Old Irish Whiskey from the 70's

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Just going through some boxes and found I had a few Bushmills & Paddy's from the 70's. I would not imagine these are anything special I was intrigued by two and their abv statements.

One of the Bushmills is stated at 40.5% Vol which I thought quite odd.

The other was a Paddy, German Import. Where the stated abv is 43GL ????

Anybody know what the GL stands for ????

[jcskinner]

Gay Lussac.

It was a continental measurement scale now fallen out of usage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_by_volume

I've old Bushmills bottles from much earlier than the Seventies with ABV in Gay Lussac embossed into the glass of the bottle.

[JohnM]

Just going through some boxes and found I had a few Bushmills & Paddy's from the 70's. I would not imagine these are anything special I was intrigued by two and their abv statements.

One of the Bushmills is stated at 40.5% Vol which I thought quite odd.

The other was a Paddy, German Import. Where the stated abv is 43GL ????

Anybody know what the GL stands for ????

It's after a French chemist called Joseph Gay-Lusac. He worked with gases and mixtures and stuff.

[JohnM]

Or what JC said.

[Malt-Teaser]

Damn, I asked around but was beaten to it.

Gay Lussac indeed, meaning basically 'Degrees' or "Grades" a bit like the Italian "Gradi"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Louis_Gay-Lussac

[DavidH]

I recall that gentleman's name cropping up in secondary school science class. Hilarity ensued.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Cheers Guys ... very interesting indeed ... don't know why I never noticed it before as I'm sure I have it on other bottles too.

[JohnM]

I recall that gentleman's name cropping up in secondary school science class. Hilarity ensued.

Yeah, it was a bit par of the leaving cert course. Along with Boyle's law and all that. Part of the combined gas laws. PV = nRT, don't ye know.

Most importantly, Boyle was Irish, although I'm not at all sure he was fond of the place.

[IainB]

It's a little known fact that the phrase to "boil water" is a corrpution of to "boyle water". That's because he invented boiling (or boyleing). That's the sort of thing scientists do. I'm open to correction on this.

[JohnM]

It's a little known fact that the phrase to "boil water" is a corrpution of to "boyle water". That's because he invented boiling (or boyleing). That's the sort of thing scientists do. I'm open to correction on this.

If he invented boiling, he invented distillation. Proof at last. Another pun too...

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

It's a little known fact that the phrase to "boil water" is a corrpution of to "boyle water". That's because he invented boiling (or boyleing). That's the sort of thing scientists do. I'm open to correction on this.

If he invented boiling, he invented distillation. Proof at last. Another pun too...

So it's his fault we have boiled cabbage then .... ????

[DavidH]

So it's his fault we have boiled cabbage then .... ????

No, no, Charles Cabbage was the Englishman who (also) invented computing.