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Historic Beer Birthday: Robert Burns

January 25, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

burns
Tonight, of course, in Burns Night, with Burns Suppers and other celebrations going on in Scottish, and other, communities worldwide. The reason it’s today is because it’s the day that Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns was born (January 25, 1759–July 21, 1796). He was “also known as Rabbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.”

BGNMAC

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) “Auld Lang Syne” is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and “Scots Wha Hae” served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include “A Red, Red Rose”, “A Man’s a Man for A’ That”, “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”, “The Battle of Sherramuir”, “Tam o’ Shanter” and “Ae Fond Kiss”.

burns-portrait

Never been to a Burns Night? The Telegraph has an answer to What is Burns night and who was Robert Burns? “It’s a night that features whisky, haggis and poetry in honour of ‘Rabbie’ Burns.” Notice that it’s primarily whisky that is the featured drinks at these events. In a nutshell, “Burns suppers may be formal or informal. Both typically include haggis (a traditional Scottish dish celebrated by Burns in Address to a Haggis), Scotch whisky and the recitation of Burns’s poetry. Formal dinners are hosted by organisations such as Burns clubs, the Freemasons or St Andrews Societies; they occasionally end with dancing when ladies are present.”

Burns’ favorite drink was most likely whisky, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t drink wine or beer, and that fact was reflected in his poetry and song lyrics. He even did his own well-known version of the folksong John Barleycorn. So after you’ve enjoyed your haggis, and drank your whisky, here are a selection of Burns’ work where he mentions beer or ale. Some are the full poem, though most are simply an excerpt from longer poems or lyrics.

Robert Burns, from “Epitaph On John Dove, Innkeeper,” 1785

“Strong ale was ablution,
Small beer persecution,
A dram was memento mori;
But a full-flowing bowl
Was the saving his soul,
And port was celestial glory.”

Robert Burns, from “The Holy Fair,” 1785

“Leeze me on drink! it gies us mair
Than either school or college;
It kindles wit, it waukens lear,
It pangs us fou o’ knowledge:
Be’t whisky-gill or penny wheep,*
Or ony stronger potion,
It never fails, or drinkin deep,
To kittle up our notion,
By night or day.”

[*Note: a “penny wheep” is English small beer.]

Robert Burns, chorus from “Lady Onlie, Honest Lucky,” 1787

“Lady Onlie, honest Lucky,
Brews gude ale at shore o’ Bucky;
I wish her sale for her gude ale,
The best on a’ the shore o’ Bucky.”

Robert Burns, from “Duncan Davison,” 1788

“A man may drink, and no be drunk;
A man may fight, and no be slain;
A man may kiss a bonie lass,
And aye be welcome back again!”

Robert Burns, from “Tam o’ Shanter,” 1791

“Inspiring bold John Barleycorn, What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi’ tippenny, we fear nae evil; Wi’ usquebae, we’ll face the devil!”

Robert Burns, “Gude Ale Keeps The Heart Aboon,” 1795

“O gude ale comes and gude ale goes,
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

I had sax owsen in a pleugh,
They drew a’ weel eneugh,
I sald them a’, ane by ane,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

Gude ale hauds me bare and busy,
Gars me moop wi’ the servant hizzie,
Stand i’ the stool when I hae done,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

O gude ale comes and gude ale goes,
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.”

Robert Burns, “On Gabriel Richardson,” 1795

“Here brewer Gabriel’s fire’s extinct,
And empty all his barrels:
He’s blest – if as he brew’d he drink –
In upright, honest morals.”

Robert Burns, from “Scroggam, My Dearie,” 1803

“There was a wife wonn’d in Cockpen, Scroggam;
She brew’d gude ale for gentlemen;
Sing auld Cowl lay ye down by me,
Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum.”

Allan-contented-wi-little
Engraving by David Allan, an artist from Alloa, of Burns’ poem Contented Wi’ Little.

Robert Burns, from “Contented Wi’ Little and Cantie Wi’ Mair,” 1794

“Contented wi’ little, & canty wi’ mair,
Whene’er I forgather wi’ sorrow & care
I gi’e them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,
Wi’ a cog of good ale & an auld Scottish sang.”

burns
Tonight, of course, in Burns Night, with Burns Suppers and other celebrations going on in Scottish, and other, communities worldwide. The reason it’s today is because it’s the day that Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns was born (January 25, 1759–July 21, 1796). He was “also known as Rabbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.”

BGNMAC

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) “Auld Lang Syne” is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and “Scots Wha Hae” served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include “A Red, Red Rose”, “A Man’s a Man for A’ That”, “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”, “The Battle of Sherramuir”, “Tam o’ Shanter” and “Ae Fond Kiss”.

burns-portrait

Never been to a Burns Night? The Telegraph has an answer to What is Burns night and who was Robert Burns? “It’s a night that features whisky, haggis and poetry in honour of ‘Rabbie’ Burns.” Notice that it’s primarily whisky that is the featured drinks at these events. In a nutshell, “Burns suppers may be formal or informal. Both typically include haggis (a traditional Scottish dish celebrated by Burns in Address to a Haggis), Scotch whisky and the recitation of Burns’s poetry. Formal dinners are hosted by organisations such as Burns clubs, the Freemasons or St Andrews Societies; they occasionally end with dancing when ladies are present.”

Burns’ favorite drink was most likely whisky, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t drink wine or beer, and that fact was reflected in his poetry and song lyrics. He even did his own well-known version of the folksong John Barleycorn. So after you’ve enjoyed your haggis, and drank your whisky, here are a selection of Burns’ work where he mentions beer or ale. Some are the full poem, though most are simply an excerpt from longer poems or lyrics.

Robert Burns, from “Epitaph On John Dove, Innkeeper,” 1785

“Strong ale was ablution,
Small beer persecution,
A dram was memento mori;
But a full-flowing bowl
Was the saving his soul,
And port was celestial glory.”

Robert Burns, from “The Holy Fair,” 1785

“Leeze me on drink! it gies us mair
Than either school or college;
It kindles wit, it waukens lear,
It pangs us fou o’ knowledge:
Be’t whisky-gill or penny wheep,*
Or ony stronger potion,
It never fails, or drinkin deep,
To kittle up our notion,
By night or day.”

[*Note: a “penny wheep” is English small beer.]

Robert Burns, chorus from “Lady Onlie, Honest Lucky,” 1787

“Lady Onlie, honest Lucky,
Brews gude ale at shore o’ Bucky;
I wish her sale for her gude ale,
The best on a’ the shore o’ Bucky.”

Robert Burns, from “Duncan Davison,” 1788

“A man may drink, and no be drunk;
A man may fight, and no be slain;
A man may kiss a bonie lass,
And aye be welcome back again!”

Robert Burns, from “Tam o’ Shanter,” 1791

“Inspiring bold John Barleycorn, What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi’ tippenny, we fear nae evil; Wi’ usquebae, we’ll face the devil!”

