Message:18679 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Thu, 12 Mar 26 09:11:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - Mar 12
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On March 12, 1894, Coca-Cola is [first sold in bottles
Though today there is almost nothing as ubiquitous as a bottle of Coca-Cola, this was not always the case. For the first severa
l years of its existence, Coke was only available as a fountain drink, and its producer saw no reason for that to change.
Originally developed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, then marketed as a non-alcoholic "temperance drink," Coca-Cola
was invented by John Pemberton, a druggist in Columbus, Georgia, in 1886. It was soon popular throughout the region, and the r
ights to the brand passed to Asa Griggs Candler. Candler's nephew had advised him that selling the drink in bottles could great
ly increase sales, but Griggs apparently wasn't interested. The first person to bottle Coke was Joseph A. Biedenharn, owner of
a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Correctly determining that bottles could boost sales, Biedenharn put the drink into Hu
tchinson bottles, a common and reusable glass bottle that bore no resemblance to the modern Coke bottle. He sent Candler a case
, but Candler continued to stick with fountain sales.
Five years later, Candler finally sold the national bottling rights to Coke—excluding the right to bottle it in Vicksburg—t
o two brothers from Chattanooga. Still convinced that bottling would not be a major source of revenue, Candler sold the bottlin
g rights for a dollar and reportedly never collected even that. The contract stipulated that a bottle of Coke would cost 5 cent
s and had no end date, a legal oversight that resulted in the price remaining the same until 1959. In 1915, the bottlers put ou
t a call for a new design, one so distinctive that one could recognize it if it were in pieces on the ground or by feeling it i
n the dark. The winning design, produced by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, gave the world the iconic contoured
bottle we know today.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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