The earliest “fountain” was a small boxlike apparatus for generating carbonated water. The fountain sat on the counter; connected by tubes to the apparatus set under the counter or in the cellar.
Matthews moved from England to America to follow his dreams of creating soda water. Before Matthews, a few people had files patents related to the process.
His device made to easy to create the proper gas at the roper pressure. People could utilize his fountain to carbonate water and infuse it with flavored syrups. John Mathews was the first to manufacture a soda water apparatus in New York, in the early 1830s.
Mathews produced 25 million gallons of soda water by combination sulfuric acid with the marble scraps from the construction of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
He later added the sale of syrups and carbonated water to his business. Soon they began popping up all over America, as soda caught on as a craze in Middle America.
The Soda Fountain King: John Matthews (1808–1870)