Robert Burns, “Gude Ale Keeps The Heart Aboon,” 1795

“O gude ale comes and gude ale goes,
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

I had sax owsen in a pleugh,
They drew a’ weel eneugh,
I sald them a’, ane by ane,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

Gude ale hauds me bare and busy,
Gars me moop wi’ the servant hizzie,
Stand i’ the stool when I hae done,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

O gude ale comes and gude ale goes,
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.”

Robert Burns, “On Gabriel Richardson,” 1795

“Here brewer Gabriel’s fire’s extinct,
And empty all his barrels:
He’s blest – if as he brew’d he drink –
In upright, honest morals.”

Robert Burns, from “Scroggam, My Dearie,” 1803

“There was a wife wonn’d in Cockpen, Scroggam;
She brew’d gude ale for gentlemen;
Sing auld Cowl lay ye down by me,
Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum.”

Allan-contented-wi-little
Engraving by David Allan, an artist from Alloa, of Burns’ poem Contented Wi’ Little.

Robert Burns, from “Contented Wi’ Little and Cantie Wi’ Mair,” 1794

“Contented wi’ little, & canty wi’ mair,
Whene’er I forgather wi’ sorrow & care
I gi’e them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,
Wi’ a cog of good ale & an auld Scottish sang.”

Robert Burns, from the song “The Country Lass,” 1792

“Syne as ye brew, my maiden fair,
Keep mind that ye maun drink the yill.”

[*Note: “yill” is ale.]

belhaven_robert_burns
Belhaven’s Robert Burns Scottish Ale.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: History, Poetry, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: James Watt

January 19, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

reddy-killowatt
Today is the birthday of James Watt, not the BrewDog co-founder, but the “Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen’s 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1781, which was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.

While working as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, Watt became interested in the technology of steam engines. He realised that contemporary engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and reheating the cylinder. Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water.

Watt attempted to commercialise his invention, but experienced great financial difficulties until he entered a partnership with Matthew Boulton in 1775. The new firm of Boulton and Watt was eventually highly successful and Watt became a wealthy man. In his retirement, Watt continued to develop new inventions though none was as significant as his steam engine work. He died in 1819 aged 83.

He developed the concept of horsepower, and the SI unit of power, the watt, was named after him.”

186a,James Watt
A portrait of James Watt, by Carl Frederik von Breda, completed in 1792.

Of course, from our perspective his most important contribution was to the industrial revolution, and specifically the improvement of brewery efficiency. While Watt did not invent the steam engine, his improvements made it practical, especially in breweries.

The Watt Steam Engine

The Watt steam engine (alternatively known as the Boulton and Watt steam engine) was the first type of steam engine to make use of a separate condenser. It was a vacuum or “atmospheric” engine using steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to create a partial vacuum beneath the piston. The difference between atmospheric pressure above the piston and the partial vacuum below drove the piston down the cylinder. James Watt avoided the use of high pressure steam because of safety concerns. Watt’s design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, Matthew Boulton.

The Watt steam engine, developed sporadically from 1763 to 1775, was an improvement on the design of the Newcomen engine and was a key point in the Industrial Revolution.

Watt’s two most important improvements were the separate condenser and rotary motion. The separate condenser, located external to the cylinder, condensed steam without cooling the piston and cylinder walls as did the internal spray in Newcomen’s engine. Watt’s engine’s efficiency was more than double that of the Newcomen engine. Rotary motion was more suitable for industrial power than the oscillating beam of Newcomen’s engine.

watt-engine

Watt’s most famous steam engine was the one installed at the Whitbread Brewery in 1785, which was known as the Whitbread Engine. Today it’s located in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.

The Whitbread Engine

The Whitbread Engine preserved in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, built in 1785, is one of the first rotative steam engines ever built, and is the oldest surviving. A rotative engine is a type of beam engine where the reciprocating motion of the beam is converted to rotary motion, producing a continuous power source suitable for driving machinery.

This engine was designed by the mechanical engineer James Watt, manufactured for the firm Boulton and Watt and originally installed in the Whitbread brewery in London, England. On decommissioning in 1887 it was sent to Australia’s Powerhouse Museum (then known as the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum) and has since been restored to full working order.

boulton-watt-ill-install
Installation of the Watt Steam Engine at Whitbread.

History of the Whitbread Engine

The engine was ordered by Samuel Whitbread in 1784 to replace a horse wheel at the Chiswell Street premises of his London brewery. It was installed in 1785, the second steam engine to be installed in a brewery, and enabled Whitbread to become the largest brewer in Britain. The horse wheel was retained for many years, serving as a backup in case the steam engine broke down. The drive gear of the engine, still evident today, was connected to a series of wooden line shafts which drove machinery within the brewery. Connected machinery included rollers to crush malt; an Archimedes’ screw, that lifted the crushed malt into a hopper; a hoist, for lifting items into the building; a three-piston pump, for pumping beer; and a stirrer within a vat. There was also a reciprocating pump connected to the engine’s beam, used to pump water from a well to a tank on the roof of the brewery.

In a marketing coup for both the brewer and the engine’s manufacturer, King George III and Queen Charlotte visited the brewery on 24 May 1787. The engine remained in service for 102 years, until 1887.

The engine made its way to the Powerhouse Museum (then known as the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum) through Archibald Liversidge, an English-born chemist, scientist and academic at the University of Sydney, who was a trustee of the museum. Liversidge was in London in 1887, at the time of the engine’s decommissioning, and when he heard that the engine was to be scrapped he asked whether it could be donated to the museum. Whitbread & Co agreed on condition that the engine be set up and used for educational purposes.

Subsequently, the engine was dismantled and shipped to Sydney on the sailing ship Patriarch. For shipping purposes, the large flywheel was divided into two halves. While the flywheel’s rim could be unbolted, the hub with attached spokes had to be drilled through and rejoined after shipping. A shortage of funds meant the engine was kept in storage for several years. Eventually the engine was erected in its own engine house, behind the main building at the museum’s old Harris Street premises. During the 1920s or 1930s, an electric motor was added so that people could see the engine in motion. During the 1980s the Technology Restoration Society was formed in order to raise funds for the engine’s restoration. Restoration took place at the Museum’s Castle Hill site. During the restoration, some parts – including the piston – were replaced to preserve the original parts. The engine, restored to steaming condition, was installed in the new Powerhouse Museum in 1988. Today the engine is sometimes operated as part of the Museum’s Steam Revolution exhibition, steam being provided by the Museum’s central boiler.

watt-steam-engine

Technical specifications

The engine has a 0.64 metres (25 in) diameter piston with a 1.8 metres (6 ft) long stroke, driven by a mean effective pressure of 70 kilopascals (10 psi). Its top speed is 20 revolutions per minute (rpm) of the flywheel. In the engine’s youth, it had a maximum power output of approximately 26 kilowatts (35 hp).[It underwent a series of alterations in 1795, converting it from single-acting to double-acting; it was alleged at the time that this conversion improved its power to 52 kilowatts (70 hp), but the Powerhouse Museum claims this is false. A centrifugal governor, which moderates the level of steam provided if the engine begins to overload was added some years after this, and beam and main driving rod, both originally of wood, were replaced in sand-cast iron.

