Wednesday’s ad is for Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij, which was established in 1873. A few years before, 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought the Haystack Brewery, later changing its name to HBM, which essentially means Heineken’s brewery or beer company. I suspect this ad is from the late 1800s, as it resembles ones from that time period.
Today in 1902, US Patent 713975 A was issued, an invention of Philipp Forg, for his “Bung and Tapping Device for Beer-Barrels.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
The object of this invention is to provide an improved bung for beer-barrels and also an improved beer-barrel tapping device which is adapted to be used in connection therewith; and with these and other objects in view the invention consists in a beer-bung for beer-barrels and a tapping device for beer-barrels constructed as hereinafter described and claimed.
Today is the birthday of Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype process of photography, one of the earliest successful methods of creating photographs. He was French, an artist as well as a photographer, and “became known as one of the fathers of photography. Though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre.” When I took some photography classes in college, my great aunt gave me some daguerreotypes taken by my great-grandfather along with some glass plates that I was able to develop in a dark room. There were even a few showing the construction of the clock tower at Kutztown University (his alma mater and near where I grew up in Pennsylvania), which was finished in 1910. Sadly, none of my family daguerreotypes involve beer, since they were for the most part teetotaling mennonites for a majority of the time they worked the farm after arriving here in 1745 from Berne, Switzerland, fleeing religious persecution. I, on the other hand, am such a disappointment (not really, the farm was sold before I was born and they even drove cars and had the occasional beer by the time I was born).
But first, what is a daguerreotype?
Here’s the basics from the Wikipedia entry:
The daguerreotype process, or daguerreotypy, was the first publicly announced photographic process, and for nearly twenty years, it was the one most commonly used. It was invented by Louis-Jaques-Mandé Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839. By 1860, new processes which were less expensive and produced more easily viewed images had almost completely replaced it. During the past few decades, there has been a small-scale revival of daguerreotypy among photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.
To make a daguerreotype, the daguerreotypist polished a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish; treated it with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive; exposed it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting; made the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor; removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried it; then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.
Viewing a daguerreotype is unlike looking at any other type of photograph. The image does not sit on the surface of the metal, but appears to be floating in space, and the illusion of reality, especially with examples that are sharp and well exposed is unique to the process.
The image is on a mirror-like silver surface, normally kept under glass, and will appear either positive or negative, depending on the angle at which it is viewed, how it is lit and whether a light or dark background is being reflected in the metal. The darkest areas of the image are simply bare silver; lighter areas have a microscopically fine light-scattering texture. The surface is very delicate, and even the lightest wiping can permanently scuff it. Some tarnish around the edges is normal, and any treatment to remove it should be done only by a specialized restorer.
Several types of antique photographs, most often ambrotypes and tintypes, but sometimes even old prints on paper, are very commonly misidentified as daguerreotypes, especially if they are in the small, ornamented cases in which daguerreotypes made in the US and UK were usually housed. The name “daguerreotype” correctly refers only to one very specific image type and medium, the product of a process that was in wide use only from the early 1840s to the late 1850s.
So while I don’t have any daguerreotypes of my own that involve beer, there are a few of them out there, and I’ve selected some of the best ones I came across. A lot of early photographs, as mentioned above, are mis-identified as daguerreotypes when in fact they might be another early photographic process. So the ones I found are identified as daguerreotypes, but of course it’s hard, if not impossible, to be sure. At any rate, this is just for fun, so if you have evidence that one is not strictly speaking, a daguerreotype, let me know, and if you know of one I missed, send me a link to it or as as an attachment.
Munchen Hoffbrau Interior, c. 1896-1905, by Robert L. Bracklow (New York Historical Society).
Four men posing with mugs of beer, c. late 1850s.
Four [More] Guys and Their Mugs of Beer, c. 1880.
St. Louis Park Beer Garden, South Broadway, c. 1860. Daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly.
Self-portrait of Frances Benjamin Johnston, from 1896. “Fannie” was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists.
Thomas Coffin Doane, taken at the Molson family brewery after the fire, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1858.
Union House Bar, Bidwell, California. “A fire destroyed the first Union House (also known as Fitzgerald House) August 2, 1854 along with most of the town. Upon careful study of the dark sign on the right, these are the words: “OFFICE FEATHER RIVER & OPHIR WATER CO”. This company was incorporated Feb. 6 1855. Apparently the second Union House was constructed during the winter and spring of 1855. I believe this daguerreotype was taken in the summer of 1855 after the Union House had been resurrected.”
Today in 1941, US Patent 2262863 A was issued, an invention of Robert C. Schock, for his “Lauter Tank.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
Lauter tanks, as is known, are provided with two bottoms, a false or inner bottom which is in the nature of a screen or a perforated plate or a slotted plate permitting the wort to pass therethrough, and a lower bottom which collects the wort that has filtered through the false bottom.
