The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-09-24
CHEAP SUMMER DRINKS.
EXCELLENT SODA WATER COSTS
BUT FIFTEEN CENTS A GALLON

How the Stuff Is Made-Few Druggists
Manufacture Their Own Soda Water.
Where the Profit On a Drink Comes From.
Mineral Waters Are Manufactured.
A temporary lull in the business gave
reporter an opportunity to ask the
clerk behind the counter how it was that
he manufactured his soda water But
he laughed as he replied:
"Most people seem to have notion
that every apothecary makes his own
soda water in tank down cellar, where
as the fact is that he never manufactures
it himself under any circumstances, but
buys it by the quantity all ready for use.
1t comes in ten gallon receptacles, and
the business Of producing it is an enor-
nous one in this country.
I'VE get ours from Baltimore, but
there are factories in all the Dig cities.
Each factory has thousands Of such ten
gallon receptacles as l 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 vino dispense the
stuff. The latter put the tanks beneath
their fountains, one at a time, draw from
them until they are empty, and then
send them back to be reflled and re-
turned. loaded as beforehand so on ad
infnitun1."
HOW SODA WATER is MADE.
"But how is the stuff made at the fac.
toryT
"In 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 carboic acid gas.
At the factory they put the marble dust
in a big metal receiver, couple Of bar
rels at a 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.
1.-The carbonic acid gas filling 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.
1--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 'blacking box
cells by which the soda water is chilled
almost to freezing point before coming
out at the spigot." |
"How is it about mineral waters?"
They are nearly all manu- featured
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."-
Washington Star.