Sun_and_planet_gears

Apart from its age, the engine is notable in that it embodies the four innovations which made Boulton & Watt’s engines a significant driver of the Industrial Revolution. The first is a separate condenser, which increases the efficiency of the engine by allowing the main cylinder to remain hot at all times. The second is the parallel motion, which converts the up-and-down motion of the piston into the arcing motion of the beam, whilst maintaining a rigid connection. The rigid connection allowed the engine to be double-acting, meaning the piston could push as well as pull the beam. Third is the centrifugal governor, used to automatically regulate the speed of the engine. Finally the sun and planet gear convert the reciprocating motion of the beam into a rotating motion, which can be used to drive rotating machinery.

There’s also another Boulton & Watt engine at the National Museum of Scotland. It “was built in 1786 to pump water for the Barclay & Perkins Brewery in Southwark, London. Made double-acting in 1796, it was then capable of grinding barley and pumping water. At that time, no one else could supply a steam engine that performed both these actions at once. With some minor modifications, it remained in service at the brewery until 1884.”

boutonwattengine

And this is more from the National Museum of Scotland:

James Watt (1736-1819) was a prolific inventor, surveyor, instrument maker and engineer. His engines dramatically increased the power that could be generated through steam.

By entering into partnership with the Birmingham magnate Matthew Boulton in 1774, James Watt was able to channel the vast resource of Boulton’s Soho Foundry. Their partnership was so successful that the Boulton & Watt firm supplied engines and expertise to countries as far a field as Russia and Greece.

After pumping water and grinding barley for almost eighty-seven years, the engine came out of service in 1883.

You can see a diagram of the engine in action here:

Watt’s Steam Engine

Boulton-and-Watt-engine-1

Inside the Engine

Boulton-and-Watt-engine-2

Lighting the Fire

Boulton-and-Watt-engine-3

Running the Engine

Boulton-and-Watt-engine-4

If you want to read more in-depth about Watt’s development of the steam engine, Chapter III of “The Development of the Modern Steam-Engine: James Watt and His Contemporaries” is online, and there’s also various links at Watt’s page at the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.

Watt-postcard

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Brewing Equipment, History, Science, Science of Brewing, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: Thomas Aitken

January 5, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Thomas Aitken (January 5, 1821-January 5, 1884). He was born in Scotland, but emigrated to Australia in 1842, when he was 19. “In 1851 he founded the Corio Brewery in Geelong, and later started the Union Brewery in Melbourne. By 1854 he was in business at Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, where he had built a new brewery, distillery and malthouse. The large complex was called the Victoria Parade Brewery,” which was later known simply as the Victoria Brewery. He also developed the formula for their most popular beer, Victoria Bitter, also in 1854. When Thomas died in 1884, his son Archibald took over the brewery, but today it is owned by Carlton & United Breweries, which in turn was acquired by SABMiller, although last year, Asahi Breweries bought Carlton & United.

This biography of the Aitken family was written in 2007 for the Townsville Bulletin.

The home of Thomas and Margaret Aitken which stood near where the Aitkenvale library now stands. He would one day have a suburb and a street named after him but when Thomas Aitken jumped on board a ship bound for Australia, he was just a runaway in search of a better life in a new country.

Born 1825 in Edinburgh, Scotland Thomas Aitken was raised in an orphanage until, on reaching an age when he was able to fend for himself, he absconded from his guardians and boarded the vessel which was to change his destiny.

Upon arrival in his adopted country in the 1840s, Thomas was drawn to life on the land, working on farms around the Brisbane area, but his heart remained in Scotland.

‘‘He worked on cattle properties on what was then Moreton Bay,’’ John Aitken, 69 of Maroochydore said of his great-grandfather.

‘‘Then he went back to Scotland and married his wife, who was a daughter on a neighbouring property to where the orphanage was — he must have known her previously. Her family disowned them — they didn’t want her associated with a poor orphan but later the family came out to Australia as well.’’

Thomas and his new wife Margaret Aitken arrived in Australia on January 6, 1852 on the ship WilliamandMary, and worked the interior of Queensland as drovers before finally settling in Townsville.

‘‘They came up here to Townsville in about 1867,” Mr Aitken said. ‘‘He and his wife worked their way up from the areas along the D’Aguilar Highway which runs inland from Caboolture. They drove their cattle and travelled in horse drays and they came up through western Queensland, and finally they came into Ravenswood and into Townsville. It took them a number of years. The family Bible records where the children were born and they were born at different places along the way.’’

It was during these travels that the stockman, accustomed to austere living, chanced upon a remarkable discovery that would have changed his family’s fortune — but Thomas clearly was not materialistic by nature.

‘‘On the way through he was the first person to discover gold in Ravenswood,” Mr Aitken said of his greatgrandfather’s propitious find.

‘‘He found gold and then when he came to Townsville he told some people who went back and made their fortune out of it. Granddad was more interested in his cows.’’

With his focus solely on cattle, Thomas Aitken, after arriving in Townsville, procured a large parcel of land for grazing on what was then the outskirts of town.

‘‘He had 3500 acres on the Ross River — that’s a huge amount of land and I suspect it was some sort of land grant to get people to move into the country areas,’’ Mr Aitken said.

‘‘Their original house was a little log shanty down on the banks of the river and it got washed away in a flood. Then they built a fairly substantial homestead in an area just at the back of where the Aitkenvale Library is today. The property was originally hyphenated as Aitken-Vale.

‘‘He subdivided a lot of the property in his later years and he just retained about five acres around the homestead. Herveys Range Road was the main road through to Charters Towers back then, and the first stop on the stage coach was the Aitkenvale Arms Hotel (now the Vale Hotel). That was the first change of horses after you left Townsville on a trip to Charters Towers and that was just opposite where their house was,’’ Mr Aitken said.

Thomas and his wife remained in Townsville, raising five children, most of whom continued to live in the township. Elizabeth married Henry Kidner and built the Grand Hotel on Flinders St. Isabella married a Mr Covington — a ’pen-pusher’ for Charles Darwin on his Beagle voyage. Jane married Mr Buckpitt who owned a butcher shop on Flinders St East (where Avis now stands). Margaret married Germanborn Mr Maass and opened Townsville’s first soap factory in Sturt St. Charlotte went to live in Ayr but Mr Aitken’s grandfather John stayed in the region.

‘‘John was the only son — he and my grandmother Sarah lived with Thomas and Margaret for many years on the Aitkenvale property,’’ Mr Aitken said.

‘‘My grandmother used to tell us stories about how in Aitkenvale the water was from a hand pump and in the winter they used to have to pour boiling water down the pump to melt the ice in the mornings before they could pump it. If there’s such a thing as global warming that’s an indication — I don’t think you’d ever have to do that in Aitkenvale now.

‘‘The biggest disruption to their lives however was when there was flooding because they couldn’t get into town. The flood waters used to cut them off in the area of Rising Sun,’’ he said.

