3 inventions we owe to beer

We know that many historical discoveries were made by chance. Or as a consequence of looking for something and suddenly… wow, surprise! This is what happened with the microwave or with post-its, for example (if you want another day I'll tell you the story...). But this is a beer blog, and logically, what I am here to tell you about today are historical discoveries that we owe to beer.

And of course, the history of this drink has always been linked to technological developments and research to improve its manufacturing process, its conservation or even the way of transporting the precious liquid. So it is not strange that during all these years certain inventions appeared, more or less by chance. But I think when I tell you what it is, you're going to freak out!

The refrigerator

Can you imagine living without a fridge in your house? Unthinkable today... This little gadget, or at least its origins, we owe to Carl von Linde, who is considered the father of beer refrigeration.

Historically in Germany, brewing was not allowed in the warmer months, specifically between St. George's Day (April 23) and St. Michael's Day (September 29). This law was in force until 1850 when Bavarian brewers began to store their beers in small cellars filled with blocks of ice that they collected during the winter.

Carl von Linde was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman who discovered the refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes. The invention of these machines provided commercial brewers with the technology to preserve their beer for longer periods of time, especially for lager beers

And who had the foresight to hire Linde to build a large pilot chamber inside a brewery? Well, it is none other than the brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr, owner of the Spaten brewery (Munich), and whom I have already told you about in this blog, for having popularized light beers using some other trick of industrial espionage .

The mass-produced glass bottles

Michael Joseph Owens created the first machine capable of manufacturing glass bottles with the initial goal of bottling beer. For this reason, the bottles were of a dark color (like today) so that the light would not spoil the precious liquid. However, they were closed with a pressure cap, which eventually proved to be of no use because there were often spills.

His Owens Machine Company, founded in 1903, merged with another glass manufacturer and was renamed the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1929. His production machines in series could make 240 glass bottles per minute. This lowered costs and popularized this container, which also improved the distribution of beers around the world.

Mercury thermometers

James Prescott Joule, was the second son of the owner of a brewery in Manchester (England). A serious spinal condition had kept him practically confined to his house, where he had received his education at the hands of some tutors. But his father suddenly falls ill and he has to take over the brewery together with his brother.

However, James's passion is research.To compensate for not being able to go to university, he sets up a laboratory in the factory itself. Here he will study, always with the excuse of improving production, from how to replace steam engines with electrical devices to complicated theories of thermodynamics. In fact, his scientific findings will be the basis of, until today, the First Law of Thermodynamics, which contains the conservation of energy in a general way.

More specifically, he greatly improved mercury thermometers. The Joule family business would go bankrupt in 1864.

Here you have it, and I'm sure you have all of them in your house: the fridge in your kitchen, the thermometer you keep in the medicine cabinet, those bottles you have to take to recycle... all of that will be We owe it to the beer!