In 1767, the first drinkable manmade glass of carbonated water (soda water) was created by an English clergyman and chemist, Dr. Joseph Priestley.
Joseph Priestley was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and experimented with electricity before turning to chemistry in the 1770s.
Priestley was the first chemist to prove that oxygen was essential to combustion and along with Swede Carl Scheele is credited with the discovery of oxygen. Priestley named the gas "dephlogisticated air", later renamed oxygen by Antoine Lavoisier. Joseph Priestley also discovered hydrochloric acid, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.
On April 15, 1770, Joseph Priestley recorded his discovery of Indian gum's ability to rub out or erase lead pencil marks. He wrote, "I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black lead pencil." These were the first erasers which Priestley called a "rubber".
As a clergyman, Joseph Priestley was considered an unorthodox philosopher, he supported the French Revolution and his unpopular views caused his home and chapel in Leeds, England, being burned in 1791. Priestley moved to Pennsylvania in 1794.
Introduction to Pop - Soda Drinks
Joseph Priestley on Making Carbonated Water (1772) - Historical Paper
Joseph Priestley - Biography
Joseph Priestley - Biography
Joseph Priestley - Papers
Joseph Priestly - Biography
