Category Archives: Science & Technology

October 17, 2026 · 10:00 AM

History of Everyday Objects Undusted: Scissors

For the past fortnight, I’ve been moving; same home, new craft room – we’ve swapped our larger office for my smaller craft room. I’ve been taking the opportunity to sort out and clear out extras – downsizing e.g. yarns, materials, and things I no longer need/use, bagging them up for either charity, friends I know will appreciate something, or for upcycling or recycling. While moving, I realised how many scissors I have for various purposes, and I started thinking about what people used before pivoting scissors became most common today.

Knives, as we know, are defined as single-blade implements, while scissors are two-bladed, used with a shearing action to cut everything from paper to sheep’s wool. The first scissors were made from a single piece of bronze curved into a U, with sharpened ends tapering to points; these oldest examples appear in archaeological finds from ancient Egypt around 1500 BC.

Celtic Scissors, found in Germany

In Germany, near Münich, archaeologists found a Celtic pair of spring scissors dating to the 3rd or 2nd century BC. The pair was so finely crafted that they’re still sharp and shiny, as if they could be used today. In fact, very similar spring scissors are still used in Japan in sewing.

Modern Japanese sewing scissors

The Romans first invented pivoting scissors around AD 100, connecting two bronze or iron blades joined by a pin or rivet, similar to modern versions.

Today, scissors come from two main production regions: Solingen, Germany, is known as the “City of Blades,” producing around 7% of the world’s market of quality scissors, along with fine swords, knives, and razors. Archaeological excavations around Solingen have found blacksmiths’ smelters dating back over 2,000 years, and the region has been manufacturing and exporting blades since medieval times. In the 18oos, there were as many as 300 smiths involved in the production there; today, around 300 companies manufacture scissors, which are stamped “Made in Solingen” only if the entire process takes place locally.

By far, most inexpensive scissors come from China, which produces around 64% of the world market. Founded in 1663, the Hangzhou Zhang Xiaoquan Company is one of the oldest continuously operating manufacturers today.

In English, scissors and shears differ in that the latter tend to be larger and used for more robust tasks, such as cutting metal or shearing sheep. In German, however, the term is die Schere – this refers to any kind of scissors (sheep-shearing shears are simply Schafschur-Schere). A word perhaps familiar to English speakers who do crafts might be the term Scherenschnitte, the German word for the art of paper-cutting.

As scissors developed, they’ve become more specialized. Among those available today are hedge trimmers, pruning shears, blade shears (quite similar to the original U-shaped design!), kitchen/poultry shears, cigar cutters, hair-cutting/thinning shears, fingernail scissors, metal snippers, pipe snips, trauma shears (medical), ceremonial scissors (oversized, for cutting ceremonial ribbons), various-bladed crafting scissors (from pinking- to ragged- to wavy-bladed), and safety scissors for children.

So the next time you pick up a pair of scissors, give a wink of thanks to all those who’ve gone before you in inventing, improving, and refining the object you’re holding.

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October 3, 2026 · 10:00 AM

History of Everyday Objects Undusted: Tapes

Moving from glues to tapes isn’t a huge leap; both are adhesives and developed from the same starting point – tar (tree sap), the prehistoric solution. Ancient Egyptians soaked strips of cloth in animal glue, beeswax, or resins to make medical bandages. In 1845, Dr Horace Day invented “surgical strips” – a type of rubber attached to strips of cloth… though they tended to fall off. In 1921, Johnson & Johnson improved on the formula and introduced Band-Aids. Just four years later, in 1925, Richard Drew, working as a 3M lab technician, invented the world’s first masking tape – the motivation for this product was car manufacturing, used to make crisp lines between two-colour paint treatments. When Drew first attempted to find a solution for the car manufacturers, he only put adhesive along the outer edges of the tape (which was made of crepe paper fused with adhesive), and he was told by shop workers to tell his Scotch bosses to stop being stingy with the adhesive! The name stuck. In 1930, Drew invented a clear, waterproof tape using cellophane, and this is the ubiquitous Scotch tape we know today. During the Great Depression, it became the most popular tool for fixing everything from shoes to books, broken household appliances, toys, ripped curtains, for sealing opened tins of food or milk bottles, and even fixing cracked eggshells.

