John Pemberton

 

John Pemberton

The story of the man who invented Coca-Cola

 

1886 - In Atlanta (USA), John Pemberton patented Coca-Cola, a green-colored beverage made from extracts of coca leaves, cola nuts, sugar, caramel, purified water, and carbon dioxide. Beginning in 1919, it spread abroad, achieving great popularity.

 

To understand the birth of the world's most famous beverage, we must go back to the late 19th century. In Georgia (Atlanta, United States), lived Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a chemist and pharmacist from the city whose curiosity and desire for innovation led him to create the best-selling soft drink of today.

 

Georgia was the pioneer state in the United States to adopt Prohibition, renouncing the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages during a preliminary experimental period in 1886 and 1887.

 

At that time, the industrial sector was growing at a considerable pace, and with it the long hours of workers, who demanded stimulants to help them cope with the daily grind.

 

Pemberton spent many hours mixing ingredients to create a syrup for digestive problems that would also provide sufficient energy (a new "stimulating and invigorating" drink was the claim of Coca-Cola's early advertising). Among many other remedies and elixirs of the time, there was something different about Pemberton's concoction: the unique flavor that characterizes Coca-Cola, which the Atlanta pharmacist achieved by mixing natural ingredients such as coca leaf, cola nut, and soda water in his laboratory. It was May 8, 1886.

 

With the syrup in a pitcher, Pemberton headed to the now-famous Jacob's Pharmacy, where each glass of syrup, with ice and mixed with carbonated water, began selling for 5 cents. Little by little, this new drink gained a foothold in local society and infiltrated the daily lives of Americans.

 

From a medicinal preparation to a world-renowned brand

 

Frank M. Robinson, Pemberton's bookkeeper, was the one who suggested the name by which the drink became known and even designed the logo, believing that the two capital Cs would create a striking design that everyone would remember.

 

Throughout 1888, Dr. Pemberton sold small portions of his business and, shortly before his death, sold what remained to Asa G. Candler, whose business acumen led him to purchase additional rights and take control. Pemberton died unaware of the worldwide success of the drink he had created.

 

The myth of the Coca-Cola recipe was born in 1892, when Asa G. Candler made some changes to the original recipe and secretly passed them on to his children and heirs: this way, only they could make the successful drink.

 

Pemberton died unaware of the worldwide success of the drink he had created.

 

During 1895, Coca-Cola ceased to be a medicinal preparation and became one of the most popular beverages in North America: its slogan became "delicious and refreshing," and factories began to expand beyond Atlanta, expanding into the United States and neighboring Mexico and Canada. At that time, the first two official bottlers appeared: Benjamin Franklin Thomas and Joseph Brown Whitehead.

 

An unmistakable bottle for a unique flavor

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Coca-Cola wanted not only the flavor of the beverage to be clearly identifiable and unique, but also its bottle: it had to be curved, highly recognizable (even in the dark or broken), and free of paper labels. So the company contacted 10 glass companies and challenged them.

 

The design of the iconic Contour bottle is inspired by the shapes of a cocoa pod. Left, prototype; right, final design.

 

On November 16, 1915, the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, registered the patent for the new bottle. Its design, created by a team that included C.J. and William Root (the owners), Swedish architect Alexander Samuelson (the foreman), and employees Earl Dean and Clyde Edwards, was inspired by the oval shape of a cocoa pod with distinctive grooves.

 

This design was the clear winner when Coca-Cola executives and their bottling partners met in early 1916 to choose the bottle they would use from then on, although it was agreed that the shapes would be softened slightly to facilitate production, giving rise to the design we all know and recognize today.

 

In the 1920s, the company began bottling in Europe, also arriving in Spain in 1953.

 

Today, more than 130 years after Pemberton's genius, we can still breathe that entrepreneurial spirit capable of inspiring moments of optimism and happiness and, of course, refreshing the world. And in all this time, Coca-Cola has not stopped evolving.

With affection,

Ruben

Jean Henry Dunant

 

Jean Henry Dunant

Saviors in History

 

AURORA HUMANITARIAN INITIATIVE

“There is no man more deserving of this honor, for it was you who, 40 years ago, initiated the international organization for the aid of the wounded on the battlefield. Without him , the Red Cross, the greatest humanitarian achievement of the 19th century, would probably never have been realized.”

These were the words with which Jean Henry Dunant was officially congratulated in 1901, when the International Committee awarded him the first Nobel Peace Prize for his essential role in the creation of the Red Cross and in the beginnings of what would later be known as the Geneva Conventions.

 

Jean Henri Dunant in 1901

 

Jean Henry Dunant's life was one of ups and downs. Born on May 8, 1828, to a wealthy Calvinist Swiss family, he died alone in a hospice on October 30, 1910. He enjoyed great fame and success in business, but in old age, he was exiled from Genevan society, of which he had once been a beloved member, and died forgotten.

