Soda fountain

The machine combines flavored syrup or syrup concentrate and carbon dioxide with chilled and purified water to make soft drinks, either manually, or in a vending machine which is essentially an automated soda fountain that is operated using a soda gun.

Fountain coke is an often confused term normally referring to a handheld dispenser behind a bar or counter that are used in many countries, including Spain, France and the United Kingdom.

The term may also refer to a small eating establishment, soda shop or luncheonette, common from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century, often inside a drugstore, candy store or other business, where a soda jerk served carbonated beverages, ice cream, and sometimes light meals.

The soda jerk's fountain generally dispensed only unflavored carbonated water, to which various syrups were added by hand only.

Early scientists tried to create effervescent waters with curative powers, including Robert Boyle, Friedrich Hoffmann, Jean Baptiste van Helmont, William Brownrigg, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and David Macbride.

In the early 1770s, Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman, and (separately) English scientist Joseph Priestley invented equipment for saturating water with carbon dioxide.

Both added innovations that improved soda-fountain equipment, and the industry expanded as retail outlets installed newer, better fountains.

In 1891 the four largest manufacturers—Tufts, Puffer, Lippincott, and Matthews—formed the American Soda Fountain Company, which was a trust designed to monopolize the industry.

Louis A. Becker was a salesman who started his own manufacturing business in 1898, making the 20th-Century Sanitary Soda Fountain.

In 1908 William H. Wallace obtained a patent for an iceless fountain and installed his prototype in an Indianapolis drugstore.

The newer manufacturers competed with the American Soda Fountain Company and took a large share of the market.

In the Eastern Bloc countries, self-service soda fountains, located in shopping centers, farmers markets, or simply on the sidewalk in busy areas, became popular by the mid-20th century.