
Good sized factories all over the coun-
try are devoted to producing them. y