Duct tape has an interesting history: Originally called “Duck Tape”, it was made of long strips of duck cloth (a tightly-woven cotton fabric). During World War 2, boxes of ammunition were wrapped with a thin paper soaked in wax to waterproof them, with a strip left loose as a tab to pull – the problem was that, because the paper used was so thin, the tabs often got ripped off in transit or worn off; this made them difficult to hastily open during battle, which was kind of the point. An ordnance factory worker, Vesta Stoudt, had two sons in the Navy, and she pointed out this weakness to her factory bosses – who ignored her. She made a prototype and tested it, then took it straight to the top, writing to President Roosevelt. He took the idea seriously and passed it to the War Production Board, which put Johnson & Johnson onto the project. The new tape was sturdier and made to be ripped by hand, not requiring scissors or a knife. This military tape only came in military green. Duck tape became so popular among soldiers that they called it the “100-mph tape”, as it could fix anything, including airplanes in an emergency. After the war, they brought it home. It began to be used on ducts in construction, which is how the name became “duct” (incidentally, it is no longer recommended for this purpose). The tape became embedded in daily life after the famous Apollo 13 crisis in 1970; it was a roll of duct tape aboard the vessel that helped the astronauts convert an air filter, getting them home safely.

Besides those mentioned above, we now have a wide range of tapes for all kinds of uses; here are a few:

Gorilla tape (a heavy-duty duct tape brand); builder’s-; carpet/masking-; paper-; packing-; electrical-; filament (strapping)-; double-sided-; gaffer-; washi-; aluminium-; K-tape, floor-marking-(yellow and black striped tape used to alert to danger); friction- (used for, e.g. hammers, bike handlebars, tennis racket handles); hook-and-loop tape (aka Velcro with an adhesive backing); Kapton (used e.g. in spacecraft to provide thermal insulation, or to support solar sails, as telescope sunshields, and in 3D printers, it is often used as a build surface to prevent warping of the extruded material as it cools); nano-; security tape (the kinds found on products or medical bottles to prevent tampering, or to expose an issue if it has been tampered with); self-fusing silicone-; speed- (used e.g. on airplanes, it’s designed to remain adhered in strong winds); spike- (used in theatre or films to mark areas on a stage or set for actors); wound closure strips (a medical “stitch” tape); surgical-; toupee / wig-; reflective-; and thread seal- (commonly used in plumbing for sealing pipe threads).

The next time you reach for a roll of tape, stop and think about the long history of this simple, everyday object!

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September 5, 2026 · 10:00 AM

History of Everyday Objects Undusted: Needles

As far back as humans have needed to bind materials together, they’ve found ways to do it. The oldest sewing needle dates back 60,000 years and was found in Sibudu Cave, South Africa (made from a bone, most likely a bird). Needles have also been found in Russia, dating back 50,000 years, and in China (from stone), dating back 9,000 years. These and other archaeological finds show that people around the world developed similar solutions. The material used depended on availability in their region, including boar bristles, bones (including antlers and tusks), cactus needles or other thorns, stones, and various metals (the first copper needles were found in Armenia, dating to around 7,000 BC; the first bronze needles appeared during the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC). Earlier needles had grooves on the side for holding threads of sinew or strips of bark or other fibre. They were not only used for making clothing or shoes, but also for weaving fishing nets or heavier materials like tents or ships’ sails.

Boar bristles are still used today in some leatherworking: The bristles are attached to a tapered linen thread with a sticky wax, giving the thread a stiff leader to get through awled stitch holes. This technique would have been used regardless of the needle material until the eye came along. Eyeless needles are still used, for example, as modern medical suturing tools for both external wounds and surgical procedures.