Travelling from Aitkenvale to the city was no easy matter in those early days with natural impediments frequently necessitating a more circuitous route, Mr Aitken said.

‘‘My grandfather worked at the Hubert Wells — the electricity generation and water supply works for Townsville. It was on Ross River Road opposite where The Cathedral School is now. The power was generated by coal and there was a railway line that used to go from Garbutt through to the power house.

‘‘He lived in Railway Estate and he used to go to work on his push bike from Railway Estate to Hubert Wells and if the tide was high and he couldn’t get across the creek at Sandy Crossing he used to have to go across Victoria Bridge because there was no Lowth’s Bridge. It was a long ride. When Lowth’s Bridge was built, my grandmother never called it Lowth’s Bridge, it was always the new bridge. It was rusting and falling apart when I first knew it but it was still called the new bridge,’’ Mr Aitken said.

While the Aitken family prospered in Townsville, they also had their share of misfortune when their spacious home burned down in 1899 and they also narrowly avoided tragedy in 1911 when the SSYongalavanished off Cape Bowling Green.

‘‘My grandmother sailed from Brisbane to Townsville on the Yongalaon the trip before it vanished. She was living in Davidson St in South Townsville at the time and told me how the locals used to walk to the river each evening to meet the returning search parties to find any news of the missing vessel,’’ Mr Aitken said.

Thomas Aitken, who died a wealthy man in 1897, is remembered today as a person of historic importance to Townsville and his name lives on not only in the suburb which is his namesake but also in Aitken St which was once a track leading down to the old homestead. Elizabeth and Charlotte streets were also named in honour of two of his four daughters.

The Victoria Brewery in 1870.

And this short obituary appeared in the Melbourne Herald on January 5, 1884.

“He arrived in Melbourne in the year 1842, being at that time a youth of 19 with intelligence and energy to aid him in his career. In Scotland he had acquired a knowledge of the brewing trade, but he turned his attention to other pursuits at first and was fairly successful. The gold discoveries of 1851 gave an impetus to trade, and Mr Aitken, being of a speculative disposition, took advantage of the tide of affairs and started the Corio Brewery in Geelong. Melbourne, however, offered better advantages, and in 1852 he commenced business in the Union Brewery, Lonsdale street west; shifting two years later, to the site of the present Victoria Parade Brewery. Mr Aitken’s business venture developed into an extensive undertaking, the secret of success being the production of a good article, and the employment of business capabilities to push the trade. The premises owned by the deceased gentleman cover an area of more than three acres of land. The building is effective in design, with an imposing and ornamental facade to the front elevation. In 1861 Mr Aitken established the first distillery under the new Distillation Act, which also proved a success, and the business reached such proportions that the value of the property and plant is now close upon £80,000.”

Thomas Aitken in the late 1800s.

Also, Gary Gilman, has a nice article about Aitken entitled The Inspirational Victoria Brewery, Melbourne, if you want to know more.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Australia, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: Edward Younger

November 21, 2022 By Jay Brooks

george-younger
Today is the birthday of Edward Younger (November 21, 1906-June 25, 1997). He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of George Younger, who founded the George Younger and Son brewery.

Edward Younger
This account is from his Wikipedia page:

Lord Younger of Leckie came from a Scottish family which had been making money from brewing since the 18th century, and which entered the aristocracy in the early years of the 20th century. His great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of the family’s brewing business, George Younger and Son. This George Younger’s great-great-grandson, also named George Younger (1851-;1929), entered politics, and was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. This peerage has passed in an unbroken line from father to son ever since.

younger-sweetheart-stout-1961

youngers-pony-brand-1930

George-Younger-pale-ale

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: Great Britain, History, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: Peter Ballantine

November 16, 2022 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of Peter Ballantine (November 16, 1791–January 23, 1883). He “was the founder of Patterson & Ballantine Brewing Company in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey,” which is better known by its later name, the P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company.

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He was born on November 16, 1791 in Dundee, Scotland. He emigrated to Albany, New York in 1820 and learned brewing. By 1830 he had established his own brewery there. In 1840 he moved to Newark, New Jersey and partnered with Erastus Patterson and leased the old High Street Brewery that had been built in 1805 by John R. Cumming. In 1845 Ballantine pulled out of the partnership. In 1850 Ballantine built his own brewery on the Passaic River and in 1857 took on his sons as partners.

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Here’s a short bio of Ballantine from Find-a-Grave:

Businessman. He founded the Ballantine Brewing Company in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to the United States in 1820, and learned the beer brewing craft in New York City, New York. He acquired a brewery with a partner and moved its operations to New Jersey. He became the sole proprietor in 1847, and the P. Ballantine and Sons Brewery would produce beer under that name until 1972. At the height of its operations it would be the 3rd largest brewer in the United States. Today the Ballantine Beer brand is owned and produced by the Pabst Brewing Company.

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This is from “America’s Successful Men of Affairs: The United States at Large,” published in 1896

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And here’s a history of the Ballantine brewery from “A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860,” by John Leander Bishop, Edwin Troxell Freedley, Edward Young, published in 1868:

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Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, New Jersey, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: John D. McKechnie

October 21, 2022 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of John D. McKechnie (October 21, 1849-February 14, 1906). He was the son of Alexander McKechnie, who along with Alexander’s brother James, the Scottish brothers founded the J. & A. McKechnie Brewing Co., d.b.a. the Canandaigua Brewery, in 1843, in Canandaigua, New York. In 1889, after the last brother passed away, John McKechnie became president of the brewery, and it was renamed the simpler McKechnie Brewing Co., but closed for good at the start of Prohibition.

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Here’s the obituary for McKechnie from The Western Brewer:

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And here’s a history of the brewery by Lynn Paulson, the City of Canandaigua Historian, from the Archives of the Ontario County Historical Society:

In 1830, the McKechnie family left Falkirk, Scotland and emigrated to Canada, and from there to Rochester, New York in 1837 where the elder McKechnie with his oldest son set up a brewery business. Two other sons, James and Alexander McKechnie, left Rochester in 1843 and purchased a small brewery in Canandaigua on the site of what is now the Daily Messenger building on Buffalo Street.

The Canandaigua Brewery grew steadily, producing a product that from its earliest days was noted for its excellence. In 1871, the major buildings of the brewery were rebuilt and by 1876, the brewery had become the largest employer in Canandaigua with about 100 workers. The buildings covered over five acres of land and consisted of the brewery and storage block, malt-houses, a cooper shop, woodsheds, a barn for stabling horses, and three ice houses, which had the capacity to store 2000 tons of ice. While the brewery had the capacity of producing 500 barrels of beer each year in its early years, the capacity had grown to 1,000 barrels of beer per week.

The McKechnies became involved in several other enterprises besides their brewery. In 1880 they founded the Canandaigua Lake Steam Navigation Company, which promoted shipping and tourism on Canandaigua Lake. The McKechnie Bank was organized in 1882 and later would become the Ontario Trust Bank. The McKechnies also invested in other businesses including the Canandaigua Gas and Light Company, the local ice houses, and area hops farms. Alexander’s son, John, purchased the Seneca Point Hotel on Canandaigua Lake and managed it until it burned in 1899.

