Soda Water Split

In Terre Haute, Ind. in the 1870s one Jacob Baur ran a drugstore. When he needed soda water for his fountain, he would put some marble dust in a bottle, add sulphuric acid, capture the escaping carbon dioxide gas and pass it under pressure through water. In spare moments Jacob Baur worked on a machine to make carbonated water commercially. Soon he perfected the "coke" method now in use everywhere.* Raising $75,000, Druggist Baur went to Chicago, started the predecessor of Liquid Carbonic Corp. on Illinois Street just north of the Chicago River in 1888. For ten years he manufactured carbonic gas for soft drinks, then branched out into bottling equipment--carbonators, bottle fillers, washers, pasteurizers, labels. Profiting steadily, he turned to flavoring extracts, in 1897 launched a line of soda fountains.

A colorless, odorless, nontoxic, non-inflammable gas one and one-half times heavier than air, carbon dioxide (CO2) was first obtained in liquid form by Faraday in 1834, first sold commercially in 1888. In 1899 annual U. S. production was some 12,000,000 lb. Today more than 300,000,000 lb. are sold yearly and Liquid Carbonic Corp. handles most of it. Made in 36 plants in the U. S. and Canada, its gas is delivered to 10,000 U. S. beverage bottlers in 400,000 steel cylinders. There is a steadily widening use for liquid carbonic in asbestos composition shingles, cement products, fire extinguishers, coal blasting, air-cooling. At low temperatures under pressure, liquid carbonic forms what is known as dry ice. Selling dry ice since 1931, Liquid Carbonic now dominates the current annual U. S. production of 200,000,000 lb., most of which goes to ice-cream companies.

Jacob Baur died in 1912, left his 55% interest to his wife and daughter. In 1926 they realized $3,000,000 by selling out to a banking group. President then and chairman now is a blue-eyed, bulb-nosed Iowa Scot named Walter Kenneth Mclntosh who has been in the company since 1902. Married but childless, he commutes from suburban Oak Park, draws a salary of $27,000. '"Liquid" employes call him "Mr. Mac." Under Mr. Mac, "Liquid" came through Depression with flying colors, lost money only in 1932. In 1930, it made $1,786,000 on sales of $13,626,000. Last year it made $1,107,000. In the first half of the current fiscal year sales jumped 40% and last week, on Mr. Mac's advice, stockholders voted to split the current outstanding 350,000 snares 2-for-1, raise total capitalization from 400,000 to 1,200,000 shares to pay for expansion since 1933. "Liquid" will also issue $3,500,000 worth of convertible debentures to help keep its finances liquid. Last week its stock sold at $48, was paying a 65-c- quarterly dividend.

*Burned under a steam boiler, coke, coal or natural gas produces flue gases which are largely carbon dioxide. These are purified, piped into steel cylinders weighing 20 to 50 lb. Under pressure of 1,400 lb. per sq. in., the gas liquefies, forms the product known as liquid carbonic.

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