The first needle with an eye is dated to around 25,000 years ago, during the Upper Palaeolithic Period. Some ancient Roman needles have been found with two or even three eyes toward one end; one paper suggests that the multi-eyed needle may indicate their use in making fabrics with the nålbinding technique, which would make them stretchy. Some ancient Roman needles have also been found with the eye around mid-length; this might have been used to push and pull threads through tougher materials; some modern nålbinding needles also have this feature. I wondered if the multi-eyed needles might have been used to combine several colours, and this video confirms that. Incidentally, this technique was the ancestor of the two-needle technique we know as knitting today.

Ancient Roman Needle

As you can imagine, the work that went into creating a tapered piece of bone or stone made these items valuable; as soon as they were created, a casing to protect them likely soon followed. Cases have been discovered the world over, ranging from simple hollowed-out sticks to hides to elaborate gilt and jewelled cases; the oldest known needle case that I could find information about is from early Iron Age Russia, approximately 37,000 years old; it was made from bone, found in a cave in the Caucasus Mountains. Another was found in Siberia, made of Rhinoceros bone, and dates to around 33,000 years ago. Think about that a moment: Rhinoceros… in Siberia. Climate change is nothing new.

Ancient Norse Needle Case, Swedish Museum

Personally, I have several kinds of needle holders, for various-sized, -shaped, and -purpose needles: I have wooden cases with a wooden cork (bought many years ago at a Native American trading post); I have an empty lipstick tube (the base is blocked with a piece of sponge to keep the needles from falling through the holes in the corkscrew section) – this makes accessing the needles easy, as I wind them up to select one; other cases I have are more conventional. I have metal needles, but I also have plastic ones; the latter make it easier to get, e.g., elastic or a cloth cord through a seam.

The next time you have a threaded needle in your hand, take a second to think about its long history, and bless the day when needle eyes, smooth threads, and the self-threading needle for sewing machines came along!

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August 22, 2026 · 10:00 AM

History of Everyday Objects Undusted: Sponges

Today, let’s dive into the topic of sponges.

Natural sponges are sessile (immobile) marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (pore-bearing). They lack complex nervous, digestive, and circulatory systems but rely on constant water flow through their bodies to take in nutrients and oxygen, and to remove waste. There are nearly ten thousand known species; some feed on planktonic bacteria; others host symbiotic organisms to thrive, and some have even developed predatory survival strategies in nutrient-poor environments.

Natural sponges have been used by humans for thousands of years; archaeological excavations have found evidence of sponges used to plaster and paint the queen’s walls at Knossos (the Minoan culture of Crete, c. 1700 to 1400 BC). They have been found on Greek pottery from around 760 BC in depictions of thermal scenes or as status symbols. Oppianus Cilicius (2nd C BC) was the first to write about those fishing for sponges, including details about the spongers’ lifestyles and diets, and the dangers they faced from shark attacks (for an interesting video on the topic of modern spongers, click here). Aristotle (384–322 BC) described the “elephant nose-like tube” used by the sponge divers to breathe. In the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer makes reference to sponges as hygienic utensils. Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), among others, described the uses of sponges in agriculture and cooking. Cicero (106-43 BC) referred to their use in washing or cleaning. Roman legionaries were supplied with sponges to stuff into their helmets, for personal hygiene, and for drinking (their ancient solution to a water bottle); let’s hope that those were three different sponges allotted. This explains the presence of a sponge at the cross in Matthew 27:48/Mark 15:36/John 19:29.

The first use of a sponge with inhaled surgical anaesthesia is recorded in AD 1025 by the Persian physician Ibn Sina, who used a concoction of potent (=poisonous) sedatives of opium, mandrake and hemlock. Medieval European physicians sometimes used crude herbal mixtures or opium sponges to administer a type of anaesthetic, but it was a far cry from what we know today; at best, it got the patient drunk or high enough not to scream as loudly.  Ether vapour as an anaesthetic didn’t make its way into use in Europe until 1846, at the London University College’s theatre.

By the mid-twentieth century, overfishing brought both the sponges and the industry close to extinction. Overharvesting strained the sponge populations around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean; other stresses include storms (which can suffocate them with sand and debris, or rip them loose from their anchors) and climate change (disease outbreaks occur more frequently in warming ocean temperatures). The depleted population also puts stress on the entire environmental chain: Sponge feeders, such as parrotfish or angelfish, move on; without their presence, rapid-growing sponge species smother reef-building corals, which in turn reduces breeding, hiding, and feeding places for other marine species. Changes in harvesting policies and practices in some regions may mitigate these issues: By cutting the sponges loose rather than ripping them out, sponges have a chance to regenerate. But as more people in the First World become concerned with using natural products, marine sponges will continue to be (over-)harvested.