After the death of Alexander McKechnie in 1883, the firm was incorporated as a stock company renamed the McKechnie Brewing Company under the management of James McKechnie. In the production of its ale, the company used only the choicest hops and high-grade malt made from barley grown in Western New York, much of which was grown in Bristol and South Bristol. The hops and barley were brought by steamboat to the Canandaigua City Pier.

With the death of James McKechnie in 1889, the business was managed by John D. McKechnie, the eldest son of Alexander McKechnie. The stock company was renamed the J. & A. McKechnie Brewery Company.

In 1904, the brewery was sold to Schopf Distributors located in Buffalo. The brewery was fully remodeled and concentrated on the production of its celebrated Canandaigua Ale. It had so excellent a reputation that shipments went as far west as Salt Lake City, Utah. The ale is said to have “such an excellent quality that it is widely recommended by physicians as a nourishing and healthful drink for invalids.” The yearly capacity of the brewery had reached 60,000 barrels.

The refurbished brewery had a cooperage where the kegs and barrels necessary for handling the product were manufactured, and a large cold storage warehouse where large quantities of the choice fruit, mostly apples, grown in the vicinity of Canandaigua could be stored. The old-fashioned wooden tanks formerly used to store the ale were discarded and replaced with glass enameled steel tanks that ensured the purity of the ale. Throughout all the processes of manufacture and in all departments of the plant, the strictest cleanliness and attention to sanitary detail were observed.

In 1916, with the advent of Prohibition in New York state, and in 1920, with the implementation of Prohibition nationwide, the J. & A. McKechnie Brewery was forced to close. In addition, the hops farms were hit with several blights in the early 1900s that effectively decimated the industry. For a brief period, the brewery attempted to survive on the production of pickles and vinegar. An attempt was made in 1933 by a Syracuse entrepreneur to reopen the McKechnie Brewery, but it never materialized.

The Canandaigua Cold Storage & Ice Company occupied the buildings of the old brewery until it was sold to the GLF bean processing and dog/pet food manufacturing plant in 1940. On Jan. 1, 1961, the GLF plant burned, leaving a few remaining buildings on the site. Ironically, the McKechnie home on North Main Street where the American Legion had located in 1945 burned in 1960. Any remaining structures of the old McKechnie brewery were removed in 1971 when The Daily Messenger built its new facility on Buffalo Street.

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Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, New York, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie

October 13, 2022 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie (October 13, 1851-April 29, 1929). His great-grandfather was George Younger, who founded the brewery that would become George Younger and Son in 1764. It was located in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, in Scotland. When our George was 17, his father passed away, and he left college to run the family brewery, becoming chairman in 1897.

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According to Wikipedia, “Younger was a Deputy Lieutenant of Clackmannanshire from November 1901, and an elected Unionist MP for Ayr Burghs from 1906 until 1922. He was also Chairman of the Unionist Party Organisation from 1916 to 1923, and Treasurer of the Unionist Party in 1923. He was created a baronet on 12 July 1911, and a viscount — as the 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie — on 20 February 1923.”

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George Younger, at left, in a photo from around 1907, with his mother, son and grandson.

Here’s a biography of founder George and the brewery from the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Brewing Archive.

George Younger (1722–1788), a member of a family of saltpan owners in Culross, Fife, Scotland, was brewing in Alloa, Scotland from 1745. He established his first brewery, later known as Meadow Brewery, in Bank Street, Alloa, in about 1764. After his death the business was passed on from father to son, trading as George Younger & Son. Additional premises adjacent to the brewery were acquired in 1832 and 1850.

The Candleriggs Brewery, Alloa, owned by Robert Meiklejohn & Co, was leased in 1852 and bought outright for GBP 1,500 in 1871. The Meadow Brewery ceased brewing in 1877 and was turned into offices for the business. Craigward Maltings, Alloa, were built in 1869 and a new bottling department was established at Kelliebank, Alloa, in 1889. The Candleriggs Brewery was badly damaged by fire in 1889 and rebuilt on a larger scale to cover nearly 2 acres, becoming the largest brewery in Scotland outside Edinburgh.

George Younger & Son Ltd was registered in February 1897 as a limited liability company to acquire the business at a purchase price of GBP 500,000. The company traded extensively to the North of England, West Indies, Australia and North America and from the 1880s to India, the Far East and South Africa. It took over R Fenwick & Co Ltd, Sunderland Brewery, Low Street, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, England, and Robert Fenwick & Co, Chester Brewery, Chester–le–Street, Durham, England (closed 1934), in 1898.

The first chilling and carbonating plant in Scotland was installed at Kelliebank Bottling Stores in 1903. The company’s own bottling works was established there in 1908 and a new export bottling plant opened in 1912. The company built up large supply contracts with the armed forces at home and abroad and by 1914 had a lucrative regimental canteen business at Aldershot, Hampshire, England.

It acquired the Craigward Cooperage of Charles Pearson & Co, Alloa; George White & Co, Newcastle–upon–Tyne, Tyne & Wear; and the Bass Crest Brewery Co, Alloa, in 1919. During the same year the Kelliebank bottle manufacturing plant was floated as a separate company and eventually became known as the Scottish Central Glass Works. The Grange Brewery closed in 1941 and the Sunderland Brewery was rebuilt, being sold in 1922 to Flower & Sons Ltd, Stratford–upon–Avon, Warwickshire, England.

The company took over Blair & Co (Alloa) Ltd, Townhead Brewery, Alloa, in 1959. It was acquired by Northern Breweries of Great Britain Ltd in April 1960 and became part of the combined Scottish interests of that company, Caledonian Breweries Ltd, later United Caledonian Breweries Ltd, which merged with J & R Tennent Ltd, Glasgow, Strathclyde, in 1966 to form Tennent Caledonian Breweries Ltd. The Candleriggs Brewery ceased to brew in December 1963.

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This is the original Meadow Brewery around 1890, before it became known as George Younger & Sons.

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Ron Pattinson has a post about Boiling at George Younger in the 1890’s, and also about the early years of George Younger.

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NPG x37250; George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie
Here’s another short biography of Younger:

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Below is the coat of arms of Viscount Younger of Leckie, incorporating the three covered ceremonial cups taken from the arms of the Schaw family of Sauchie from whom the Youngers of Alloa descend through Marjorie Schaw who married Thomas Younger in 1598. The motto at the top translates as “swift and bold,” and at the bottom as “Younger as the years go by.”

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George Younger in Vanity Fair, 1910.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: Alexander Keith

October 5, 2022 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of Alexander Keith (October 5, 1795–December 14, 1873). He was born in Scotland, where he was trained as a brewer. He settled in Canada, specifically Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1820, where he founded the Alexander Keith Brewery.