It has heretofore been’ proposed to remove the wort which is passed through the false bottom, by a large number of separate pipes, one for each subdivision of the lauter tank, and these pipes, generally speaking about twelve to thirty-two in number, having an equal number of discharge valves or cocks, lone for each pipe. ‘I’he control of the wort by means of such a multiplicity of valves was difficult and not at all times possible.
Furthermore, in some of the lauter tanks heretofore used, the outside bottom was entirely flat and in consequence there would be an adherence of the wort to the bottom, so that the wort would accumulate on such bottoms and bring about a harmful condition of uncleanliness, favorable to the generation of bacteria in undesired quantities, unless carefully cleaned after each use.
The object of the invention here is to provide l an outside bottom which prevents a building up of sediment or under dough, and to replace the said multiplicity of pipes and valves by three valves which can be readily controlled and regulated in accordance with the practice of determining the amount of sugar in the wort, and thereby determining the density of flow of the l wort as it bypasses through the saccharometer chambers, and in the event that the flow in any of the chambers which is so governed by the three valves is not of the desired order, it can be throttled until the flow shall have been equalized.
For this purpose, the improvements in the lauter tank forming the basis of this invention are, first, the provision of three manifolds concentrically arranged to render each of said manifold saccharometer grant. Secondly, the invention consists in providing the outside bottom with a series of concentric channels, each V-shaped in cross-section, the apex of the V being provided with the outlet pipes which discharge the wort into the aforesaid manifolds, such V-shape formation providing the outside bottom with concentrically disposed inclined walls, to enable a free flow of the wort which is passed through the false bottom in such a manner as to maintain the inner walls of these V-shaped circumferential members clean of the wort, by promoting faster running thereof and thus to prevent the formation of undesirable accretions of solid matter from the wort, also to aid in preventing under dough and to prevent any possible generation of undesired bacteria.
Tuesday’s ad is for Stegmaier Brewing Co., from between 1933-1945. The “Home of Gold Medal Beer” was Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I love these grand illustrations of breweries, testaments to industrialization, this one was a postcard. I’m not sure why there’s a passenger train chugging by, maybe that’s how the brewery executives commute to and from work?
Today in 1931, US Patent 2061240 A was issued, an invention of Claude B. Schneible, for his “Method of and Apparatus for Dealcoholizing Beer and the Like.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to -a method of and apparatus for dealcoholizing beer and the like and will be readily understood from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Today is the birthday of mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius, for whom several mathematical items are named, although the most famous is certainly the Möbius Strip. Although the Möbius Strip was discovered by two different mathematicians around the same year, 1858, it bears his name and not fellow German colleague Johann Benedict Listing.
A Möbius Strip “is a surface with only one side and only one boundary,” so that it looks like it turns in on itself, but if you could walk around on top of one, you’d never come to the end. “The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface.”
I recalled seeing a famous beer label using a Möbius Strip, and a quick search revealed the one I was thinking of was Arizona Brewing’s flagship beer “A-1,” which used a multi-colored version.
Beer History has a good article about the brewery, A-1: The Western Way to Say Welcome
by Ed Sipos. The original A-1 label had an eagle on it, but by the 1950s Anheuser-Busch, which was spreading their tentacles nationally, decided to sue Arizona Brewing claiming the eagle on their label was too close to their own, and Arizona couldn’t afford to defend the lawsuit, and decided instead to simply change the label.
And not too long ago, Tuscon-based Nimbus Brewery introduced a new version of A-1 Beer, though I’m not sure if it’s still being brewed.
Apparently there’s also a Mobius Infused Lager that looks like a gimmicky contract beer. It appears to be a generic lager “infused with taurine, ginseng, and caffeine.” Ugh, does that sound like a bad idea.
Today in 1936, US Patent 2061240 A was issued, an invention of Oscar J. Leins, assigned to the Milwaukee Gas Specialty Co., for his “Beer Pump.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to an improvement in beer dispensers or pumps of the type designed for use by the consumers in drawing or dispensing beer or similar beverages from kegs, barrels or similar containers.
Monday’s ad is for Heineken, from maybe the 1950s or 60s, touted in this ad as the “World’s Finest Lager.” I’m not sure about the Enjoy Again!” headline. Were they targeting people who’d only tried Heineken once? They were obviously targeting Americans, using the windmill and tulips so shamelessly.
According to a new report in Business Insider, the new entity combining Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller will control six out of the ten best-selling beers in America, and it would have been eight, except the deal currently stipulates that “Molson Coors will take Miller off of SABMiller’s hands.” But I especially like the handy flowchart they created to show the evolution of the various companies that will come together to become SABInBev, or whatever they end up calling the new beer behemoth. Sadly, it looks like SABMiller, or what’s left of it, will simply be absorbed into ABI.
