Don’t get overexcited but we should be taking delivery of a final glass 19 litre water bottle prior to Christmas 2010.

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Detail on Absopure – taken from www.absopure.com

Absopure Water Company’s humble beginnings date back to 1908, when Absopure Ice was delivered to Detroit area customers on horse-drawn wagons. Originally a brand name of General Necessities Company, Absopure was located in Detroit’s Fairview Station at the foot of Lycaste Avenue. Through the 1920s, the company thrived and even offered an Absopure brand of electrical “Frigerators,” advertised nationally in the Saturday Evening Post.

As a result of the Great Depression, Absopure was purchased by Arthur and Belle Porteus who formed a new business called Absopure Water Company, concentrating on bottled water products. From their plant on Henry Street near Tiger Stadium, they offered home delivery service. Over the next two and a half decades, Absopure continued to thrive.

In the mid 1950s, William P. Young purchased Absopure Water Company. Through innovation and an acute business sense, Mr. Young successfully built on Absopure’s foundation of quality. Mrs. Young and their son, William C., (Bill) helped the family business by assisting with the day-to-day operations. Bill joined Absopure full time in 1961, and soon became the driving force in the company. Through the years, his children, too, became active in Absopure Water Company.

In 1973, the Young Family merged with Chicago-based Beatrice Foods, but remained the managers of the Absopure division. Through Beatrice’s resources, significant investments were made in new equipment and facilities modernization. Plus, CAP10 sparkling mineral water was added to the Absopure product lines at that time. In 1982, the Young Family re-purchased Absopure from Beatrice and has continued to build on the company’s success into the new millenium.

Absopure Water Company’s humble beginnings date back to 1908, when Absopure Ice was delivered to Detroit area customers on horse-drawn wagons. Originally a brand name of General Necessities Company, Absopure was located in Detroit’s Fairview Station at the foot of Lycaste Avenue. Through the 1920s, the company thrived and even offered an Absopure brand of electrical “Frigerators,” advertised nationally in the Saturday Evening Post.

As a result of the Great Depression, Absopure was purchased by Arthur and Belle Porteus who formed a new business called Absopure Water Company, concentrating on bottled water products. From their plant on Henry Street near Tiger Stadium, they offered home delivery service. Over the next two and a half decades, Absopure continued to thrive.

In the mid 1950s, William P. Young purchased Absopure Water Company. Through innovation and an acute business sense, Mr. Young successfully built on Absopure’s foundation of quality. Mrs. Young and their son, William C., (Bill) helped the family business by assisting with the day-to-day operations. Bill joined Absopure full time in 1961, and soon became the driving force in the company. Through the years, his children, too, became active in Absopure Water Company.

In 1973, the Young Family merged with Chicago-based Beatrice Foods, but remained the managers of the Absopure division. Through Beatrice’s resources, significant investments were made in new equipment and facilities modernization. Plus, CAP10 sparkling mineral water was added to the Absopure product lines at that time. In 1982, the Young Family re-purchased Absopure from Beatrice and has continued to build on the company’s success into the new millenium.

The bottle was designed to be used on top of water coolers and was returned to Puritas after use for cleaning and refilling with distilled water.  Arrowhead Puritas were one of the dominant forces in water delivery on the East Coast of the United States at the turn of the 19th century.

The US water delivery market at the turn of the century was based on distilled water and interestingly the purified water market in the USA is still a major force. Whereas in the UK demand for  spring or mineral water dominates.

We date the bottle to 1937 – based solely on the fact that there is an inscription on the bottom of the bottle saying L37 – but it may be from much earlier than this. The bottles were delivered in wooden crates to protect the glass during transportation – and interestingly plastic water bottles in Hong Kong are still delivered within crates – albeit plastic ones.

After trawling the internet we found some nice detail on the Puritas Water Company from the turn of the last century.

“In 1898, the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (LAWCTU) protested to the Puritas Water Company against its use of a semi-nude figure in a billboard advertisement. In a letter deploring the impropriety of the Puritas advertising campaign, the LAWCTU complained that the “almost nude figure” in the billboard was “offensive to the wives and mothers of Los Angeles, and…demoralizing of our young people.”

We would love to see the original billboard advertisment – we found another version shown above. We will clean the bottle up and have further images for you in the future.

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We have now cleaned the bottle up fully – with images shown below

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Finally a You Tube Video (apologies for the funny angles). We promise that we have finished with this project now.

Sorry – we told a small lie – see the coverage of our blog in the Cooler Innovation magazine below. This blog is now closed.

We’re water cooler nerds – plain and simple. With a long established pedigree of finding new and interesting products that wow the world of water coolers.

However there are – within some of our range – some of the most boring products available in the world of retail. Essential, but dull ….. can’t live without them but add nothing to anyones life. The ‘water cooler bottle’ product certainly fits within this later category. We have no idea how we managed to write so much about them. We recommend a stiff drink before you read on.

The humble water cooler bottle was manufactured until the late 1980′s as a glass 19 litre (five gallon) and these were supplied to water cooler customers – who were predominantely based in the USA. Each bottle was delivered in a plastic crate to minimise the fragility of the glass, and made the logistics of running a water cooler business of any size very complicated.

Glass water bottles – as their plastic counterparts are today – were delivered to customers filled with drinking water (spring, mineral or purified) and then collected when they had been used. They would then be taken back to the bottling plant where they were washed by machine and refilled with water.

In the mid 1980′s, as the water cooler business took to the mass-market in the UK, bottled water cooler suppliers and distributors here and in the US looked to develop a plastic version of the bottle. And around 1987 the first plastic bottles started to enter the rapidly developing water cooler business.

Commonly the first water cooler bottles were similar to the design you see in the bottom right image, but were not built with a handle which made carrying bottles awkward. Manufacturers like Grief started mass producing bottles with in built handles in the mid 2000′s.

Water cooler bottles are made of a robust, polycarbonate plastic and built to last for years. As with their glass counterparts they are filled, delivered, collected, cleaned and refilled. Many of our water cooler bottles that we deliver to our customers have been used over 500 times.

Water cooler bottles in the UK are commonly available in two sizes – 19 litre (5 US gallon) and 12 litre (3 US gallon) – and we can sell these directly to customers who use for an amazing variety of uses. Please contact us on 0845 006 3309 or email contact@thewaterdeliverycompany.com for more information on water cooler bottles or if you wish to purchase directly from a person on the phone.

Charities or schools are also welcome to contact us if they need water cooler bottles for events and activities. At certain times each year we give away used bottles to charitable causes.

To purchase water cooler bottles please see our main website – http://www.thewaterdeliverycompany.com/index.php?id=water-cooler-bottles.

A few months ago we had a phone call from a gentleman who was keen to purchase some water cooler bottles. Normally this is no issue for us as this is the heart of our business – however things weren’t as they seemed. After a couple of questions to the new client, we discovered that we were dealing with a scientist who actually wanted ten empty 19 litre water bottles for a series of experiments he was running for a Channel 5 show – Big, Bigger, Biggest.

Obviously this piqued our curiosity. Unable to give us full details on what he was doing he did explain that one of his experiments was going to involve making a jet engine from a 19 litre water bottle. Finally, the faith we all had in the ability of our bottles was going to be validated – and by a real scientist! For water cooler nerds it doesn’t get much better than that. We had to wait until earlier this month to see the TV show and suffice to say it didn’t disappoint.

Please enjoy the series of photos below which gives a little more detail on the other experiments that took place using 19 litre bottles. If you wish to purchase 19 litre bottles of water please visit the 19 litre water bottle page on our main website and contact us directly. Great rates for budding scientists!

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