How was soda pop invented?

Soda pop (soft drinks) was invented by Dr. Joseph Priestley in 1767, when he discovered the method for making carbonated (“fizzy”) water by suspending carbon dioxide gas in water. Although Priestley was the first to do this, he dismissed carbonated water as having little value other than as a novelty. Nevertheless, he described the process in a paper on gases he wrote at the time. Later, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, other people worked on making this carbonated water taste better by sweetening and flavoring it. By the mid-19th century, several competing commercial soda pop operations started and the soft drink industry was born.