njtt
September 14, 2014, 10:36pm
21
Maybe they should put it back: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/should-we-all-take-a-bit-of-lithium.html
Blackfaer:
Many years ago I read something talking about soda origins and the “up” part of the name was due to the Lithium. The article claimed the Up part was a known entity, 7-up, due to the Lithium, being a drink that would perk you up, and that the 7 was believed to be due to the 7 ingredients, though in the article as in Cecil’s and the Snopes articles it mentioned that it was unknown if this is where the 7 actually came from, as the inventor had never answered that question.
No idea where I saw this article as it was pre-internet when I read it, so take that for what you will. I do know from my grandmother that 7-up was considered a lady’s drink by her social circle in the era during and shortly after prohibition, and the gentlemen would drink alcohol or coke but that a lady drank neither, the lithium was a much more socially acceptable medicine for a lady. Not sure how widespread that attitude was.
Maarten:
I once heard / read that it possible has something to do with the atomic weight of Lithium (which is 7), in any case it’s a nice coincidence!
The periodic table was reported around 1870, so I guess on the time-scale likeliness it is a possibility.
The NYT article I link to above also mentions this hypothesis about the name coming from the atomic weight of lithium. It does not confirm it, though. (Certainly the atomic weight of lithium would have been well known by the time the drink was named.)