Sponges today are usually synthetic, invented in 1937 by the German scientist Otto Bayer, who (in the good ol’ fashioned way a lot of discoveries have been made) accidentally created polyurethane foam. By the 1940s, the DuPont company had begun mass-producing sponges made from wood pulp, hemp fibres, and sodium sulphate. By the late 1950s, dual-purpose sponges were introduced.

An alternative to both the marine- and synthetic sponges is the Loofah (Luffa) gourd: Besides being a food in the earlier stages of its cycle, when these gourds are left on the vine to dry out, they become a fibrous, natural sponge. For a short video on how to harvest and use a luffa gourd sponge, just click here. If I had a garden, I would certainly try to grow these!

What kinds of sponges do you have in your home? I hope this helps you appreciate the humble sponge, whichever form you use.

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August 8, 2026 · 10:00 AM

History Undusted: Everyday Objects

In the past several years, I’ve looked into quite a few everyday objects that captured my curiosity at the time; here is a list of such objects for those interested:

Lately, I’ve been thinking about a few everyday objects that I’d like to explore the history of, so I’ll take you along for the ride, starting next week.

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March 18, 2026 · 10:40 PM

BOBs: Emergency Preparedness

Back in 2020, I wrote an article about preparedness in connection with lockdown, viruses, and being shut in over longer periods of time. Then life went back to normal, people came out of their caves and learned to socialise again… carefully. At a distance. Introverts mourned the passing of a perfect excuse to avoid people, and extroverts went right back to hugging everyone in sight. We may not have lockdown anymore, but we now have a more looming threat: Climate Change.

Depending on where you live in the world, you may feel different effects of the climate change and its consequences: Whether that’s increased storm violence of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding or drought (these last two are related, as the jet stream has been disrupted; it dumps too much water in one place and leaves another place dry because it has become lethargic), or increased earthquakes and/or volcanic activity (ice melt has been linked to the destabilization of the Earth’s crust, leading to seismic and tectonic shifts; this is known as glacially-induced faulting, or bookshelf faulting).

Whatever your focus, preparation will become increasingly important (other factors may include political or social unrest). Some things are out of our control, but we can be prepared in case evacuation or hunkering down (“bug-in”) becomes necessary. Think of this as a mental exercise in preparedness; it is by no means a comprehensive list, because as I mentioned, everyone has a different focus: Those living in Tornado Alley will not have the same needs as those living along tectonic faultlines; those living in tropical cyclone basins will have a different focus than those living in places like Niscemi, Italy, or in the rumbling caldera around Naples. But whatever your individual needs are, there are some things we can all prepare. I’m sure it doesn’t need to be said, but I am no expert in emergency preparedness; everyone needs to gauge their own needs. The following points are suggestions and things to think about as you get ready to face your region’s challenges.

