Various are the devices intended for dispensing carbonated beverages directly from the fountains, and sometimes very costly and highly ornamental apparatus are put up in very attractive styles, selected to gain the favor of the customers.

The internal, or working parts of all the various apparatus are in the main point the same, and a glass of good soda water should be drawn from the plainest apparatus as well as from the most elaborate one.

With that more or less ornamental external marble shell the dispenser is familiar, and it remains for us to explain the details of the interior.

White marble is looked upon with disfavor by experienced dispensers. Although the imported Italian is the finest and most beautiful white marble and considerably cheaper than the colored varieties, it is not desirable from the fact that it becomes stained and loses its clean appearance. Where a cheap apparatus is desired the cheaper varieties of foreign and domestic marble, white and colored, are recommended.

The marble must be sound and strong and in appearance lustrous with polish; the metal parts must be heavily plated.

Marbles are merely purer and more compact varieties of limestone, which admit of being sawed into slabs, and are susceptible of a fine polish. It may be stained or dyed of various colors by applying colored solutions to the stone, made sufficiently hot to make the liquid just simmer on the surface. As this coloring belongs within the sphere of the marble-works, and could not be applied without mechanical aid, we abstain from giving any directions respecting it.

The sectional view of the appended dispensing apparatus consists of the following parts: A represents the marble or outer case; B is the air space between metal case and marble; C, metal casing, entirely surrounding the non-conducting wood lining; this should be of a durable kind. C is the wood lining inside of the metal shell; E is a block-tin or glass syrup case; F, ice coolers, either cylinders with block-tin lining or block-tin coil; G, support for syrup case and connection; H, pipe connecting syrup case with outlet, which lies directly under the ice coolers; I, cylinder cooler; K, ice case; L, pipe leading from cooler to gas cock; M, syrup faucet (sectional view); O, mineral draught tube; P, gas cock to relieve the sputtering if gas or air have become separated from the water. E, block-tin pipe, connecting mineral draught with cooler, if this be desired; S, same, connecting soda draught with cooler. The syrup jars must be so arranged as to be instantaneously removed and replaced. Directions for setting up draught apparatus cannot be given as they vary with the style; the manufacturers will give the directions necessary.

Fig. 331. - Sectional View of American Dispensing Apparatus.

The connections or couplings with the portable fountain claim particular attention. For conveying the carbonated water from the fountain to the cooler is a block-tin pipe, the only kind that should be employed, and leaden pipes or alloys with lead should be carefully avoided. The required couplings, which are made of brass, must be carefully and heavily tinned with pure block-tin and re-tinned whenever the slightest corrosion is visible.