" serving an
ice cream soda. His left hand rests on the tap of a soda fountain (1936). The soda fountain was an attempt to replicate
mineral waters that bubbled up from the Earth. Many civilizations believed that drinking, and bathing in, these mineral waters cured diseases. Large industries often sprang up around hot springs, such as
Bath in England (43 AD) or the many
onsen of Japan. Although vessels to bottle and transport water were part of the earliest human civilizations, bottling water began in the United Kingdom with the first water bottling at the
Holy Well in 1621. The demand for bottled water was fueled in large part by the resurgence in
spa-going and
water therapy among Europeans and American colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first commercially distributed water in America was bottled and sold by Jackson's Spa in Boston in 1767. Early drinkers of bottled spa waters believed that the water at these
mineral springs had therapeutic properties, and that bathing in or drinking the water could help treat many common ailments. as did the coming of the Car Culture and the rise of
suburbia. Drive-in restaurants and roadside ice cream outlets, such as
Dairy Queen, competed for customers. North American retail stores switched to self-service
soda vending machines selling pre-packaged soft drinks in cans, and the labor-intensive soda fountain did not fit into the new sales scheme. Today only a sprinkling of vintage soda fountains survive. In the
Eastern Bloc countries, self-service soda fountains, located in shopping centers or farmers' markets or simply on the sidewalk in busy areas, became popular by the mid-20th century. In the USSR, a glass of carbonated water would sell for 1
kopeck, while a glass of fruit-flavored soda would sell for 3 kopecks. Most of these vending machines have disappeared since 1990; a few remain, usually provided with an operator. ==In literature and popular culture==