  • Bug-Out Bags (BOBs) are bags that should be ready to go and cover your needs for around 4 days; it might be a sports bag or backpack, or a water-tight, lidded bucket – something transportable and quick to grab as you head out, up, or down.
  • One rule for preparedness is the “Rule of 3s”: You can survive 3 minutes without air; 3 hours in a harsh environment without shelter; 3 days without water; 3 weeks without food.
  1. Air: keep air-filtering masks on hand to mitigate smoke inhalation or chemical fumes. If you don’t have access to such masks in an emergency, a damp* shirt over nose and mouth may help reduce harmful inhalation. A damp cloth over an animal’s carrier case will help them, too. [*Damp, not soaking, which can inhibit breathing. Dampness traps particulates better than a dry cloth.]
  2. Shelter: Clothing would fall under the rule of shelter. Keep an extra set of clothing (think seasonal/layers) in your car, as well as blankets (fire-resistant blankets if forest fires are a threat), or have a list of what to grab if you need to evacuate. In the chaos of such moments, you might not have time to think, so knowing what, where and how to pack quickly is an important skill to cultivate. If a disaster forces you out into the elements, you’ll need warm, dry clothing on hand. Other shelter items to think about might be a tent (e.g. Mylar tents are lightweight, retain heat and repel water), or a space blanket (they look like foil), which could be used as a make-shift shelter. While thinking of shelter, think of what your pets/animals might need: A carrying case ready to grab; a litter box for cats if you’re evacuating.
  3. Water: The recommended amount is about 4 litres (1 gallon) per person per day. Think about other things that might require water in your situation, such as pets or other animals, and even flushing toilets, cleaning, etc. and plan accordingly. Another thing to think about is accessing clean water after the event; water filter straws such as HydraMate or LifeStraw are widely available online and can be kept in your BOB.
  4. Medicines, First Aid kits: Ensure you have sufficient (more than minimal) medicine at home, especially if not having it could be life-threatening. Have a well-stocked First Aid box, preferably in an airtight, watertight container, with medicines, bandages, disinfectants, pain killers, burn gel, sunscreen, medical gloves, and basic first-aid instructions (CPR, using a tourniquet, how to stop bleeding, etc.).
  5. Foods: Keep a ready stock of food and water in your home*; if you live in areas where your home may become flooded, keep those supplies on the upper floor; if you face forest fires, take supplies like water and canned foods (with opener if needed) to your car. Think also of your pets – stock enough food for them. When a storm is coming, it’s too late to go shopping, as there are often panic-shoppers and empty shelves in such moments. [*Stock up on foods you eat, and make those choices healthy and nutrient-rich, not high-caloric, low-nutrient, or high-sodium, which will increase thirst. Rotate eating those foods and replenishing them in non-emergency times, so that what you take when you need it is fresh.]
  6. Vehicle: If you need to evacuate by car, think of having an extra can of petrol/gasoline either at home to take with you, or keeping one in your car. Traffic jams consume fuel.
  7. Power: If you can, get a portable power station. These can be kept charged and ready to go, to charge your phones, to power lights, fans or tools you may need in the aftermath of a storm. Our power station has come in handy on many occasions; due to local construction, our power line was once knocked out for several hours, and we could plug our refrigerator into the power station, preserving the food until it was restored. It’s also practical for daily things, such as charging cell phones quickly or powering our telescope on the balcony. Another “power” source is a lighter or fire-starters; these might be needed if you are without shelter, especially in colder weather. Remember your cell phone: The light could be used to signal for help. In the fires that hit Texas a few years ago, a man got turned around in the smoke. He used his phone’s light to flash SOS for help; a science drone spotted him, and he was guided to safety. If battery power on your phone needs to be conserved, a good ol’ fashioned flashlight is an essential BOB item – hand-cranked versions are available.
  8. Portable radio: This might be vital to keeping up with a storm’s trajectory or hearing meteorological reports. The best kind to get, if you want to be independent of battery charge levels or electricity, is a hand-cranked version (some of these have additional solar options).
  9. Tools: Keep a few tools in your BOB; a Swiss Army knife that has scissors, etc., will come in handy. A playing card or piece of plastic wrapped with layers of duct tape will save space in your BOB, but give you the option if you need it. A small sewing kit can be used to repair clothing or tent rips, or even for emergency medical stitches.
  10. Papers: Think about keeping a copy of vital information in your BOB: Insurance, bank, medical, ID… anything you might need if your home is lost. Keep it in a double-Ziplock bag-in-a-bag. Also, make a list of all addresses and phone numbers of your closest friends and family – most people don’t even know their spouse’s cell phone numbers by heart. If your cell phone dies, is lost, or is damaged, and you need to use another phone, you’ll need those numbers. And don’t forget to keep a bit of emergency cash on hand; in a wider disaster such as flood or fire, infrastructure will be knocked out – no ATMs, no credit card-reading machines…

These are just a few things to think about for your BOB preparation. I live in a stable, peaceful country with good governance and solid, maintained infrastructure, but these are blessings, and were not a “given” even a generation ago. I live in Central Europe; there are a lot of bat-ship crazy folk not all that far from our borders, and even if they do nothing, all it takes is a Krakatoa. Personally, I’m grateful that if all else fails, I can still trust Jesus – that gives me a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7)!

