James Schwartz, age 13, of Miami, Fla., for his question:
WHO INVENTED THE SOFT DRINK?
The soft drink has become as typically American as the hamburger and the hot dog. Sometimes it is called a soda, because of its bubbling nature, and sometimes it is called pop, because of the noise it makes when the cap is taken off of the bottle.
The inventor of the soft drink was an Englishman named Joseph Priestley. He came up with the idea more than 200 years ago, in 1772. He decided that it would be a great idea if he could imitate the natural bubbling water of some mineral springs.
The first soda water was made by combining mineral water with a soda compound that contained the chemical sodium.
Later, in 1806, a chemistry professor at Yale University in Connecticut named Benjamin Silliman made and bottled the first artificial soda water in the United States. It wasn't long until drugstores and soda fountains across the country were preparing and dispensed lots of soda water.
The drink came to be known as "soft" to distinguish it from "hard" or alcoholic beverages.
Flavored soda water, especially lemon, became popular after 1830. Ginger ale and root beer became popular a bit later.
After 1850, the soft drink industry boomed as it sold lots of bottled soda water in many different flavors.
Diet soft drinks with reduced amounts of sugar or sugar substitutes became popular in the 1960s.
A small part of the flavoring of the most popular soft drinks in the United States and Canada comes from the extract of the kola nut, or cola nut. This is a seed from a tall evergreen tree found growing wild in West Africa.
Kola trees are now also cultivated in the West Indies, in tropical areas of South America and in Asia.
Almost all soft drinks are made of soda water, flavoring and sugar or a sugar substitute. In addition to the kola flavor, other favorites include lemon, orange, lime, raspberry and strawberry.
Soda water, the most important ingredient of soft drinks, actually contains no soda. Water charged with carbon dioxide gas causes the water to effervesce or bubble as the gas escapes.
The charged water is stored in metal tanks under pressure. It is then drawn off and mixed with flavorings to make various finished drinks.
Most soft drinks are sold in aluminum cans or glass or plastic bottles these days. But soft drinks are also dispensed in glasses or paper cups after they are prepared at soda fountains, stadiums and parks.
Back to that word "pop," the name that is sometimes given to soft drinks because of the noise made by the drink when the caps are removed from the bottles. Actually, caps that are used today and have been used since the mid 1890s, don't make the loud noise that they used to make before the mid 1890s. But the name "pop" still means "soft drink" to many people.