Soft drinks and a horse named Bob

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Arthur Beaumont Boyce was a popular sight as he and his horse Bob delivered soft-drinks and soda syphons around town.

This soda syphon was used by Boyce sometime between 1920 and 1945 for selling soda water to homes and hotels in Cambridge.

He established an aerated water factory in an old shed at the back of a house on Wilson Street. The work was dangerous. The pressure involved in producing the aerated water would often break the glass, sending shards everywhere. To protect himself, he would wear a wire mask, heavy gloves and a sack folded twice around his waist.

When he was on his deliveries around town, his daughters Bus and Dot remembered,

“… we would ride our bikes along with the cart and everywhere a house needed drinks, Dad would give us a kit of drinks to take in, a syphon or a few bottles of lemonade.  At Christmas, he would load up the cart and go around the suburbs and deliver his wares.”

He also supplied weddings and local hotels, although larger soft drink factories eventually forced him out of the hotel market.

• Accession No: CM2889/2
• Materials: Glass and metal
• Measurements: 31 x 10cm

Discover more:

Frost, Murray R (1993) – Temperance Waters: The Story of Aerated Water and Mineral Water factories of Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Te Aroha and Hamilton