In the latest from the FineWater Newsletter: Bottled Water Ousts Canned Drinks in UK’s Inflation Basket Sunday, 04 April 2010 Canned soda drinks are out and small bottles of mineral water are in, according to the Office for National Statistics in its latest annual rejig of the “shopping basket” ofRead More →

I heard today by email from JS of the new Pittsburgh Seltzer Works. Well, new because he just took it over last December, even though it’s been around since 1898. He wrote: “We still operate a siphon seltzer bottling works here in the steel city. If you ever come acrossRead More →

I am so excited to learn just now about a new documentary short focused on the amazing Gomberg Seltzer Works in Brooklyn, where all the seltzer delivery men go to get their siphons refilled. While I once worked a few blocks away in Canarsie, I never made it for aRead More →

I wrote recently about this fascinating CD tale, When Zaidy Was Young. I promised to share the cover art, as well as the back cover and the CD art. Note both the prominent role played by the seltzer siphon and, equally interesting, how little else but that siphon (and ofRead More →

The following is a tale nearly 200 years old, told on pages 134 – 146 of Sir Francis Bond Head’s “Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau.” The text is from Google Books, where each page, scanned from the original, can be viewed or searched through the computerized OCR reading (whichRead More →

Last Fall I wrote about being amazed at how much research has changed since I first began this project. Five years ago my challenge was finding the slightest reference to seltzer, seeking the proverbial needle in the haystack. Now, with Google Books, they’ve given me a new problem. Serving asRead More →

I am finally relistening to my original podcast series, which oddly enough has become a great source of research for me. The irony of course is it’s my research, but I did it so long ago I have already forgotten the details! One of the interviews, yet to be aired,Read More →

Another fun find in Google Books, from some magazine called The New Monthly Magazine, in 1837. This is about some street urchins trying to have one over on the man selling seltzer. “The English drink Seltzer water like fish in the dog-days.” 🙂Read More →

I am currently having a blast on Google Books, which is Google’s efforts to digitize and make available the word’s books. It’s pretty remarkable. I can download as PDF or to text search online for this important study from 1804: A treatise on the internal use of the natural andRead More →