Electricity and Magnetism
Electrical Bovril
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
Bovril has an unexpected electrical connection. In 1871, Edward Bulwer-Lytton published a novel, The Coming Race, which featured a subterranean race with a mysterious power, vril, linked with magnetism and galvanism. When the manufactures of a new beef extract were looking for a catchy name, they combined the words bovine and vril to create the portmanteau, Bovril.
References
I. R. Morus, Shocking Bodies, Stroud, The History Press, 2014, pp. 112-113
