Soda Industry Milestones

THE BOTTLE REVOLUTION

Thus far, the development of mineral and soda waters has been traced to the beginnings of our modern day flavored sodas. This is a good point in the discussion to outline the evolution of containers used for the rapidly growing soda industry.

In the early days of mineral waters, the closure of choice was the cork stopper. In order to maintain a proper seal, it was necessary to keep the cork stopper moist. One of the methods used most commonly in Europe was to invert the bottle to keep the liquid in continuous contact with the cork. The bottoms of the bottles were rounded to prevent them from standing upright.

As noted, the early bottles were hand blown and rather crude compared with later machine made bottles The first bottles used for mineral and soda waters were called blob tops, named for the mass of glass used to form the lip on the bottle. Tops were applied in a separate operation during manufacture.

In 1857, Henry Putman of Cleveland, Oh, invented a wire clamp retainer for cork stoppered bottles. Putman's "better way" was closely followed by John Matthews, Jr's "gravitating stopper. In 1873, the ball stoppered bottle closure referred to as the "Coda stopper", was patented in the U.S. by Hiram Cold of England. In 1874, Charles de Quillfeldt of New York, patented the "Lightning Stopper".

Finally in 1879, Charles G. Hutchinson, the son of a prominent Chicago bottler invented a spring-type internal bottle closure known as the "Hutchinson Stopper" whose popularity during the period made it almost a standard. In fact, so many were used chat the bottles produced during the years to follow are referred to as "Hutchinson Bottles".

Stoppered bottles were still being used by some small American companies as late as the 1920's, but laws restricting their use because they were unsanitary, brought an end to an exciting era in bottling.

The demise of stoppered bottles was brought about at the turn of the century by two historic innovations in the bottling industry.

In 1892, William Painter, a Baltimore machine shop operator was awarded a patent on the crown-cork bottle seal, an invention chat quickly became a standard for the industry and replaced over a thousand different types of bottle sealing devices in use at the time.

The second major change in bottling occurred in 1903 when the first successful automatic bottle blowing machine was put in operation by its inventor, Michael J. Owens, an employee of Libby Glass Company. By 1910, the new machines were producing over 57,000 bottles a day, a dramatic improvement over the 1500 bottles per day produced by hand a few years earlier. These automatic bottle machine bottles are sometimes referred to as ABM bottles by collectors to separate them from the "blob-top" and Hutchinson bottle era

One of the primary features of a soda bottle that makes it a collectable of interest is the labeling on the face and bottom of the bottle.

The earliest form of labeling was embossing where raised glass letters and decoration was created as part of the bottle mold. This label was used primarily as a means of getting the bottle returned for refills.

As labeling machines, better glues, and improved printing techniques evolved more bottlers began to use paper labels to identify their soda brands. Not only did this technique reduce cost, but it made the use of bottles more flexible as flavored soda demands increased. Many bottles of this era contained both embossing and paper labels.

In 1934, the bottling industry made first use of Applied Color Label referred to by collectors as ACL or Painted Label Soda Bottles. This baked on coloring on the face of the bottle eventually made bottle embossing and paper labels almost obsolete on glass soda bottles, and created an outstanding collectable
 

MILESTONES

1794- SCHWEPPS opened for business in Bristol, England.

1820- SARATOGA SPRINGS Mineral Water was first bottled and sold.

1861- Ginger Ale was first bottled in the U.S. by DOWS of Boston, MA.

1866- CANTRELL & COCHRANE - began exporting ginger ale to the U.S. from Ireland.

1871- The first soda pop trademark was issued for LEMON'S SUPERIOR SPARKLING GINGER ALE.

1876- Charles E. HIRES began the manufacture of "root beer extract" in Philadelphia.

1880- James VERNOR perfected the formula for a unique ginger ale drink.

1881- CLIQUOT CLUB of Millis, MA, began the manufacture of ginger ale and other flavored sodas.

1883- WHITE ROCK of Waukesha, WI began bottling mineral water.

1885- The Moxie Nerve Food Company began distribution of MOXIE.

1885- W. B Morrison at the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, TX, developed a distinctively flavored drink at his soda fountain. DR PEPPER was not sold in a bottle until 1888.

1886- John S Pemberton, an experimental pharmacist standing over an old brass or iron kettle in Atlanta' GA, tried over 300 combinations of herbs and spices during a period of over four years before he finally came up with a liquid that tasted in his words "all right". That magic brew was named COCA-COLA, and speculation still exists as to whether the potion was developed as a soft drink or as a "cure all" headache tonic.

1889- Mineral water from the mountains of Northern California was bottled as Shasta Mountain Spring Water, and later evolved to the SHASTA Beverage Company.

1890- John J McLaughlin opened a plant in Toronto, Canada to bottle soda water and sometime later a Belfast style ginger ale. In 1907, the name CANADA DRY was given to a pale dry ginger ale.

1893- The Crystal Bottling Company began bottling HIRES Root Beer.

1898- Another pharmacist, Caleb Bradham from New Bern, NC, developed and marketed a cola drink. In 1903, he registered the PEPSI trademark.

1899- Benjamin Thomas, and Joseph Whitehead from Chattanooga were granted the first hauling rights to the whole U.S. for COCA-COLA.

1905- Claude A Hatcher, a Georgia grocer began bottling a ginger ale and a root beer under the brand name of ROYAL CROWN.

1906- ORANGE CRUSH was introduced by J M Thompson of Chicago.

1924- The NEHI brand was created by Royal Crown, and production began on a large for the time 9-1/2 ounce bottle.

1928- The Uncola was developed by C I Grigg of the Howdy Company, St.Louis, Mo, and called 7UP.

1930- BIRELEY'S introduced an orange soda drink.

1933- Bottling commenced for MISSION Orange in a distinctive black bottle.

1934- ROYAL CROWN COLA was introduced by the Nehi Corporation.

1936- The first soda in a can, CLIQUOT CLUB Ginger Ale, was test marketed in a Continental low profile cone top can. Leakage, flavor absorption problems, and difficulty in stacking and handling spelled failure for the initial introduction. Click her to see the cans.

1937- DAD'S Old Fashion Root Beer began bottling in Chicago, ILL.

1938- SQUIRT, a grapefruit citrus drink, made its debut.

1940- GRAPETTE introduced a tasty grape drink in a tiny six ounce bottle.

1948- Continental Can Company in conjunction with PEPSI-COLA tried again, but cans proved too expensive compared with returnable bottles.

1952- NO-CAL BEVERAGE, the first low calorie soft drink, was pioneered by the Kirsch Beverage Company of Brooklyn, NY.

1953- CANTRELL & COCHRANE introduced its SUPER COOLA line of nine flavors, in an improved 6 and 12 ounce cone top can. Click here to see the cans.

1958- FANTA was introduced by COCA-COLA, its first major marketing in the U.S. of a non-cola soft drink.