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Here’s his biography from his Wikipedia page:

Keith was born in Halkirk, Caithness, Highland, Scotland, where he became a brewer. He immigrated to Canada in 1817 and founded the Alexander Keith’s brewing company in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1820, moving to a three-storey building on Hollis Street at Lower Water in the downtown area in 1820. Keith had trained as a brewer in Edinburgh and London. His early products included ale, porter, ginger wine, table and spruce beers.

Alexander Keith served as mayor in 1843 and in 1853-54 and president of the Legislative Council (provincial parliament) from 1867 to his death in 1873.

Throughout his career Keith was connected with several charitable and fraternal societies. He served as president of the North British Society from 1831 and as chief of the Highland Society from 1868 until his death. In 1838 he was connected with the Halifax Mechanics Library and in the early 1840s with the Nova Scotia Auxiliary Colonial Society. Keith was also well known to the Halifax public as a leader of the Freemasons. He became Provincial Grand Master for the Maritimes under the English authority in 1840 and under the Scottish lodge in 1845. Following a reorganization of the various divisions in 1869, he became Grand Master of Nova Scotia. There are four masonic lodges named in his honour: Moncton, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Stellarton, and Bear River in Nova Scotia.

Alexander Keith died in Halifax in 1873 and was buried at Camp Hill Cemetery at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Robie Streets. His birthday is often marked by people visiting the grave and placing beer bottles and caps on it (or, less frequently, cards or flowers).

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And this more thorough biography is from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography:

KEITH, ALEXANDER, brewer and politician; b. 5 Oct. 1795 in Caithness-shire, Scotland, son of Donald Keith and Christina Brims; d. 14 Dec. 1873 in Halifax, N.S.

When Alexander Keith was 17, his father sent him to an uncle in northern England to learn the brewing business. Five years later, when Keith migrated to Halifax, he became sole brewer and business manager for Charles Boggs, and he bought out Boggs’ brewery in 1820. On 17 Dec. 1822 he married Sarah Ann Stalcup, who died in 1832. On 30 Sept. 1833 he married Eliza Keith; they had six daughters and two sons. One son, Donald G. Keith, became a partner in the brewing firm in 1853.

In 1822 Keith moved his brewery and premises to larger facilities on Lower Water Street and in 1836 he again expanded, building a new brewery on Hollis Street. In 1863 he began construction of Keith Hall which was connected by a tunnel to his brewery. Keith Hall, now occupied by Oland’s Brewery, is in the Renaissance palazzo style, with baroque adornments, pillars of no particular style, and a mansard roof. This peculiar combination of styles resulted from the fact that the designs were probably derived from books with plans of buildings in Great Britain and the United States. Keith’s appointment as a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia in 1837 along with William Blowers Bliss is an indication of his importance in the Halifax business community. Beginning in 1837, he also served as a director, at various dates, of the Halifax Fire Insurance Company. In 1838 he helped found the Halifax Marine Insurance Association, and in the 1840s he was on the board of management of the Colonial Life Assurance Company. He was also a director of the Halifax Gas, Light, and Water Company, incorporated in 1840, and in 1844 helped incorporate the Halifax Water Company, becoming a director in 1856. By 1864 Keith was a director of the Provincial Permanent Building and Investment Society. At the time of his death his estate was evaluated at $251,000.

Keith’s interest in utilities and insurance was but part of his general involvement in the public life of Halifax. He was unsuccessful in the general election of 1840 when he stood as a Conservative candidate for the town of Halifax but was elected to the first city council in 1841. In 1842 he served as a commissioner of public property and in 1843 was selected mayor of Halifax. He continued as a member of council until he again served as mayor, by election, in 1853 and 1854. In December 1843 he was appointed to the Legislative Council and in June 1867 he accepted the appointment of president of the council, declining a seat in the Canadian Senate. As a supporter of confederation and president of the council, he was helped at first by the fact that before 1 July 1867 Charles Tupper* had filled several seats in the upper house with known confederates. Although the premier, William Annand*, appointed to the upper house in November 1867, had complete control of the lower house, he did not dare introduce a resolution into the upper chamber in 1868 calling for repeal of union. The anti-confederates gradually secured control of the upper house, however, and Keith was unable to prevent passage, in 1871, of a particularly flagrant bill which took the vote from all federal officials in provincial elections. It was perhaps a commentary on Keith that he was not actively involved at this time with the Conservative party organization which was run by such party stalwarts as Philip C. Hill* and James MacDonald*.

Throughout his career Keith was connected with several charitable and fraternal societies. He served as president of the North British Society from 1831 and as chief of the Highland Society from 1868 until his death. In 1838 he was connected with the Halifax Mechanics Library and in the early 1840s with the Nova Scotia Auxiliary Colonial Society. Keith was perhaps best known to the Halifax public as a leader of the freemasons. He became provincial grand master for the Maritimes under the English authority in 1840 and under the Scottish lodge in 1845. Following a reorganization of the various divisions in 1869, he became grand master of Nova Scotia.

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This short history of Keith’s brewery is from their Wikipedia page:

Founded in 1820, Alexander Keith’s is a brewery in Halifax, Canada. It is among the oldest commercial breweries in North America. (The oldest surviving brewing enterprise in Canada was established by John Molson in Montreal in 1786 while the oldest in the US, Yuengling, originally called Eagle Brewing, was founded in 1829 in Pottsville, PA.)

Keith’s was founded by Alexander Keith who emigrated from Scotland in 1817. Keith moved the facility to its final location, a three-storey building on Hollis Street at Lower Water in the downtown area, in 1820. Keith had trained as a brewer in Edinburgh and London. His early product included ale, porter, ginger wine, table and spruce beers. Alexander Keith was mayor in 1843 and in 1853-54 and president of the Legislative Council from 1867 to his death in 1873.

Keith’s was sold to Oland Breweries in 1928 and to Labatt in 1971. Today, the brewery is under the control of this subsidiary of Anheuser–Busch InBev which took the brand national in 1990’s. Keith’s also produces Oland Brewery beers, distributed in Eastern Canada.

In April 2011, Anheuser–Busch InBev began selling Alexander Keith’s beer in the United States after nearly two centuries of being available only in Canada.

AB InBev produces Keith’s India Pale Ale, currently the most popular product in this line,[6] as well as Keith’s Red Amber Ale, Keith’s Premium White, and Keith’s Light Ale.[7] Products sold in the United States are labelled Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Pale Ale, Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Lager, and Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Brown Ale.[8] Seasonal products have included Keith’s Ambrosia Blonde, Keith’s Harvest Ale, and Keith’s Tartan Ale. Although Alexander Keith products were originally produced in the Halifax brewery only for sale in the Maritimes, they are now national products, mass produced at AB InBev plants across Canada and in Baldwinsville, New York.

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Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Canada, History, Nova Scotia, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: John Gorrie

October 3, 2022 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of John Gorrie (October 3, 1803-June 29, 1855). He “was a physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian,” and most importantly, is credited with creating one of the very first refrigerators, an important development for the brewing industry.

