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
James Pemberton James Pemberton Sir James Pemberton (1550 – 8 September 1613) was an English goldsmith who was Lord Mayor of London in 1611. Pemberton was born in Wrightington, probably the son of a farmer of Heskin, Eccleston, Lancashire. He went to London in 1567 to take an apprenticeship with Francis Heaton. He became a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and acquired property in Twickenham probably before 1593. By 1597 had become prosperous enough to found and endow a grammar school at Heskin. The school, probably opened in 1600 with places for 200 boys. Pemberton was Prime Warden of the