Historic Beer

Joseph Priestley was born in Yorkshire, England on March 13, 1733. He was originally a preacher and a teacher, but he became interested in scientific experimentation and did important work in chemistry and electricity. In the mid-1760s, he lived near a brewery in Leeds and out of curiosity he began to study the clouds of gas produced by the fermenting process.

Priestley soon discovered that the gas produced by fermentation was the selfsame gas that other scientists called "fixed air." (We call it carbon dioxide today.) While experimenting with the gas, he found that it could be dissolved in water, resulting in a bubbly beverage. Priestley's precise invention was what we now know as seltzer or soda water.

Here's how Priestley's memoirs describe the reaction to his invention:

"My first publication on the subject of air was in 1772. It was a small pamphlet on the method of impregnating water with fixed air, which being immediately translated into French, excited a great degree of attention to the subject, and this was much increased by the publication of my first paper of experiments in a large article of the Philosophical Transactions [the official publication of the Royal Society, a scientific organization] the year following, for which I received the gold medal of the society."

As so often happens when a new substance is discovered, some people thought it might have miraculous medical properties. Priestley continues:

"My method of impregnating water with fixed air was considered at a meeting of the College of Physicians, before whom I made the experiments, and by them it was recommended to the Lords of the Admiralty (by whom they had been summoned for the purpose) as likely to be of use in [fighting] the sea scurvy."

Of course, his drink did nothing to help sailors suffering from scurvy, a condition brought on by bad diet. Still, the process that Priestley invented gave rise to all the carbonated drinks popular today.

Click to expand...