Britons know value of proper beer, survey says

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Britons know value of proper beer, survey says

 

 

By OLIVER MOORE

Globe and Mail Update

 

 

POSTED AT 9:00 AM EST Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003

 

 

In an apparent snub of pioneering surgeons and Internet inventors, a on-line survey in Britain found that the recent invention they most admire is a little gadget that allows them to enjoy draft-type beer at home.

 

The ?widget,? a small ball of nitrogen that gives cans of beer a proper, pub-style head of creamy foam, far outstripped the other candidates in an on-line survey that drew almost 9,000 responses.

 

Forty-eight per cent of respondents said that the widget was the most impressive invention of the past 40 years. The Internet ? which may in fact have a greater global resonance than a good pint of draft ? scored a distant second, with 13 per cent, and mobile phones were a dismal third with 7 per cent.

 

The top-10 list was rounded out by cloning, microwave ovens, contact lenses, three-dimensional technology, video games, CDs and DVDs and plastic surgery. Considered too trifling to make the first rank were space exploration, solar-powered cars and contraceptive pills.

 

The survey ? organized by T3, which bills itself as the ?World's Best Gadget Magazine,? and the Wilkinson Sword Company ? makes no pretences of scientific accuracy. But it illustrates the peculiar priorities of the British people, T3 said in a statement.

 

?Brits obviously only care about the simple things in life. ... It's official ? we can't imagine anything worse than sitting down in front of the telly and pouring a pint with no ?head'!?

 

The Guinness brewing conglomerate introduced the widget in 1989 after years of research. Their invention won a Queen's Award for Technological Achievement two years later and is now churned out in the hundreds of millions every year.