John Matthews (1808-1870) was an English-born American inventor and
soda waterSoda water, also known as seltzer in the US and Canada, is water which is carbonated and thus made effervescent by the addition of carbon dioxide gas under pressure. Soda water is sometimes used to dilute strong alcoholic drinks, e.g. cocktails such as a whisky and soda, or Campari and soda. It can...
manufacturer. He is known as "The Soda Fountain King".
Matthews manufactured carbonating machinery and distributed his product through retail stores. The equipment was a lead-lined cast-iron box where carbonic acid gas was formed by mixing sulphuric acid with marble dust. The gas was then purified by passing it through water, and then into a tank partially filled with cool water.
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John Matthews (1808-1870) was an English-born American inventor and
soda waterSoda water, also known as seltzer in the US and Canada, is water which is carbonated and thus made effervescent by the addition of carbon dioxide gas under pressure. Soda water is sometimes used to dilute strong alcoholic drinks, e.g. cocktails such as a whisky and soda, or Campari and soda. It can...
manufacturer. He is known as "The Soda Fountain King".
Matthews manufactured carbonating machinery and distributed his product through retail stores. The equipment was a lead-lined cast-iron box where carbonic acid gas was formed by mixing sulphuric acid with marble dust. The gas was then purified by passing it through water, and then into a tank partially filled with cool water. The tank was rocked for a quarter to a half hour, until the water was impregnated and bubbly.
Matthews created a fountain apparatus that could be positioned on a pharmacist’s counter to dispense carbonated drinks, leading to its popularisation and rapid growth.
He is buried at
Green-Wood CemeteryGreen-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York, now in Brooklyn. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...
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BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
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New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. His monument was designed by Karl Muller and cost $30,000.
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