In 1767 Joseph Priestley suspended water above a fermenting vat of beer in Leeds England and inadvertently created the first carbonated water. He discovered that a gas he called fixed air was released during fermentation, and water infused with this gas acquired a pleasant tangy flavor. In 1772 he published his findings in a paper titled Impregnating Water with Fixed Air. Although his method was not efficient for large-scale production, it laid the foundation for the modern soft drink industry.