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by Max Power on May 19th, 2006

Max Power

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Was Sprite originally made to be a drinkable replacement for blood plasma?

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  • by RJTRIES on July 26th, 2006

    RJTRIES

    This is a quick post, because I have to go back and dig out my papers from 25 years ago...but essentially the timeline is:

    1) During WWII the US Army came out with little books which contained blurbs about lessons soldier's learned in combat. These were distributed to leaders down to platoon and section level. The name of the publication was called "COMBAT LESSONS".

    2) The War Dept continually captured suggestions during the war in an effort to improve its equipement and operational procedures.

    3) At the conclusion of WWII Congress convened a committe to study various operational issues and lessons learned from the war. Of several issues was the need to medics to be better supplied, portable supplies, and the need for hospitals to be closer to the front lines to nicrease survivability.

    4) The issue of death from blood loss and shock was significant. Thousands of American servicemen lost their lives because of the inability to stabilize them when they were shot/injured. They often suffered from blood loss, went into shock and died. Korea pointed out additional shortcomings.

    5) The Dept of Defence ( now renamed) commissioned a study in the early 1949 to look into creating something that soldiers could ingest or be carrieda round to prevent shock from blood loss. Blood Plasma was good, but it could only be used for 30 days before it wwent bad. The army wanted something that could last longer---something synthetic.

    Several firms got involved. Coca Cola got involved because initially Coke syrup was used to settle stomachs---and until about 1970, you could buy the syrup in some drug stores. They did some trials with something that was like Sprite, was pleasantly tasting. (That was the requirement---have electrolytes, can be stored at field temperatures, pleasantly tasting.) The Army cancelled the project in the middle 1950's because technology has gotten to the point where plasma could be kept longer.

    Coke developed sprite from this and introduced it onto the market in 1961. The only place you'll find information might be in the national archives, or, if you call coke directly

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