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Here’s one brief account, from a history of refrigeration on The Sun:

The man credited with developing the first actual “fridge” was an American doctor, John Gorrie, who built an ice-maker in 1844 based on Evans’ work of decades earlier. He also pioneered air conditioning at the same time, since his idea was to blow air across the ice-making machine to cool hospital patients suffering from malaria in Florida.

Gorrie did not make the fortune he deserved. His business partner died and his leaky machines were mocked by the Press and the ice-producing firms to whom he could have been a threat. He died sick and broke aged 51.

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Here’s his story from his Wikipedia page:

Since it was necessary to transport ice by boat from the northern lakes, Gorrie experimented with making artificial ice.

After 1845, he gave up his medical practice to pursue refrigeration products. On May 6, 1851, Gorrie was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice. The original model of this machine and the scientific articles he wrote are at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1835, patents for “Apparatus and means for producing ice and in cooling fluids” had been granted in England and Scotland to American-born inventor Jacob Perkins, who became known as “the father of the refrigerator.” Impoverished, Gorrie sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed when his partner died. Humiliated by criticism, financially ruined, and his health broken, Gorrie died in seclusion on June 29, 1855. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

Another version of Gorrie’s “cooling system” was used when President James A. Garfield was dying in 1881. Naval engineers built a box filled with cloths that had been soaked in melted ice water. Then by allowing hot air to blow on the cloths it decreased the room temperature by 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The problem with this method was essentially the same problem Gorrie had. It required an enormous amount of ice to keep the room cooled continuously. Yet it was an important event in the history of air conditioning. It proved that Dr. Gorrie had the right idea, but was unable to capitalize on it. The first practical refrigeration system in 1854, patented in 1855, was built by James Harrison in Geelong, Australia.

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Schematic of Gorrie’s ice machine.

And this account, entitled “Dr. John Gorrie, Refrigeration Pioneer,” is by George L. Chapel of the Apalachicola Area Historical Society in Apalachicola, Florida, which is the location of the John Gorrie State Museum:

Dr. John Gorrie (1803 – 1855), an early pioneer in the invention of the artificial manufacture of ice, refrigeration, and air conditioning, was granted the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851. Dr. Gorrie’s basic principle is the one most often used in refrigeration today; namely, cooling caused by the rapid expansion of gases. Using two double acting force pumps he first condensed and then rarified air. His apparatus, initially designed to treat yellow fever patients, reduced the temperature of compressed air by interjecting a small amount of water into it. The compressed air was submerged in coils surrounded by a circulating bath of cooling water. He then allowed the interjected water to condense out in a holding tank, and released or rarified, the compressed air into a tank of lower pressure containing brine; This lowered the temperature of the brine to 26 degrees F. or below, and immersing drip-fed, brick-sized, oil coated metal containers of non-saline water, or rain water, into the brine, manufactured ice bricks. The cold air was released in an open system into the atmosphere.

The first known artificial refrigeration was scientifically demonstrated by William Cullen in a laboratory performance at the University of Glasgow in 1748, when he let ethyl ether boil into a vacuum. In 1805, Oliver Evans in the United States designed but never attempted to build, a refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid. Using Evans’ refrigeration concept, Jacob Perkins of the U.S. and England, developed an experimental volatile liquid, closed-cycle compressor in 1834.

Commercial refrigeration is believed to have been initiated by an American businessman, Alexander C. Twinning using sulphuric ether in 1856. Shortly afterward, an Australian, James Harrison, examined the refrigerators used by Gorrie and Twinning, and introduced vapor (ether) compression refrigeration to the brewing and meat packing industries.

The granting of a U.S. Patent in 1860 to Ferdinand P.E. Carre of France, for his development of a closed, ammonia-absorption system, laid the foundation for widespread modern refrigeration. Unlike vapor-compression machines which used air, Carre used rapidly expanding ammonia which liquifies at a much lower temperature than water, and is thus able to absorb more heat. Carre’s refrigeration became, and still is, the most widely used method of cooling. The development of a number of synthetic refrigerants in the 1920’s, removed the need to be concerned about the toxic danger and odor of ammonia leaks.

The remaining problem for the development of modern air conditioning would not be that of lowering temperature by mechanical means, but that of controlling humidity. Although David Reid brought air into contact with a cold water spray in his modification of the heating and ventilating system of the British Parliament in 1836, and Charles Smyth experimented with air cycle cooling (1846 – 56), the problem was resolved by Willis Haviland Carrier’s U.S. Patent in 1906, in which he passed hot soggy air through a fine spray of water, condensing moisture on the droplets, leaving drier air behind. These inventions have had global implications.

Dr. Gorrie was honored by Florida, when his statue was placed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. In 1899, a monument to Dr. Gorrie was erected by the Southern Ice Exchange in the small coastal town of Apalachicola, where he had served as mayor in 1837, and had developed his machine.

Reportedly born October 3, 1803 in Charleston, South Carolina, of Scots – Irish descent, he was raised in Columbia, S.C. He attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York, in Fairfield, New York, from 1825 to 1827. Although the school lasted only a few decades, it had a profound influence, second only to the Philadelphia Medical School, upon the scientific and medical community of the United States in the 19th century. Young Asa Gray, from Oneida County, New York, who by 1848 would be ranked as the leading botanist in the United States, and who in time would become a close friend of Dr. Alvin Wentworth Chapman of Apalachicola, the leading botanist in the South, served as an assistant in the school’s chemical department. In later years, Dr. Gray had distinct recollections of Gorrie as a “promising student.”

Dr. Gorrie initially practiced in Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1828, coming to the burgeoning cotton port of Apalachicola in 1833. He supplemented his income by becoming Assistant (1834), then Postmaster in Apalachicola. He became a Notary Public in 1835. The Apalachicola Land Company obtained clear title to the area by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1835, and in 1836 laid out the city’s grid-iron plat along the lines of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gorrie, who served as Vice-Intendant in 1836, and Intendant (Mayor), in 1837, would be an effective advocate for the rest of his life for draining the swamps, clearing the weeds and maintaining clean food markets in the city. He first served as Secretary of the Masonic Lodge in 1835, was a partner in the Mansion House Hotel (1836), President of the Apalachicola Branch Bank of Pensacola (1836), a charter member of the Marine Insurance Bank of Apalachicola (1837), a physician for the Marine Hospital Service of the U.S. Treasury Department (1837 – 1844), and a charter incorporator and founding vestryman of Trinity Episcopal Church, Apalachicola (1837).

Dr. Gorrie married Caroline Frances Myrick Beman, of a Columbia, South Carolina family, the widowed proprietress of the Florida Hotel in Apalachicola, on May 8, 1838. Shortly thereafter, he resigned his various positions in Apalachicola, and the family left the city not to return until 1840. He was named Justice of the Peace in 1841, the same year that yellow fever struck the area.

Mal-aria, Italian, “bad air”, and yellow fever, prevailed in the hot, low-lying, tropical and sub-tropical areas where there was high humidity and rapid decomposition of vegetation. Noxious effluvium, or poisonous marsh gas was thought to be the cause. The “putrid” winds from marshy lowlands were regarded as deadly, especially at night. The specific causes were unknown, and although one had quinine for malaria, the gin and tonic of India, there was no cure nor preventive vaccine, for yellow fever. The legendary Flying Dutchman was founded on the story of a ship with yellow fever onboard.

