This Wednesday is National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day. Yes, this is for real. For those wishing to celebrate, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get hold of a soda. They can be found nearly everywhere you can purchase food. Soda’s current widespread availability would not have been possible without carbonation.
Carbonated water can be found naturally in mineral springs. The Ancient Romans referred to these soda fountains and believed they possessed medicinal properties. Natural carbonation can also be found in some fermented beverages such as beer and champagne. But forced or added carbonation has only been available for a few centuries.
In 1767, the English chemist and clergyman Joseph Priestley, already known for his discoveries of oxygen and other gases, suspended a bowl of water over a vat of brewing beer to investigate the bubbles formed during the fermentation process. The water became impregnated with the ‘fixed air,’ as he called it. This method of infusing carbon dioxide into water did not produce consistent results.
Priestley worked to improve his methods, discussing the idea with another renowned thinker of the day, Benjamin Franklin. He eventually developed a more reliable method of carbonating water by first trapping the gas in a pig’s bladder and then infusing the gas into the water. Priestley’s method quickly spread throughout Europe.
A Scottish physician named John Nooth felt the pig bladder left the water tasting like urine and sought to create an improved, bladder-free method of carbonation. Nooth sold over a thousand of his carbonation devices in a few years.
In 1780, Johann Jacob Schweppe achieved commercial carbonation by creating a pump that mixed CO2 and water in a barrel, but it was still a luxury enjoyed mainly by the elite. Several decades later, John Mathews invented a soda siphon that could be used by street vendors and drugstores, bringing carbonated water to the masses.
Carbonation has continued to evolve from its origins in pig bladders. While there are still a few drugstore soda fountains around, it is far more common for people to get their sodas in a bottle or can, or even to make their own with a SodaStream. Whether it comes from a bottle or a fountain, I will enjoy the excuse to indulge in my favorite soda on Wednesday and be very grateful that it is no longer flavored with the essence of pig urine.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.
Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.
