The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-13
SODA WATER NOW
 NATIONAL DRINK Americans Spend S16O,OOO,- 900 Yearly for Soft Drinks HOW TRADE DEVELOPED Soda Fountains Range In Price From $1oo to $65,0oo-one New York
 Fountain Employs Sixty
 five Men.
HOW TRADE DEVELOPED
BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.

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 While ice cream soda is unknown to the people of other nations, it is familiar to all in this country, either in l city town or village The manufac- turers assert that in the United States proper there are something over S0O00 soda fountains, besides ] 1000 bottling works where soda wa 1 ter and soft drinks are bottled for use beyond the range of the fountains. l Each year the American people spend off in the amount of whisky and other soft drinks. The increase in the con sumption of soda water is largely re- sponsible for the comparative falling off in tn eamount of whisky and other strong liquors consumed. Beer drink 1 ing is not affected to so great an eX- l tent. but one needs no better evidence of the fact that soda water is super ceding alcoholic liquors as a summer beverage than to watch the crowds at fountain on a summer day. So mark ed has this tendency become that some saloons have put in soda foun- tains toconserVe their trade.
 The soda water business of today Is far removed from what it was ten years age. Then there were but few fountains which offered 2 th'rsty man more than d simple mixture of sweet syrup and carbonated water, tiavored and colored according to the nature of some particular fruit. Nowadays there are combinations of all fruits, there are drinks with fancy names the composition of which no man knoweth, and there are numerous dope" drinks about the harmfulness or the harmlessness of which there is continual controversy. The plain ice cream soda of other days has given way to mixtures of many sorts. There Is the Sundae-a name which no soda jerker Is able to explain dish of Ice cream with chocolate syrup or crushed fruit or nut ker- nels in syrup poured over it. In some places the Sundae Is souffle, and there Is great freedom in spelling the word, ranging from Sunday to Sondie. The simple milk shake of other days is the forerunner of the great variety of egg and milk drinks which are served in a hundred different ways. Fresh eggs, cream, matted milk and all sorts of things go into these drinks, but they are all livened up with carbonated water. A big glass with two raw eggs shaken with an ounce of matted milk, and two ounces of chocolate syrup and water, will indeed give a man a square meal" if he likes his food In that form
 Each year there Is a cry from some quarter that soda water fountains are running the public health. While there are many grave charges which may be proved 1t is impossible to change the sins of some particular fountain to the whole system. If polluted wa ter Is used and If the fountain is not kept clean, then there is danger. If good water is used and there Is con scientous C eanliness, soda fountain is not a source of danger to health. Some preparations sold there are un- doubtedly harmful, but carbonated water itself, taken in moderate quan titles, is a wholesome aid to digestion and is in no wise injurious to healthy persons organism.
 The people of England drink more car bonated water than Americans, but they drink 1t from bottles and without ice. Soda water Is an English institution, however, and as such is highly regarded in the right little, tight little island although the greatest improvements in methods of making and using 1t have come from Germany and the United States. The first suggestion that car bonic acid gas be mixed with ordinary water to initiate the spring waters charged by nature, came from Dr. Joseph Prlestley in 1772. He invented method of making the gas from marble dust and sulphuric acid and mixing 1t with water by agitation. This method is the basis of that still in use. In 1910 the first soda water patent was granted to simmons and Rundell of Charleston, s. C., for a method of saturating water with liked air" as carbonlc acid gas was commonly called.
 Joseph Bramah In England was first to popularize the water so charged with carbolic acid gas. As he made the gas from bi-carbonate of soda. the water be- came known as soda water. This name has stuck. although until lately very few have used the bicarbonate of soda in making the gas. Marble dust and sul- phurc or murlatic acid have been the most widely used materials for years, although in Europe chalk has been used more than marble dust.
 Germany is entitled to the credit Tor the invention which has made the mod ern American soda fountain possible. Dr. Raydt German scientist, demonstrat- cd that carbonic acid gas could be con- verted to a liquid under pressure, stored in heavy cylinders and transported from place to place. On August 2S, 1879, a sub merged empty balloon was attached by wire cables to an anchor rock weigh ing 6S000 pounds in the imperial harbor at Keil At the bottom of the balloon was the iron cylinder containing Dr. Raydts precious liquid carbonic acid. A diver went under the water and turned the valve leading to the balloon. In exactly eight minutes the balloon ap- peared above the surface, carrying the enormous weight of it's anchor with it. Notwithstanding the immense force Of the expanding gas, the cylinder was proved to be perfectly safe.
 Little country villages all over the United States are today receiving liquid carbonic acid in cylinders. When the valve is opened this liquid expands into its greater body as gas The cylinder Is at tached to the fountain adn there you are. Formerly the gas had to be ganerated on the premises dangerfous undertaking for the careless or unskilled, or else shipped in portable fountains containing the uncompressed gas plan which eX- pended all the profits in freight charges
 John Matthews of New York was the father of American soda water. He be- gan with a small fountain on push cart
 in New York in 1892. He made his own gas, charged his water, compounded his syrups and sold his own goods. Soon after he moved into stone building on Twenty-seventh street. formerly a jail.