The History of Aerated Waters.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 256, 16 September 1902, Page 4

The History of Aerated Waters.

The history of the evolution of iterated waters is probably not so well known as it deserves to be, considering its general interest and the importance of the industry today. The manufacture of artificial mineral waters is, of course, a comparatively recent development. The world clung very obstinately to the old superstition that “ holy ” wells and springs owed their healing virtues to supernatural influences, hi veil so late as the end of the eighteenth century, it is related, health seekers at St. Fillan’s well, in Perthshire, Scotland, used to walk or were carried “ three times sunwise round the well,” and then each threw a white stone on an adjacent cairn, and left behind a scrap of clothing as an offering to the “ kelpie,” or genius of the water. Survivals of this ancient rite, says the Daily News, may still be found in Ireland to-day. As far back as 1688, however, Dr. Nehemiah Grew ■was making experiments with Epsom water and salts, while Dr. Orouet of Spa, attempted the manufacture of mineral water in 1718.

Wenel, in 1850, manufactured an abated drink from soda and hydrochloric acid, and subsequently an experimenter named Lane hit upon the idea of impregnating water with carbonic acid gas, obtained from fermenting liquors, and also from carbonated alkalis by means of acid. £y subi mitting iron filings to the aption of the liquid Lane obtained “a chaly-. beate ' water resembling that of Spa.”

A later experimenter was Pro* fessor Bergman-, who, after swallowing “ eighty bottles ” of “ foreign medicated waters,” and finding that the pains from which he suffered were “ somewhat mitigated ” thereby, resolved,' if possible, to imitate these waters. He experimented for a year, and ultimately produced what he considered a satisfactory imitation. Personal suffering was also the motive which led F. A. Struve, at the beginning of last century, to imitate Carlsbad and Marienbad waters so. successfully as to confer gieat benefit on himself and friends. Struve opened an serated water factory at Dresden in 1820, and as the business grew he established others at Leipzig, Berlin and Brighton, and so the industry was launched. To illustrate its growth, it may be mentioned that 2d,000 persons in the United Kingdom are engaged in the manufacture of aerated waters, whilst in London alone some 25,000 persona are employed in trades connected with the industry.