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• 1 2016-10-09T22:24:26-07:00 Inventors and Patents 34 plain 2016-12-01T01:17:02-08:00

  John Matthews brought soda water to America. Born in England, he apprenticed in the shop of inventor Joseph Bramah, as a teenager, and learned how to make machinery, and, more importantly, learned how to make carbonic acid gas, the essential ingredient for soda water. In 1832, he left England for America, and soon set up shop where he began to manufacture carbonating machinery and sell soda water to local retailers.

  Once Matthews, landed in America, he developed a lead-lined chamber wherein sulphuric acid and powdered marble (also known as calcium carbonate) were mixed together to generate carbon dioxide. The gas was then purified and manually mixed into cool water with steady agitation, creating carbonated water. Matthews’ design worked either as a bottling unit or a soda fountain, since it produced enough carbonated water to last customers all day. But America’s weak glass industry still wasn’t able to support large-scale bottling plants, so the simplest way to sell soda water was at public fountains.

  Matthews’ business took off when he realized he could use marble chips to make soda water, and that there was an ample supply thanks to the many construction projects taking place in New York. In fact, there were enough scrap marble chips from the construction of nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral to make 25 million gallons of soda water. Matthews’ other advantage over his competitors was his rather ingenious human-safety-valve in the form of an ex-slave named Ben Austen. At the time, safety valves were unreliable, and there were frequent explosions. Ben Austen had a large and powerful thumb that he held over the pressure cock. When the pressure blew Austen’s thumb off the pressure cock, the pressure in the tank had reached the desired limit of 150 pounds and the pressurization was stopped. The term “Ben’s thumb” was part of the jargon in the soda water manufacturing industry, meaning the soda water was at the proper pressure.

  John Matthews’ business continued to prosper, and he opened up numerous soda fountains, sold soda water, added flavoring to soda water, and licensed soda water apparatus. By the time he died, Matthews owned over 500 soda fountains he was known as the “Soda Fountain King”.
  James W. Tufts manufactured functional items such as napkin rings, tooth pick holders, and cruet castor sets.  Most importantly though James W. Tufts at the age twenty-seven, developed a complete line of soda fountains, parts, and supplies which included flavored extracts. Tufts also started The Arctic Soda Fountain Company, to manufacture his own soda fountain apparatus’. The Tufts fountains were very ornate and were made from beautiful Italian marble, block tin, and heavy silver plate for sanitary reasons. In 1877, The Tufts Arctic Soda Fountain Company published its own catalog, offering a complete line of soda fountains. Most were elaborate, with multiple spigots, cherubs, figures of women or animals, plants and ferns, and weathervanes. In 1891, Tuft’s Arctic Soda Fountain Company consolidated with A. D. Puffer and Sons of Boston, John Matthews of New York and Charles Lippincott of Philadelphia to become the American Soda Fountain Company with James W. Tufts as the company’s president. In 1895, when James Tufts was sixty, he sold his part of the business.