Draw Breath

The afternoon today was spent at the British Library Roadshow at which they demonstrated their rather brilliant Turning the Pages project and software. This technology has been used to create virtual books online by photographing each page of an old book and dropping the jpgs into an online book template.

The Roadshow was held at the Guinness Hopstore and participants were treated to a tour of the premises afterwards. The tour is informative and fun and culminates at the viewing area at the top of the building.

A few items of information on Guinness follow based on what I heard today:

Arthur Guinness inherited £100 from his godfather, a clergyman who dabbled in brewing. He used this money to set himself up in Leixlip before locating to a four acre site at St James's Gate (on which an earlier brewing operation existed).

Ale - Porter - Stout corresponds to Strong - Stronger - Strongest.

There are 5 breweries for Guinness in the world. The second biggest after Ireland is in Nigeria. Nigerian Guinness is a much stronger beast apparently.