The classic American soda fountain was defined as much by its atmosphere as by what it served. Light, cool, and airy places furnished with marble-topped counters and tables, shining mirrors, and sparkling glass and chrome serving dishes, soda fountains began springing up in the early nineteenth century, and kept essentially the same formula until the 1950s. The bill of fare was simple: carbonated beverages and, later, ice cream and combinations thereof. In the heyday of the soda fountain (roughly 1890-1940) one could order a tempting variety of dishes, from an ice-cream soda (soda water and ice cream) to an ice-cream sundae (ice cream topped with nuts and a chocolate or fruit sauce) to a plain soda (carbonated water with fruit syrup mixed in).

For millennia, people have partaken of bubbly mineral water that came from natural springs, which was thought to have therapeutic qualities. After chemists...