Jockeying to be first voice
QUESTION Who was Britain’s first broadcast horse racing commentator?
FOR the 1927 Grand National, the BBC chose Sporting Life journalist Meyrick Good, their man on the spot, as their first chief commentator.
For the previous two Grand Nationals, Good had been summoned to Lord Derby’s box to ‘read’ the result for George V, a performance he later called ‘the greatest honour and compliment I have ever been paid in my journalistic career’. It paved the way for the BBC’s important Aintree Experiment in 1927.
The King stood on Good’s right by the open microphone. Good was helped by an assistant, George Allison, an Arsenal director and future manager, who provided the colour.
Amid a noisy background in E. C. Topham’s private stand at the racecourse, Good described the 37 runners and riders and told of a miserable and damp scene.
He reputedly tipped and backed the winner, Sprig, the 8/1 favourite, which was ridden by Ted Leader and trained by his father Tom, Good’s close friend.
Reportedly, after Sprig had jumped the last fence, an excited Good loudly informed his listeners ‘Come on, Ted, you’ll win’, but neglected to give the official placings. He was paid 100 guineas for his commentary, which was quite an amount at the time.
The following year’s Grand National commentary was by Geoffrey Gilbey, assisted by Bill Hobbies, for which he received only 50 guineas from the BBC.
In July 1948, Sandown Park became the first British racecourse to host televised National Hunt racing. The commentary was provided by Raymond Glendenning, assisted by Tom E. Webster as race-reader.
Glendenning was a Welsh commentator and a popular figure noted for his hornrimmed glasses, handlebar moustache and fast-paced, excitable delivery.
David urquhart, Burntisland, Fife.
QUESTION Who invented instant coffee?
IT TOOK various inventors 150 years to come up with the right recipe for instant coffee. In 1771, John Dring was awarded a British patent for a coffee compound. His recipe is lost to history, but it’s possible it was a dried, brewed coffee pressed into a cake.
In 1840, T & H Smith of Edinburgh developed liquid essence of coffee that could be made into a beverage.
The French humorist Alphonse Allais is sometimes credited with inventing granulated coffee in 1881.
He wrote absurd stories for the Parisian newspaper le Chat Noir (The Black Cat). Famously, he proposed ridiculous inventions, such as a fish tank made out of frosted glass for shy fish. It’s possible instant coffee was a joke.
Satori Kato invented soluble tea and applied his system to coffee, receiving a U.S. patent in 1903. However, his product did not catch on.
Faust Coffee, made from dried residue, was brought to market in 1906 by Cyrus Blanke, a Missouri coffee and tea merchant. He named it after Tony Faust’s Oyster Cafe in St Louis, where he’d come up with the idea. It was not a success.
In 1909, George Constant Washington produced Red E (a pun on ready) Coffee, the first mass-produced instant beverage. Again, it was made from dehydrated residue and many people found the taste disagreeable.
In 1910 it was rebranded G. Washington’s Prepared Coffee. It was bought by the U.S. military during World War I and soldiers dubbed it a ‘cup of George’.
An American soldier wrote home from the trenches: ‘I am very happy despite the rats, the rain, the mud, the draughts, the roar of the cannon and the scream of shells. It takes only a minute to light my little oil heater and make some George Washington Coffee. Every night I offer up a special petition to the health and wellbeing of Mr Washington.’
In 1930, the Brazilian Coffee Institute asked the chairman of Nestle to create a product to help the country deal with a coffee surplus.
It took the Nestle scientist Max Morgenthaler seven years to crack it. He created an instant powder that combined coffee with enough soluble carbohydrate to hold the flavour and, crucially, preserve it for a long time.
J. B. Browne, Tadcaster, N. Yorks.
QUESTION What was the first law to be named after the person who inspired it?
IT WAS the practice in Roman times to name laws after the sponsoring legislators, usually a consul or tribune.
An early example is the Lex Valeria Horatia of 449 BC. This granted the people a right to appeal a decision by a magistrate. It was named after the consuls Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Turrinus Barbatus.
The first law in Britain named after a specific case is Strode’s Act.
In 1510, the MP Richard Strode attempted to introduce legislation limiting the rights of tin miners on Dartmoor. He asserted that mining debris was damaging Devon’s ports and estuaries.
Strode was a ‘tinner’, so a competitor was able to bring charges against him at the Stannary court (a body of law that governed tin mining in Devon and Cornwall). He was fined £160, but refused to pay and was imprisoned at Lydford jail in Devon.
He was released after three weeks thanks to a letter from the Exchequer, and returned to Parliament.
He petitioned his fellow MPs to pass an Act granting them all immunity from prosecution for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.
The Privilege of Parliament Act, known as Strode’s Act, became law in 1512.
The resulting constitutional right of parliamentary privilege at Westminster endures to this day.
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