Thread by @natlibscot

We're going to tell you why this book is the link between Star Wars and a popular meat extract paste.

#Bookishfactoid

Really. This book is called “The Coming Race” (1870) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and it is a novel about a fantastic subterranean world.

#Bookishfactoid

In the novel this subterranean world is occupied by advanced beings - the Vril-ya. These beings fly with artificial wings, are served by machines and have developed formidable weapons.

#Bookishfactoid

Not only that, but these beings also use a mysterious energy source (Vril) that they are able to master through training of their will. The powers of the Vril include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things.

#Bookishfactoid

By now we hope you’ve noticed that the concept of 'Vril' is not utterly unlike that of a certain 'energy field' in Star Wars.

#Bookishfactoid

Bulwer-Lytton’s novel was popular at the time of publication - and ‘Vril’ quickly became a term for life giving elixirs.

#Bookishfactoid

And so a certain popular meat-extract paste was named by bringing together the words ‘Bovine’ and ‘Vril’ to make…

#Bookishfactoid

You guessed it…

#Bookishfactoid

It was...

#Bookishfactoid

Bovril

#Bookishfactoid

Thanks for reading! And on a side note - did you know that Bovril has its origins in an Edinburgh butcher's shop?

#Bookishfactoid

John Lawson Johnston worked in and eventually took over his uncle’s butcher shop in Edinburgh, where he then developed a beef stock.

#Bookishfactoid

The beef stock was so successful that Johnston set up a small factory in Holyrood to manufacture it.

#Bookishfactoid

In 1871 Johnston emigrated to Canada to set up business in that country and in 1874 Napoleon III's French Army gave Johnston a contract to supply the army with preserved beef products during the Franco-Prussian war.

#Bookishfactoid

At this time he developed Johnston's Fluid Beef (brand Bovril). This differed from beef glaze as the gelatin was hydrolysed with alkali to make a semi-liquid paste easier to package, measure and use. This was the birth of modern Bovril.

#Bookishfactoid

Big thanks to all who’ve read and commented on our #bookishfactoid thread. May the Vril be with you.