City Steam Bottling House

c. 1890s

Baltimore was not only a major producer and consumer of beer at the turn of the century, but we also loved sodas! There were a lot of soda manufactures within the city of Baltimore and the surrounding areas. And they had to find ways to stay ahead of the competition. And how do you do that? The same way some companies do today, they steal ideas or take them to court.

On March 30th, 1896, John Heinzerling & Co., the owners of City Steam Bottling House, filed an injunction against Phillps Brothers, another soda company based here in Baltimore, Maryland, for using a trade-mark for Ginger Ale said to be a copy of Heinzerling & Co.'s trade-mark. Heinzerling & Co. also asked for a portion of the sales from the copy cat Ginger Ale sold by Phillips Brothers.

I'm not sure if the owners of John Heinzerling & Co. were successful in winning their case. But one of the owners, John Trainor, was able to donate $10 in 1906 ($318.12 today) to the Gaelic Language Fund.

When I was researching this relic for its initial post, I came across a very riveting story related to the son of John Heinzerling, the owner of City Steam Bottling House. You can read about what I found here.