Pop! Pop! Pop!

[SODABOB]

Another good resource is the Tod Von Mechow website

North American Soda & Beer Bottles - Soda & Mineral Water Closures

This site offers a history of North American antique soda and beer bottles. Within you will be able to date your old soda and beer bottles based on shape, color, base style, lips, and closures.

www.sodasandbeers.com

 

[SODABOB]

This link will take you to Tod's site and what he calls the Collector's Shelf. Each of the bottles shown used a Gravitating Stopper. Click on any bottle and it will pull up information about it ...

North American Soda & Beer Bottles - Collector's Shelf

This site offers a history of North American antique soda and beer bottles. Within you will be able to date your old soda and beer bottles based on shape, color, base style, lips, and closures.

www.sodasandbeers.com

 

[hemihampton]

I've dug Gravitating Stopper type/style Bottles with Hutchinson spring stoppers intact which seems kinda odd. LEON.

 

[falls]

That story is a myth. I have found the word "pop" on bottles that pre date Mathews. "California pop beer" comes to mind. When did this story switch from "hutch" bottles to "gravitators"? Read Ron Fowlers opinion on this at Hutchbook.com. Nice story but not true.

 

[epackage]

It is lunchtime in the early oil fields of Pa. and shortly after, one might likely have heard a single "pop" or maybe several more soon after. If you guessed these guys were opening their soda bottles you'd be right. In 1864 a Mr. Matthew's patented a glass stopper with a band of rubber held in place by the carbonated drink. Sometimes they were pulled out from the neck, but at other times the palm of the hand tapped quickly and firmly down on top of the stopper creating a pop as the gas escaped. The stopper would remain in the wide part of the bottle and the beverage could be consumed. Now you know where the term "pop bottle" originated. I've found several of these but the one pictured is embossed with the name Matthews, pat. applied for, and 1864. One picture shows this stopper in place but due to time the rubber seal has crystalized and disintegrated. I'm enclosing a copy of a research paper (no copy write) for additional information. My prayer goes out to those in need during this trying time for all of us, panic is not the answer and worsens this critical time, but being a bottle hunter, which you are if you're reading this, chances are you're pretty well self sufficient.

The term soda pop DID NOT originate because of these stoppers, there are instances of the term being used 30-40 years earlier, to spread this rumor as truth doesn't do anyone in the hobby any good, but you're not alone with this exaggerated theory, people have been saying it about hutches as well for many years. It's just one of those untruth's people will keep buying into because they read it online...

 

[Bark]

Very nice but I still prefer the "pop" sound that comes from opening a beer bottle. Ooops...got off topic again.

 

[SODABOB]

Perhaps this will shed some light on things. The following text is from a personal study I conducted and pertains to the invention of carbonation, which was obviously an integral aspect of all carbonated soft drinks worldwide. Prior to the introduction of carbonation, there were numerous types of beverages, such as lemonade, but those were not carbonated.

1772

"The development of effervescence or carbonation took many years to perfect and included experimentation by a variety of chemists and scientists, such as Jan Baptista van Helmont (Flemish), Gabriel Venel (French), Joseph Black (British), and Robert Boyle (Anglo-Irish), among others too numerous to mention. But it was an Englishman named Joseph Priestly who is now considered the grandfather of the soft drink industry. In 1772, he invented a small carbonating apparatus that injected fixed air into water. Shortly afterwards, another Englishman, Thomas Henry, used Priestly’s invention to introduce the first fully carbonated water."

Switching to the key word "Pop" this is the earliest use of the word I have been able to find in the United States. Even though it pertains to a fountain drink called Ginger Pop, its still a form of soda pop.

1831 ~ Charleston, South Carolina ~ Ginger Pop

Next up is the earliest use of the words Soda Pop I was able to find.

1850 ~ Buffalo, New York ~ Soda Pop

Last but not least is the invention of the Hutchinson stopper.

1879

Although there could be earlier examples of Ginger Pop and Soda Pop that I was unable to find, the main point is that the word "Pop" was being used many years before the invention of the Hutchinson stopper. Hence, any claim that the Hutchinson stopper was the origin of the word "Pop" is incorrect.