Soda Water Guide published by the Liquid Carbonic Co. in 1909

Liquid Carbonic Co. Soda Water Guide
THE TRUTH ABOUT SODA WATER
By JACOB BAUR, Chemist.
[Note: The following interesting article was written by Mr. Jacob Baur, president of the Liquid Carbonic Co., and one of America's foremost chemists, and published widely in the trade and daily press of America, in answer to bitter inspired attacks on soft drinks. It is an excellent thing for every dispenser to have republished in his local papers, or printed in booklet form. Copies will be sent for this purpose by the Liquid Carbonic Co., free of charge, so as to avoid the labor of copying the article or the necessity of mutilating this book.]

No soda in it at all, but rather a "temperance champagne" made of carbonated water and the juices of fruits.

Soda water, the delicious, sparkling drink you get at the soda fountain, is not soda water at all. There is no soda in it. It was simply "christened wrong" at the start because it foamed like an old-fashioned drink they used to make with soda and vinegar, and, as is true in many other instances, .the mis-nomer stuck.

Soda water is pure water charged with 'carbonic gas. This carbonic gas is the same gas that gives life and snap to champagne; the same gas that is used in carbonating apollinaris or any of the other mineral waters. The soda fountain drink known as "soda water" consists of this carbonated water to which is added pure fruit juices, either with or without ice cream.

In fact soda water, like champagne, is made from fruit juice, sugar and carbonated water, and therefore it might be called "temperance champagne", a champagne without alcohol, invigorating but non-intoxicating.

Soda water itself, that is, the pure carbonated water,, is a mild stimulant— a positive aid to digestion—a grateful delight to the stomach; and the effer-vescence of the carbonic gas helps to throw off any injurious gases that may have formed in the digestive tract. It is a normal food—wholesome always. Carbon is one of the principal strength-giving elements of food, and car-bonic gas in soda water is undoubtedly a food as well as a tonic and stomachic. Carbonated water stimulates circulation and respiration—deeper breathing, rather than more frequent.

In India, physicians insist that people drink no water except that charged with CO 2 • and the use of carbonated water is credited with a large part in the success of the British government in checking the ravages of the cholera.

The invalid stomach that cannot hold even pure spring water welcomes carbonated water. For more than a century wise physicians from all over the country have sent their dyspeptic patients to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they could drink the pure water—carbonated by nature—that bubbles up from these famous ice-cold springs.

When you drink soda water at your nearby soda fountain you get the same pure water with exactly the same sparkling carbonic gas that you would get at Saratoga, except that the soda fountain man gives you your choice of some delicious pure fruit juice, sweetened with cane sugar syrup, to please the palate, and, if you like it, some rich, wholesome, nourishing ice cream in the bargain.

The syrups used-today by soda fountain proprietors are made from fresh, ripe fruits, in great "spotless-town" laboratories, under conditions of scrupulous cleanliness, by manufacturers who are as jealous of their good names as a woman is of her virtue or a banker of his credit.

Bountiful Nature has given man no more delicious, more grateful, more wholesome food than fruit, and the fruit you get in your soda water is the best fruit the most favored fruit belts grow.

The tartness and "snap" of fruit comes from either citric or tartaric acid. Citric acid is what makes limes and lemons sour, or what gives the acidity and snap to cranberries, currants, raspberries, etc. Tartaric acid is found in a great many other fruits. Both these acids have the tendency to cool the blood—to overcome feverish conditions, either when due to external or internal causes.

The American civilization of today is run at such" a fever-heat, with young and old rushing and striving with such an intensity of effort, that it is no wonder that the demand for cooling, acidulated, fruit-flavored drinks is growing by leaps and bounds—a growth founded on merit and therefore permanent.

The fruit syrups used are also full of nourishment, as the "meat" of the fruit goes into them, particularly where the beverage selected has crushed fruit or whole fruit as a part of its make-up.

So, my good friend, when you drink soda water you are treating yourself to pure water, sparkling with a wholesome, helpful gas, and flavored with juices of fresh, ripe fruit.

Can you imagine a more tempting combination of good and wholesome things all in one?
Depend upon it; anyone who so much as whispers a word against the wholesomeness of soda water is willfully or thoughtlessly repeating a canard started for selfish business reasons, or because of lack of knowledge of the true facts. Don't let them do it any more.

SODA WATER GUIDE and BOOK of RECIPES
FOREWORD

In this book we have sought to embody important facts and helpful information that years of experience in the trade has given us. No effort or expense has been spared to make the book of practical daily usefulness to the dispenser.

PURE FOOD OUR SLOGAN FROM THE FIRST
From the first day that we engaged in the business, our unremitting effort has been to do our full share toward raising the standard of the soda water business; and it is with the liveliest sense of satisfaction that we contrast the splendid state of the art today with the unhappy position it occupied fifteen or even ten years ago.
Only a few years ago a soda fountain meant a marble or wooden box, the upper part of which was filled with ice and the lower part contained a compart-ment in which syrups were held in boxes—usually metal and usually musty, ill-smelling and unsanitary.

