The New South Wales goldfields attracted many different businesses looking to make money from the miners’ hard work. One of the stranger enterprises in the gold town of Hill End was Thomas Girvan Weir and George Emberton’s cordial and soda factory. The machine in the photo can be seen injecting dissolved carbon dioxide gas into an elliptical-shaped bottle of flavoured water. Just a year after this photo was taken, the company appeared in the insolvency court. This may have been a blessing in disguise for the locals, as the cordial’s ingredients included a mix of carbonate of lime and sulphuric acid.