Malaria would start with shaking and violent chills, followed by high fever, and a drenching sweat. Insidious, it could recur in the victim as well as kill. Yellow fever did not recur; one either died or survived. It came in mysterious, vicious waves, killing anywhere from 12 to 70 percent of its victims. It started with shivering, high fever, insatiable thirst, savage headaches, and severe back and leg pains. In a day or so, the restless patient would become jaundiced and turn yellow. In the terminal stages, the patient would spit up mouthfuls of dark blood, the terrifying “black vomit” (vomito negro), the body temperature would drop, the pulse fade, and the comatose patient, cold to the touch, would die in about 8 to 10 hours. So great was the terror, that the victims would be buried as quickly as possible. Areas would be quarantined, and yellow flags flown. Gauze would be hung over beds to filter air; handkerchiefs would be soaked in vinegar; garlic would be worn in shoes. Bed linens and compresses would be soaked in camphor; sulfur would be burned in outdoor smudge pots. Gunpowder would be burned, and cannons would be fired. And, later, when it was over, the cleaning and fumigating would occur.

It would not be until 1901 in Havana, Cuba, that Drs. Walter Reed, Carlos Finlay and William Crawford Gorgas, with others, would demonstrate conclusively that the Aedes Aegypti, or Stegomyia Fasciata mosquito was the carrier of the yellow fever virus. It would be about the same time that the English physician, Sir Ronald Ross in India, would correctly identify the Anopheles mosquito as the carrier of the malaria protozoa. As early as 1848, in Mobile, Alabama, however, Dr. Josiah Nott first suggested that mosquitos might be involved. The yellow fever epidemic of 1841, and the hurricane and tidal wave, known locally as the “Great Tide” of 1842, destroyed Apalachicola’s rival cotton port of St. Joseph some thirty miles to the west on the deep water sound of St. Joseph’s Bay. Using Florida’s first railway (1837) to transport cotton from the Apalachicola River, St. Joseph had hosted Florida’s Constitutional Convention in 1838.

Dr. Gorrie became convinced that cold was the healer. He noted that “Nature would terminate the fevers by changing the seasons.” Ice, cut in the winter in northern lakes, stored in underground ice houses, and shipped, packed in sawdust, around the Florida Keys by sailing vessel, in mid-summer could be purchased dockside on the Gulf Coast. In 1844, he began to write a series of articles in Apalachicola’s “Commercial Advertiser” newspaper, entitled, “On the prevention of Malarial Diseases”.

He used the Nom De Plume, “Jenner”, a tribute to Edward Jenner, (1749 – 1823), the discoverer of smallpox vaccine. According to these articles, he had constructed an imperfect refrigeration machine by May, 1844, carrying out a proposal he had advanced in 1842. All of Gorrie’s personal records were accidentally destroyed sometime around 1860.

“If the air were highly compressed, it would heat up by the energy of compression. If this compressed air were run through metal pipes cooled with water, and if this air cooled to the water temperature was expanded down to atmospheric pressure again, very low temperatures could be obtained, even low enough to freeze water in pans in a refrigerator box.” The compressor could be powered by horse, water, wind driven sails, or steampower.
Dr. Gorrie submitted his patent petition on February 27, 1848, three years after Florida became a state. In April of 1848, he was having one of his ice machines built in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Cincinnati Iron Works, and in Octobcr, he demonstrated its operation. It was described in the Scientific American in September of 1849. On August 22, 1850, he received London Patent #13,124, and on May 6, 1851, U. S. Patent #8080. Although the mechanism produced ice in quantities, leakage and irregular performance sometimes impaired its operation. Gorrie went to New Orleans in search of venture capital to market the device, but either problems in product demand and operation, or the opposition of the ice lobby, discouraged backers. He never realized any return from his invention. Upon his death on June 29, 1855, he was survived by his wife Caroline (1805 – 1864), his son John Myrick (1838 – 1866), and his daughter, Sarah (1844 – 1908). Dr. Gorrie is buried in Gorrie Square in Apalachicola, his wife and son are buried-St. Luke’s-Episcopal Cemetery, Marianna, Florida, and his daughter, in Milton, Florida.

John Gorrie Ice Machine

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Florida, History, Science, Science of Brewing, Scotland

Historic Beer Birthday: George Kenneth Hotson Younger

September 22, 2022 By Jay Brooks

george-younger-sons
Today is the birthday of George Kenneth Hotson Younger (September 22, 1931-January 26, 2003). “Younger’s forebearer, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of George Younger and Son of Alloa, [Scotland] the family’s brewing business (not to be confused with Younger’s of Edinburgh). He was the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of the brewery founder. “Younger’s great-grandfather, George Younger, was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. Younger was the eldest of the three sons of Edward Younger, 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie.”

George Younger

Here’s his biography, from Wikipedia:

He was born in Stirling in 1931 and educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master’s degree. Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. On 7 August 1954, he married Diana Tuck, daughter of a Royal Navy captain; they had 4 children.

He first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in North Lanarkshire in the 1959 General Election. Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons.

Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher’s Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years. He subsequently succeeded Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for Defence in 1986 when Heseltine resigned from the cabinet over a dispute about helicopters known as the Westland crisis.

Younger quit the cabinet in 1989, and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, becoming its chairman in 1992. He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy. As such, he continued to sit in the House of Lords after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 which expelled most of the hereditary peers.

George-Younger-meadow-brewery
This is the Meadow Brewery around 1890, before it became known as George Younger & Sons.

This is part of Younger’s obituary from the Independent, the small portion that’s about his time working for the family brewery business, must of the rest is about his political career, which appears to be the primary focus of his life, the beer was apparently just an afterthought, something he had to do.

George Kenneth Hotson Younger was born at Leckie in 1931. After Cargilfield, where he was head boy, he went to Winchester. None of the honours which were later to come his way gave him such pleasure as being Warden of Winchester. After National Service in Germany and Korea with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he went up to New College, where he read Modern History. Joining the family firm of George Younger and Company, part of Bass, he rose to be a senior sales manager – following the tradition of his great-great-great-uncle William McEwan, who combined a career as a politician with that of successful brewer (best remembered for Mc- Ewan’s Export). As the Edinburgh University Public Orator put it at the degree ceremony for Younger’s doctorate honoris causa in 1992,

There was not for this son an immediate short cut to the boardroom. Instead he worked through the company in a range of roles from labourer to sales manager for Glasgow. He played a significant part not only in brightening up the design of its canned beers but also in the dramatic reorganisation of Scottish brewing which first brought together several of central Scotland’s brewers into United Caledonian Breweries and then merged them with Tennants to form Tennant Caledonian Breweries Ltd, of which George Younger was a director from 1977 to 1979.

youngers-pony-brand-1930

George-Younger-pale-ale

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Great Britain, Scotland

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