In 1885, John Pemberton, ^[3] an Atlanta pharmacist, registered a trademark for "French Wine Cola Ideal Nerve and Tonic Stimulant", a brew he had developed in a three-legged pot which he apparently stirred with an oar. The name was appropriate, since the stimulant is said to have contained cocaine, along with wine and a few other ingredients. After about a year, Pemberton decided to change the formula; he removed the wine and added caffeine and, for flavor, extract of kola nut. ^[4] At that point, his partner and bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, changed the name to Coca-Cola because he thought the two Cs, written in the Spencerian script, which was largely popular at that time, would look good in advertising. Coca-Cola, which joined the ranks of the many mysterious potions being peddled by traveling salesmen, was thus sold as a cure for both hangovers and headaches.

In a twist of events, Georgia businessman Asa Candler ^[5] bought the sole rights to Coca-Cola from John Pemberton in 1889. To expand the business Candler began to sell Coca-Cola syrup to wholesalers, who in turn sold it to drugstores. In 1889, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph P. Whitehead of Tennessee approached Candler with a proposition to bottle Coca-Cola. They promptly sold regional bottling rights to other businessmen in the South and later to the rest of America, thus creating a network of independent bottlers numbering about one thousand by 1930. Each bottler had an exclusive right in perpetuity...