Often when I search for information from various sources, I run across numerous facts that I find fascinating. I jot them down here and there, and then file them in my “Did You Know” file that I like to share with you readers.

For example, did you know that the crown bottle top used on bottled drinks was invented as far back as 1892?

That six-pack drink cartons were actually introduced in 1923?

That ginger ale was created in Ireland in 1851? You might be interested to know that Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale is bottled in Birmingham.

That plastic drink bottles entered the market in 1970?

And that those pull ring tabs with which we are so familiar came upon the scene in 1962?

That the first patent for a glass milk bottle with a small glass lid and a tin clip was filed on January 31?

Do you remember when Royal Crown Colas, or you might call them RCs, were so popular? During the late 1940s and early 1950s, my mother ran a company commissary. She cooled her soft drinks in the bottom compartment of a meat case. They came out frosty cold and many customers called for the RCs along with Coca-Colas, Dr Peppers, Upper Tens, Pepsi-Colas and a variety of fruit drinks.

In 1954, the Royal Crown Cola Company was the first to nationally distribute soft drinks in cans. Some years later, it introduced the 16 oz. bottles.

Coca-Cola is said to be the most recognized trademark by 94 percent of the world’s population. In fact, the word “Coca-Cola” is the most recognized word after “OK.”

Did you know that the “friendly pepper-upper” from the 1960s, Dr Pepper, also had another popular and catchy commercial, “Drink a bite to eat at 10, two and four?” That came about when a study revealed that the average person has a letdown at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30 during the day, so Dr Pepper advertised to drink one at those hours.

Another Dr Pepper fact — I didn’t use a period after Dr because somewhere in its history, the period was dropped from the name. I had never noticed that on the bottle and Dr Pepper has always been one of my favorite soft drinks.

Dr Pepper was introduced to those that attended the 1904 World’s Fair Exposition in St. Louis. Incidentally, that’s where ice cream was first served in a cone and hot dogs and hamburgers were first served on buns.

“Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda,” introduced in 1929, was the first name given to the beverage 7-Up.

In the early 1920s, the first automatic vending machines started dispensing sodas into cups. During the early 1880s, the first commercial coin-operated vending machines had been introduced in London, England. They dispensed postcards.

That same year, the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced the first vending machines in our country at elevated subway platforms in New York City. Those machines dispensed Tutti-Frutti Gum.

Some years later, another company added animated figures to its gum machines. Gumball vending machines came along in 1907.