Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until
2000 as
The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous
US editions,
The Guinness Book of World Records) is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of
world records, both human achievements and the extreme of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series.
On
10 November,
1951,
Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, went on a shooting party in
North Slob, by the
River Slaney in
County Wexford,
Ireland. He became involved in an argument: which was the fastest game bird in
Europe â€" the
Golden Plover or the
Grouse? That evening at Castlebridge House it was realised that it was not possible to confirm in reference books whether or not the Golden Plover was Europe's fastest game bird.
[http://freespace.virgin.net/james.robertson/history2.htm]Beaver thought that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in the 81,400 pubs in Britain and in Ireland, but there was no book with which to settle arguments about records. He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular.
[http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=15]Beaver's idea became reality when Guinness employee
Christopher Chataway recommended University friends
Norris and
Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in
London. The brothers were commissioned to compile what became
The Guinness Book of Records in August
1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away.
[http://spyhunter007.com/spy_guinness_book_history.htm]After founding the
Guinness Book of Records at
107 Fleet Street, the first 198 page edition was bound on
27 August,
1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by
Christmas.
"It was a marketing give away - it wasn't supposed to be a money maker" said Beaver. The following year it launched in the
USA, and sold 70,000 copies.
After the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in October to coincide with
Christmas sales. The McWhirters continued to publish it and related books for many years. Ross was
assassinated by the
Irish Republican Army in
1975. Norris had an encyclopedic memory — on the TV series
Record Breakers, based upon the book, he would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records and would usually be able to give the correct answer, the feature being called "Norris on the Spot".
Recent editions have focused on record feats by
human competitors. Competitions range from obvious ones such as
weightlifting to the more entertaining such as longest
egg-throwing distance or the number of
hot dogs that can be consumed in 10 minutes—although
eating contest and
beer and alcohol consumption entries are no longer accepted, possibly for fear of
litigation. Besides records about competitions, it contains such facts as the height of the
tallest person (
Robert Pershing Wadlow), the heaviest
tumour, the most poisonous plant, the shortest
river (
Roe River), the longest-running drama (
Guiding Light), the world's most successful salesman (
Joe Girard), and the only brother and sister to have solo number-ones in UK chart history. (
Daniel Bedingfield,
Natasha Bedingfield)
Each edition contains a selection of the large set of records in the Guinness database, and the criteria for that choice have changed over the years.
The ousting of Norris McWhirter from his consulting role in 1995 and the subsequent decision by Diageo plc to sell the Guinness World Records brand have shifted it from a text-heavy reference book to a highly-illustrated, colourful product, targeted at boys in the 9-13 age group. The change has not been universally popular, as the book is no longer intended to be comprehensive. The new, image-heavy format has also been criticized for giving too much attention to visually shocking or grotesque "records" such as physical deformities, odd-looking vegetables and peculiar stunts. The focus on scantily-clad female celebrities has led to complaints from school librarians.
These changes have done no harm to its commercial success. The book is usually published just ahead of the
Christmas buying season in most markets.
The
Guinness Book of Records is the world's most sold
copyrighted book, thus earning it an entry within its own pages. A number of
spin-off books and
television series have also been produced. Again the emphasis in these shows has been on spectacular, entertaining stunts, rather than any aspiration to inform or educate. The Guinness World Record brand is now owned by
HIT Entertainment.
A very special record is the record of the most-record-holding living person. The
Swiss juggler Paul Sahli currently holds this record, with 65 Guinness records.
Most of the records are accurate, but, despite the "tested, verified and elevated above all suspicion" claim posted
here, a few are now believed to be questionable. For example, Guinness accepts the claim of
Shigechiyo Izumi as the longest-lived man; many others, however, believe this claim to be false. In other cases, Guinness accepts the claim of the
Apple iMac as having the shortest
computer instruction manual (there are others that are similar), and the
Khardung La [
1] as being the highest motorable road.
SRTM data, several independent
GPS readings and Russian topographic maps all agree that Khardung La is more than 300 m lower and that there are higher motorable roads in
Tibet.
|
Steven Petrosino, drinking 500 mL beer in 0.4 seconds in June 1977. Guinness accepted only the record for 1 liter, but later dropped all beer and alcohol records from their compendium in 1991 |
Several world records that were once included in the book have been removed for ethical reasons. By publishing world records in a category, the book may encourage others to try to beat that record, even at the expense of their own health and safety. For example, following publication of a "heaviest cat" record, many
cat owners overfed their pets beyond the bounds of what was healthy, so entries such as these were removed. Likewise, records related to dangerous
stunts are often not published, for example those closely related to
freediving. The Guinness Book also dropped records within their "eating and drinking records" section of Human Achievements in 1991 due to concerns that potential competitors could do harm to themselves and expose the publisher to potential
litigation. These changes included the removal of all liquor, wine and
Beer Drinking Records and other unusual records for consuming such unlikely things as bicycles and trees (p. 464, Guinness Book of World Records 1990 edition). Reference:
World Speed Beer Drinking Record.
Other records, such as
sword swallowing, were closed to further entry as the current holders have performed beyond what are considered safe human tolerance levels. There have been cases where closed records have been reopened. For example, the sword swallowing record was listed as closed in 1990 Guinness Book of World Records, but the
Guinness World Records Primetime TV show, which started in 1998, accepted three sword swallowing challenges.
|
Guinness Museum in Hollywood, California |
In recent years the Guinness company has permitted the
franchising of small museums with displays based on the book, all currently (2005) located in towns popular with tourists:
Surfers Paradise,
Copenhagen,
San Francisco,
San Antonio,
Niagara Falls,
Hollywood,
Atlantic City, and
Gatlinburg, Tennessee. While some displays are dramatic, like the statues of the world's tallest and shortest people, or videos of records being broken, much of the information is presented simply with text and photos.
*
List of world records*
Ripley's Believe It or Not!*Watson, Bruce. (August 2005). "World's Unlikeliest Bestseller".
Smithsonian, p. 76-81
*
Guinness World Records, the official site of the book