 

Dunant's successful and generous parents devoted much time and effort to orphans, parolees, the sick, and the poor. They instilled in young Dunant the value of helping others. As a young man, Dunant himself became involved in humanitarian activities, especially those of a religious nature, because he felt that many moral issues facing society could be addressed through religion. As an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), at the age of 24 he co-founded a YMCA branch in Geneva.

 What inspired Dunant to found a global humanitarian organization? It was in the course of his entrepreneurial activities that he devised this ambitious plan.

 

Along with his vibrant social life and philanthropic work, Dunant also strove to reach his full potential in the business world. He became president of the Financial and Industrial Company of Mons-Gémila Mills in Algeria, where he would develop large tracts of land. In order to obtain water rights, he decided to personally meet Emperor Napoleon III, who was then commanding the French and Italian armies that were expelling the Austrians from Italy. The trip to Solferino, Italy, would completely change his life.

 

Upon arriving in Solferino on June 24, 1859, Dunant witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of the century. When the battle drew to a close, devastated by the suffering of thousands of wounded soldiers abandoned on the battlefield, Dunant organized the local people, especially women and girls, to help the severely wounded soldiers on both sides.

They acted under the motto “tutti fratelli” (“all are brothers”), coined by the local women. Dunant believed that women would play a decisive role in the future of humanity, a potential that should be harnessed for the good of the human race. “The influence of women is an essential factor in the well-being of mankind and will become more and more valuable as time goes on,” he later wrote.

 

Back in Geneva in 1862, Dunant recorded his recollections of the Battle of Solferino and his concerns in a small book titled “Un souvenir de Solferino” (“Souvenir of Solferino”). He described the battle as “pure carnage; a struggle between wild beasts, enraged with bloodlust and violence.” He also developed the idea that there should be a neutral organization to provide assistance to people affected by war: “But why have I revealed all these scenes of pain and anguish, with which I may have aroused feelings of sorrow in my readers? … It is a logical question. Perhaps I could answer it with another question: Would it not be possible, in times of peace and tranquility, to establish relief societies to assist the wounded in times of war through enthusiastic, dedicated, and perfectly qualified volunteers?” he wrote in his book.

 

His plan was destined to become the cornerstone of the organization that would soon be known throughout the world as the Red Cross. “Such societies, once formed and their perpetuity assured, would naturally remain dormant in times of peace... They would not only have to secure the goodwill of the authorities of the countries in which they were created, but also, in the event of war, they would have to request authorization and powers from the rulers of the belligerent states to enable them to carry out their work effectively,” Dunant wrote.

In February 1863, the Geneva Society for Public Welfare appointed a five-member committee, including Dunant, to continue implementing its ideas. The outcome of the initial meetings was the creation of an International Committee for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers in the Field. This organization later became the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

Geneva Society for Public Welfare (Committee of Five) in 1863

 

At the same time, in his book, Dunant also proposed ideas regarding the need for “a governmental treaty recognizing the neutrality of the organization and allowing it to provide aid in a war zone.” This idea eventually led to the First Geneva Convention, signed in 1864.

 

Dunant's devotion to his humanitarian activities and neglect of his business led to the ruin of his company, generating scandals and ultimately its bankruptcy in 1868.

That same year, he had to resign as Secretary of the International Committee and move to Paris. In his memoirs, "Les Débuts de la Croix-Rouge en France" ("The Beginnings of the Red Cross in France"), he described being reduced to eating a crust of bread for dinner, using ink to blacken his coat and chalk to whiten his shirt collar, and sleeping in appalling conditions.

 

However, he continued to advocate for his ideas during and after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He even launched an international congress for the “complete and final abolition of the slave trade” in London in 1875. Until 1886, Dunant lived in poverty and traveled throughout Europe on foot.

 

Eventually, he ended up living in the Swiss village of Heiden, where he was given shelter in room 12 of the local hospice for the last 18 years of his life.

However, he was not an unknown beggar. In 1895, journalist Georg Baumberger wrote an article about his meeting with the founder of the Red Cross in Heiden. Baumberger's article was a great success, and Dunant was honored and congratulated for his work. Later, in 1901, he was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize (with Frederic Passy), becoming the first Nobel Prize winner from Switzerland.

 

Despite his awards and international recognition, Dunant remained in Room 12. He didn't spend a single cent of the prize money he received. Instead, he left the money to various charities in Norway and Switzerland and donated a bed in the hospice to be used by the poorest people of Heiden in times of need. On October 30, 1910, he was placed in a simple grave, without mourners or funeral services, in accordance with his wishes.

 

Jean Henri Dunant's grave at the Sihlfeld Cemetery in Zurich

 

Henry Dunant transformed his personal idea into an international organization, the Red Cross, which would win the Nobel Prize three times. In its 153 years of existence, the International Committee of the Red Cross remains the world's leading humanitarian network, helping people affected by war and disaster in around 150 countries, fulfilling the long-cherished dream of its founder, Jean-Henry Dunant, the man behind the Red Cross.

With affection,

Ruben