John Stith Pemberton, Respected Pharmacist - Essay Example

According to the essay "John Stith Pemberton, respected pharmacist" findings, although he was a licensed physician and surgeon, Pemberton moved away from the practice of medicine. In 1855, he established a wholesale retail drug business specializing in the composition of medical remedies. He did acquire a graduate degree in the pharmacy sometime before the Civil War and established the laboratories of J. S. Pemberton and Company of Columbus in 1860. During the war, he served as lieutenant colonel in the Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion and was almost killed in the fighting at Columbus in April 1865.

In 1869 he moved his laboratories to Atlanta, where they were considered “one of the most splendid chemical laboratories” in the country (King, 2004, para. 3). According to historian King, not only was the sale of fraudulent agricultural chemicals in the state almost single-handedly eliminated by his efforts in prosecuting those trying to sell them, but Pemberton’s laboratories are still in operation as part of the Georgia Department of Agriculture. John Pemberton’s French Wine Coca was developed as a tonic from an extract of the leaf of Peruvian Coca, the purest wine, and the kola nut.

It was said to aid digestion and strengthen the muscular and nervous systems. Pemberton admitted his beverage was based on Vin Mariani, a French formula perfected by Mariani and Company of Paris, which had utilized erythroxylon coca (King, 2004). The prohibition law passed in 1886 made it necessary for Pemberton to change the formula for his popular French Wine Coca. According to writer Jack Hayes, when the new Coca-Cola debuted later that year--still possessing healing properties, yet sweetened with sugar instead of wine--Pemberton advertised it not only as a delicious and invigorating soda fountain beverage but a temperance drink as well (2006).

Pemberton had concocted his formula for Coca-Cola (named by his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson) in a "three-legged brass kettle in his backyard" (Coca-Cola History, 2006, para. 1). It is alleged that a 19th century soda jerk accidentally added carbonated water to the syrup when he pushed the wrong spigot, and the drink we know today as Coca-Cola was created. The first Coca-Cola was served in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886 (Our Georgia History, 2006). Pemberton registered the trademark Coca-Cola in his own name in 1888 when he and his partners incorporated the Coca-Cola Company.

Pemberton died on August