The invention of carbonated drinks

The first marketed soft drinks (non-carbonated) appeared during the seventeenth century. In 1767, the first drinkable man-made glass of carbonated water was created by Dr. Joseph Priestly (24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) in the United Kingdom.

Priestly lived next to a brewery and was apparently intrigued by the ‘air’ that floated over fermenting grain. His experiments showed that this ‘heavier-than-air’ gas was able to extinguish burning wood chips. This gas would later be identified as carbon dioxide.

He poured acid onto chalk and heavy gas resulted. In the year 1772, Priestly invented ‘an apparatus for making aerated water’, which he exhibited to the Royal College of Physicians, and upon which the college reported favorably. It was the discovery of carbon dioxide that made the stabilization of a non-alcoholic drink attainable.

Originally carbon dioxide was released from bicarbonate of soda, which is where the name soda is derived. The word pop was originated from the sound made the corks were removed from soda bottles.

Carbonated beverages did not achieve great popularity in America until 1832, when John Mathews invented his apparatus for the making carbonated water.
The invention of carbonated drinks

Joseph Priestly (1733 – 1804) invented soda water

Aerated water or soda water as it came to be called was but one of Joseph Priestley’s many inventions.

In 1767, Joseph Priestly produced the first man made, palatable carbonated water. He produced a carbonated water beverage by pouring water back and forth between two small vessel held in a layer of carbon dioxide over the fermenting mass in a brewery vat. Priestly suggested that carbonated water might be useful in curing or preventing sea scurvy.

The Schweppes Company, the earliest bottler of carbonated water regards Joseph Priestly as ‘the father of our industry’.

It was not until 1781 that carbonated water began to be produced on a large scale, with the establishment of companies specialized in producing artificial mineral water.

Jacob Schweppes’s association with Priestly in developing ‘aerated’ waters for commercial sale began in Geneva in 1783.

The first of these factories was built in Manchester, England, by Thomas Henry. The name ‘soda water’ was introduced after chemist Richard Bewley suggested adding a little soda (sodium carbonate).
Joseph Priestly (1733 – 1804) invented soda water