ARTIFICIAL WATERS. —On account of the high reputation gained by the waters from various natural springs, and the many wonderful cures which they were supposed to have effected, it is not surprising that a desire should have been manifested to reproduce them artificially, and thus to enable suffering humanity to procure readily and cheaply the benefits which hitherto could only be obtained at the price of a long journey.
We find that as far back as 1500, a sludy of natural mineral waters, their composition and virtues, was made by Thurniesser, and that he succeeded in making very close imitations of them. He was followed by Hoffman, Geoffrey, and Venel ; by Priestley, who in the year 1772 published a paper on the subject ; and by Bergmann, who wrote in 1774, to prove the value of the carbonic acid gas held in solution by the waters of Salters, Pyrmont, and other places. The first apparatus for aerating water artificially by means of a pump was made by Paul, in Paris, in the year 1799, who seems to have had a very complete plant. Suave also had a similar establishment in Dresden, in the early part of this century, and he made many important observations on the constitution of different natural waters.
Those natural springs which had received particular attention on account of their beneficial action upon the human system, have, in many cases, been credited with producing results to which they only partially contributed. They were visited by numbers of people who believed implicitly in their curative properties, and added the potent influence of faith to the restorative effects of the journey to the springs, the change of air, scenery, society, and mode of living.
Provided they be carefully made, artificial aerated waters have certain distinct advantages over the natural waters. The most important is obviously that the various constituents of the latter, determined by analysis, can be varied in the artificial drinks, in order to suit particular require ments and cases ; and further, waters which are brought from a natural source at a distance cannot be so fresh as those prepared artificially, and certainly are not supposed, like wine, to gain in virtue by keeping. They have also, in many cases, a very unpleasant and even nauseous taste, which can, of course, be avoided in making artificial imitations. It is now generally recognized that the
artificial waters are wholesome and pleasant beverages; and they can be produced so cheaply that they are within the reach of all classes of society. The demand for them is fully established, and since the withdrawal of the duty of three-halfpence a bottle, levied some forty years since, the trade has developed, under free competition, with rapid strides. The great drawback to the general consumption has been the high prices charged by the retailers, especially in hotels, sixpence per bottle being often charged for water that has cost them less theu twopence.
The first attempts to produce artificially aerated waters resulted in pure water impregnated solely with carbonic acid gas, and containing no other ingredients. Shortly after this, the water was made to still further resemble the natural waters by the addition, in different proportions, of certain salts, to which the medicinal properties of the water had been attributed. Subsequently, beverages of agreeable flavour were prepared by the addition of syrups to the aerated water. Hence we have three classes of artificial water : (1) Simple aerated waters ; (2) Aerated saline waters ; and (3) Aerated saccharine waters.
Plain Aerated Water.—In the preparation of waters of the first class, the only materials used are pure water, carbonate of lime, and a mineral acid. The water, to ensure purity, must either be distilled, or filtered through such substances as will remove both suspended and dissolved impurities. The carbonate used for the production of the carbonic acid gas is generally in the form of marble or whiting, and the acid most commonly employed is oil of vitriol or concentrated sulphuric acid. The quality of the product depends largely upon the perfection of the apparatus used, and upon the choice of the materials ; but the manner in which the operation of impregnating the water with gas is conducted exercises even more influence upon it. The gas, previously carefully washed and purified, is pumped into the water until the latter contains as much as five times its own volume, when it is bottled in strong bottles or siphons, which are constructed to bear a very high pressure. This beverage is commonly called soda water in this country, and Seltzer water in France.