The frozen carbonated beverage, better known as the Slushie or ICEE, was invented by Omar Knedlik in the late 1950s. Knedlik ran a Dairy Queen in Kansas, and after his soda fountain broke down, he began placing bottles of soda in the freezer to keep them cold. When he opened the bottles, the liquid would instantly turn into a semi-frozen slush. The customers loved the texture, which led Knedlik to build a machine that could recreate this effect on demand. The machine used a combination of refrigeration and pressure to keep the soda in a 'supercooled' state. This eventually caught the attention of 7-Eleven, who licensed the technology to create the Slurpee. The science behind it relies on the fact that carbonation lowers the freezing point, and the sudden release of pressure allows ice crystals to form instantly.