John Pemberton

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John Pemberton : biography

July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888

John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was a Confederate veteran and an American pharmacist, and is best known for being the inventor of Coca-Cola.

Invention of Coca-Cola

In April 1865, Colonel John Pemberton of the Confederate Army was wounded in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia. He was slashed across his chest and like many wounded veterans became addicted to morphine which he used to ease the pain. He was a pharmacist and as such searched for a cure to counteract this addiction. He began experimenting with coca and coca wines, eventually creating his own version of Vin Mariani, containing kola nut and damiana, which he called Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.Dominic Streatfeild, Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, Macmillan (2003), p. 80.Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion, Norton (2004), p. 152.

With public concern about drug addiction, depression and alcoholism among veterans, and "neurasthenia" among "highly-strung" Southern women,John Shelton Reed, Minding The South, University of Missouri Press (2099), p.171. his medicinal concoction was advertised as being particularly beneficial for "ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration, irregularities of the stomach, bowels and kidneys, who require a nerve tonic and a pure, delightful diffusible stimulant".Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It, Basic Books: enlarged 2nd edition (2000), p.24.

In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton found himself forced to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. Pemberton relied on Atlanta druggist Willis Venable to test and help him perfect the recipe for the beverage, which he formulated by trial and error. With Venable’s assistance, Pemberton worked out a set of directions for its preparation that eventually included blending the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glass. Pemberton decided then to sell it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for the alliterative sound, which was popular among other wine medicines of the time. Although the name quite clearly refers to the two main ingredients, the controversy over its cocaine content would later prompt The Coca-Cola Company to state that the name was "meaningless but fanciful." Robinson also hand wrote the Spencerian script on the bottles and ads. Pemberton made many health claims for his product, touting it as a "valuable brain tonic" that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves, and marketed it as "delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating," and "invigorating."

Asa Candler bought the business in 1887. In 1894, Coke was sold in bottles for the first time by Joseph A. Biedenharn at his plant in in Vicksburg, Mississippi. During World War II, bottling plants were established in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific islands.

John Pemberton in popular culture

The Fallout series of video games feature a beverage called Nuka-Cola, which is based on Coca-Cola. The inventor’s name, John Caleb-Bradberton, is based on both Pemberton and Pepsi-Cola inventor Caleb Bradham.

In 2010, the Coca-Cola Company paid tribute to Pemberton as a key character within an advertising campaign called "Secret Formula". Centered on the secret ingredients of Coca-Cola, imagery related to Pemberton was used to make people more aware of Coke’s history and mythology.

The book Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go features a Dr. Pemberton as chemistry teacher; his death said to be due to overcarbonation resulting in an exploded stomach, and addicting children to soda as the reason for punishment in the afterlife.

John Pemberton was also referenced in an installment of Futurama titled "The Deep South."

In May 2010, a Twitter account was created for John Pemberton, which was subsequently "verified" by the website. It is currently active and has more than 230,000 followers as of March 2013.

Spotify is partnered with Coca-Cola, and they produced an ad together using John Pemberton’s voice.

Pemberton currently has descendants living in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Columbus, Georgia and some in South Carolina.