Pulp Fiction

In 1911, Neil C. Ward, a California-born beverage chemist, perfected the blending process, making the drink palatable and commercially viable. Five years later Ward partnered with Clayton J. Howel to form the Orange Crush Company. Howel had previously developed "Howel's Orange Julep," an orange syrup. The headquarters for the company was in Chicago with laboratories in Los Angeles. Soft drinks of the time often carried the surname of the inventor along with the product name. Howel sold the rights to use his name in conjunction with his first brand so it premiered as Ward's Orange Crush. 

Originally, artificial orange pulp was added to their bottles creating an illusion of freshly squeezed juice. The pulp deception was soon removed from the bottles. Bottles were originally ribbed in clear glass but in 1937 the drink was bottled in brown glass. The bottle design eventually discontinued the amber glass and ribs for a larger clear bottle giving it a fresher, more modern appearance.

The single orange flavor was market-limiting and the name was changed to simply Crush, offering several flavors. Keurig Dr Pepper now owns the Crush brand.

Pictured is the clear bottle, circa 1920

Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda

Seven-Up (7up) was created by Charles Leiper Grigg, who was introduced to the carbonated beverage business early in his career. Grigg had invented two orange-flavored soft drinks, but it was literally crushed by the dominance of the king of all orange pop drinks, Orange Crush. Grigg shifted his focus to a lemon-lime formula. Originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", it was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Its name was later shortened to "7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda" before being further shortened to just "7 Up" by 1936. Until the government ban in 1948, the original formula contained lithium citrate, which was used in various patent medicines at the time for improving moods. It had been used for many decades to treat manic depression, one of a number of patent medicine products popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The drink was neither lost on the 1929 stock market crash nor the drummer above. 

The origin of the revised name is unclear. Lithium was one of the elements with an atomic number of 7, while others have suggested the name came from the use of 7-ounce bottles when most other soft drinks were bottled in 6-ounce bottles. Grigg never explained the name but did promote 7up as having effects on mood. Another problematic ingredient was Calcium Disodium EDTA which was removed in 2006. 

Note: Westinghouse took over 7up in 1969, then sold it to Philip Morris in 1978. The investment firm Hicks & Haas bought it in 1986 with 7up merging with Dr. Pepper in 1988. Now a combined company, it was bought by Cadbury Schweppes in 1995. A popular ad campaign in the 1970s labeled the drink the "Uncola."