Today, we offer the trade a "Liquid Iceless"—a monument, in onyx and marble and silver, to the skill of engineers, high up in the sciences of refrigera-tion and sanitation,, and the artistic cleverness of artificers in metal, marble, onyx, art glass and carved hardwoods. Even ten years ago there was some vague talk—mostly in fountain-builder's catalogues—about "sanitation;" but real sanitation, in the fountains themselves, was a thing neglected or wholly forgotten.

This firm it was that compelled the adoption of real sanitation by bringing out a type of fountain in which the syrup containers were made of porcelain, and were made so that they were easily removable for washing and cleansing.

This was the first step in real soda fountain sanitation and we followed it year by year with new features, each time compelling a general upward step in the scientific sanitation of soda fountains by setting the pace ourselves.

FORCED INTO THE SODA FOUNTAIN BUSINESS
Indeed, had the soda fountains of fifteen years ago been what they should have been the Liquid Carbonic Company would not have entered the field as soda fountain builders at all. Our business was originally the sale of gas and of carbonators; but the very life of our business was so menaced by the neglect of practical sanitation on the part of the then soda fountain manufacturers that we were forced to build fountains in self-defense.

Those were the days of the first awakening of the public to the importance of sanitation and the beginning of the agitation which recently resulted in the pure food legislation by state and national authorities.

This company feels no small satisfaction in the knowledge that its efforts contributed to the widespread awakening that means so much to the health and welfare of the public.

COMPELLED TO MANUFACTURE FRUITS AND SYRUPS
The same condition, exactly, forced the Liquid Carbonic Company to undertake the manufacture of fruits and syrups. Our fountain customers were subjected to no end of loss because the firms then supplying fruits and syrups could not be depended upon to furnish goods that were fit for human food. Too often these fountain products brazenly labeled as "pure" were made from the off-scourings of the fruit commission houses—rejects, culls, partly decayed— anything that was cheap.

To protect our fountain customers against this form of fraud we equipped a magnificent fruit and syrup department and entered the fruit markets as competitors for the best, not the cheapest, fruits from each of the most favored fruit growing sections.

For a long time this department was operated at a loss because we had to meet the prices of unworthy goods; but the "Liquid" policy won out in the long run and our fruit and syrup business is increasing yearly by leaps and bounds.

Not only do we buy the best of fruits, but we give our customers solid fruit when they buy our Crushed and Whole Fruits—filling each jar heaping full of the solid fruit, pressing it down and adding just enough pure sugar syrup to carry the fruit.

Compare a jar of "Liquid" Whole Fruit or Crushed Fruit with any other brand and test the truth of this statement. To do this, empty the jars, strain out the syrup and weigh the solid fruit. You will find that the extra weight of fruit in the "Liquid" jar will make "Liquid" goods from 20% to 50% better value than the best of the rest.

THE KIND OF SODA FOUNTAIN YOUR BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC DEMANDS
The Liquid Carbonic Co., through its careful study of the soda water situation, and by its numerous practical inventions and improvements in soda fountains and dispensing apparatus in general, has done more to place the soda water business upon the high plane it occupies today than all other soda water apparatus manufacturers combined.

"Liquid" fountains are known wherever soda water is known,, and their superiority over all others is recognized. This superiority is two-fold, as "Liquid" fountains are the best .practical "machines" for dispensing soda water economically and are at the same time superior to all others in their external beauty. And when one considers the matchless beauty, the perfect sanitation, the extreme durability, the ice saving qualities, the faultless mechanical con-struction, the tasteful blending of exquisitely shaded variegated onyx, art glass, marble and carved hardwoods, it is easy to understand their great popularity with the public, to whom externals mean so much.

The records of "Liquid" fountains speak for them, and it will be well for you to investigate these unapproachable apparatus when entering upon the soda water business or enlarging present capacity. The kind of soda fountain your business and the public demands is inevitably a "Liquid," because a "Liquid" is the only fountain that is a real soda fountain.

There are two important elements that must be considered in making the selection of a soda fountain. First, as a dispensing machine it must be thor-oughly practical, economical and speedy, and second, it must be attractive from the standpoint of external beauty. We put the mechanical and operating feature first because this is of even greater importance than beauty. No soda water business can be built upon any other basis than the dispensing of sodas that are ice cold and thoroughly and uniformly good.

DEAL WITH A RESPONSIBLE HOUSE
There are less than a half dozen responsible fountain builders in the United States and dozens of small makers of cheap outfits. The man who wishes to do a soda water dispensing business, and do it right, cannot afford to experiment with cheap fountains made by novices, or by small concerns who make soda fountains as a side line. The Liquid Carbonic Company are the largest manufacturers of soda fountains in the world. They can give values impossible to the smaller manufacturers because their output enables them to use the most modern and efficient methods and machinery and to employ men of marked ability, experts in each line of work involved in the manufacture of a fountain.

WISDOM OF CAREFUL INVESTIGATION
You cannot be too thorough and careful in your investigations. Learn the detail construction and operation of the most insignificant part—after the fountain is installed it is then too late to investigate, and "kicks" do not always result satisfactorily. Do not rely wholly upon your own knowledge of soda fountains or upon what the manufacturer may tell you; a word from those who have used similar fountains and know what they are is the best proof of their superiority and reliability.