Although no soda bottling plants remain, Carbon County had many only a generation ago.

 This is the third part of a five part series on the soft drink “pop” industry in Carbon County.

This article was inspired by a suggestion from Mike Nonnemacher of Jim Thorpe. Following an article published on Mauch Chunk Beer Caves, he wrote, “Like beer, I think just about every town had their own soda bottling plants because of lack of refrigeration. I used to be able to pick up old soda bottles at flea markets and yard sales but I don't see them anymore. Some of the names are: Green Spot, Hazle Club, Jack Frost, Sweetie, ABC Beverages, and a few others. Perhaps you can do an article on local soda plants.”

I began my research by speaking with Harold Queen. He ran Queens Beverages before it became Highland Beverages in Jim Thorpe. Harold has a large collection of beer and soda memorabilia—bottle openers, crown caps, advertising and old bottles. 

Referring to Nonnemacher’s original request, here’s what we determined. Green Spot was a carbonated orange soda. According to the Internet, Green Spot is a very popular beverage in Asia. Hazle Club was a Hazleton bottler that produced soda in a variety of flavors. Jack Frost was a franchised root beer soda. Sweetie was an orange soda. ABC refers to a Reading bottler that produced a variety of flavors. 

Queen has some old bottles in his collection, so old that he hasn’t been able to determine if they were used for beer or soda. These include: P. J. O’Donnell from Summit Hill, T.J. Beck from Mauch Chunk, T. Siegfried from E. Mauch Chunk, and P. Sharkey from Mauch Chunk. Mauch Chunk is current Jim Thorpe. 

To open the crown caps, they bottlers distributed bottle cap openers with their logos. Those produced prior to 1920 had a square cutout that was used to turn on the gas to the carbide headlamps on automobiles. 

Before the pop-top can and the screw-top bottle, for nearly one hundred years, soda bottles were sealed with a cork-lined cap called a crown. Before that, there were a variety of methods to seal the hand blow returnable bottles. One method, the  Hutchinson Stopper, used a metal seal ring that was inserted into the bottle and held in place by the pressure of the carbonation. Even today, champagne is traditionally sealed with a cork that is wired in place to prevent it from popping.

Soft drinks trace their beginnings to the naturally carbonated waters produced by mineral springs. As mineral springs were associated with spas, sparkling water became associated with good health. 

In 1767, Joseph Priestly, an English chemist transplanted to Northumberland Pennsylvania, discovered that he could make carbonated water by reacting sulfuric acid with chalk. He liked the taste and served it to his guests. 

In 1806, Dr. Philip Syng Physick had a chemist prepare a drink of carbonated water and fruit juice for a patient. 

In 1810, a U.S. patent was issued for the "means of mass manufacture of imitation mineral waters" to Simons and Rundell of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1832, John Mathews developed a device for charging water with carbon dioxide gas. This led to the widespread popularity of the soda fountain. 

Because of the complexity of producing the soda, soda fountains were largely the domain of pharmacies. The pharmacists considered the sparkling water to be the basis of a healthful tonic and began to add herbs and flavorings to increase its health inducing properties and to make it taste better. Pharmacists developed many of the popular beverage formulas. 

On his honeymoon in 1875, pharmacist Charles Hires enjoyed an herb tea made largely of wild roots. He experimented with these flavors and produced Hires Root Beer. 

At Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, pharmacist John Pemberton developed Coca-Cola as a headache remedy made in part from the coca plant and the kola nut. A legend has it that the formula had been a popular headache remedy brought over from Africa by the slave trade. 

At the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas, pharmacists Robert Lazenby, and Wade Morrison developed an artificial black cherry flavored soda that they named after Confederate Army doctor Charles Pepper, the man that refused to permit Morrison to marry his daughter. 

In 1876, Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine, developed “Beverage Moxie Nerve Food” as a patent medicine. The herbal drink with extracts from the gentian root, became the first nationally mass-marketed soft drink. It was marketed to cure  "loss of manhood, paralysis and softening of the brain." 

Its name was shortened to Moxie and, until it was out-advertised by Coca-Cola in the 1920s, it was the most popular soft drink in America. Moxie is no longer marketed nationally and is principally distributed in the New England states. 

As these carbonated beverages grew in popularity, inventors improved bottles and caps. In 1892, the crown cap, a metal cap closure with a cork sealed was developed. In 1899, Michael Owens of the Libby Glass factory invented the automatic glass blowing machine. 

In the 1920s, two inventions made the purchase of soda much more convenient—the vending machine and the six-pack, originally called the Hom-Pak. Since then, soda has become a part of American Pop culture.