Beer taps helped improve the quality of beer. Photo / Getty Images
Next time you have a beer be grateful to one of our heroes, says Don Kavanagh. Whenever I am snugly ensconced in a comfortable bar, I often raise a metaphorical glass to the heavens for my good fortune in living in a time when the entire process of going out for a drink is as far advanced as it has ever been.
More specifically, I discovered
that this year marks the 200th anniversary of one of my heroes and a man who did more than most to improve the lot of drinkers - Joseph Bramah, who was born in 1748 in Yorkshire.
Bramah was one of those wonderful men whose inventions helped chivvy along the Industrial Revolution. Somehow, in the space of roughly half a century, a disparate group of men came up with fascinating inventions that revolutionised the way we lived and worked, shifting Britain and then the wider world away from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing one.
Old Joe, as I like to think of him, is probably most famous for his work in hydraulics, specifically the hydraulic press, examples of which are still in use today. Overall, he secured patents for 18 different inventions, but it is his first two that have made visiting the pub such a pleasant experience. Before Bramah's time beer was usually served from large casks kept behind the bar and therefore open to all manner of fluctuations in temperature, light and movement. The beer was dispensed through a small tap, letting gravity do the work.
