John Pemberton Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton had to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. Pemberton relied on Atlanta drugstore owner-proprietor Willis E. 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. He blended the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glassful of the beverage. Pemberton decided then to sell this as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for
Thomas Edgar Pemberton Thomas Edgar Pemberton Thomas Edgar Pemberton (1 July 1849 – 28 September 1905) was an English novelist, playwright and theatrical historian. Born on 1 July 1849, he was the eldest son of Thomas Pemberton, the head of an old-established firm of brass founders in Livery Street, Birmingham. A brother was the novelist Max Pemberton. (The earlier actor and lecturer Charles Reece Pemberton was of the same family.) After education at schools in Edgbaston, Pemberton at nineteen entered his father's firm, and in due course gained control of the business, with which he was connected until 1900. Pemberton married on 11