We all love to have a sip of our favourite soft drink when we
are thirsty, especially in summers. And we also love to have a little fizz in
it. This fizz is the bubbly effervescence that is produced by adding
pressurized carbon dioxide gas to water. It's also called carbonated water or
just soda water.
The making of the first soda
Joseph Priestley was the first person to
invent soda water. He suspended a bowl of water over a beer vat in a brewery
and patiently waited to see what happened. Soon the bowl of water was fizzing
with carbon dioxide released from the fermentation of beer. And that was how
soda was born. However, it was only in the later part of the 19th century that
soda water was introduced as a popular soft drink.�
Today, soda water is made by sending
pressurized carbon dioxide through water. The high pressure allows more carbon
dioxide to dissolve than it would normally be possible. The soda is then packed
into an airtight bottle. When this pressurized bottle is opened, the gas rises
to the top bubbling. And if you shake the bottle before opening, the soda will
spill out splashing all over, when opened.
The chemistry of soda
When carbon dioxide is mixed in water it forms
carbonic acid. To this, salts like sodium bicarbonate are added to reduce the
amount of acidity in the drink. Sodium and other metallic salts are used to
neutralise the acidic flavour of the drinks.
Eugene Roussel a Frenchman in Philadelphia was
the first person to popularise flavoured soda soft drinks.
Flavoured soda drinks
Eugene Roussel, a Frenchman
in Philadelphia, was the first person to popularize flavoured soda soft drinks.
He set up a small counter in the perfume shop that he owned and offered
customers glasses of orange, cherry, lemon, teaberry, ginger, peach and root
beer flavoured soda water. And since the people who started producing soda
water were chemists, this product was easily available in medical shops in the
United States.
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