I hope this list helps you and sparks ideas for your own BOB!

An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, Wikipedia

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December 17, 2025 · 10:00 AM

History Undusted: The CB Radio

You know how your brain fires off random thoughts as you fall to sleep, or combines odds-bods into dreams forgotten as soon as you wake up? For some reason, 10-4 popped into my head in those moments last night. It sent me down the rabbit hole I now present: The history of the CB radio.

The often-forgotten or overlooked inventor of the Citizen’s Band (CB) radio system, along with inventions such as a patented version of the walkie-talkie (originally invented by the Englishman Donald Hings), the telephone pager, and the cordless telephone – all precursors to today’s cell phones, was Al Gross (1918-2000): Born in Toronto, Canada, he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. The son of Romanian-Jewish immigrants, his love for electronics was sparked when, at the age of nine, he was travelling by steamboat on Lake Erie; he explored the ship and ended up in the radio transmissions room, where the operator let him listen in. Eventually, he turned the family’s basement into a radio station built from scraps. During his higher studies, he experimented with ways to use radio frequencies.

During World War 2, he had some involvement with developing a two-way VHF air-to-ground communications system for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, known as the Joan-Eleanor system, and after the war, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated a few frequencies for the Citizens’ Radio Service Frequency Band, in 1946. Gross saw the potential and founded the Gross Electronics Co. to produce two-way communications systems to make use of these frequencies; his firm was the first to receive FCC approval in 1948. For more about his other inventions, just follow the link on his name above. For now, let’s focus on the CB:

The CB radio became an international hit back before cell phones and computers became a thing (despite the prevalence of cell phones, CBs are still around; truckers still communicate about road conditions, etc. Its usage was also revived by the Covid lockdown, when people began reaching out to meet and talk to others outside of their own four walls). It was, and is, a way to communicate with others long-distance from home or on the go.

My dad was always interested in the latest technological gadgets; in the mid-70s, we got a laserdisc player, the precursor of CDs, and DVD/Blu-Ray players. I remember watching films like Logan’s Run and Heaven Can Wait on that format. Laserdiscs never really took off, and only about 2% of US households had one (it became more popular in Japan at the time). Around that time, we also got a CB radio in our VW van. My dad had a chart with all of the CB slang words and codes, and I memorised it, fascinated by the lingo. On long road trips, I would get on the CB and chat with truck drivers. My handle (nickname) was Spider-Fingers, as I liked spiders and had long fingers (long fingers has the connotation of thief, so I didn’t want to use that!). Here is just the tip of the iceberg, a smattering of the codes and slangs used by CB radio enthusiasts, truckers and handymen:

There were dozens of slang terms for law enforcement officers: Bear (police officer); bear trap (speed trap, radar trap) taking pictures, also called a Kojak With A Kodak; bear bait (an erratic or speeding driver); bear with ears (listening to CB traffic); bear in the air/flying doughnut/Spy in the sky (helicopter radar traps), baby bear (rookie), fox in the henhouse/Smokey in a plain wrapper (policemen in unmarked vehicles); honey bear, mamma bear or Miss Piggy (slangs for female police officers); Brush Your Teeth And Comb Your Hair (a law enforcement vehicle is radaring vehicles – as if preparing for an official photo). A Driving Award was a speeding ticket. To wish someone Shiny side up meant that you wished them safe travels (keeping the vehicle upright).

There were slang terms for objects or events, such as Bambi, meaning that there was wildlife near the road and to take precautions; a crotch rocket was a fast motorcycle; double-nickels was a 55-mph speed limit area; a fighter pilot was an erratic driver who switched lanes frequently, while a gear jammer was someone who sped up and slowed down frequently; Alabama chrome was duct tape; an alligator/gator was a piece of blown tire on the highway, as it looked in the distance like a gator sunbathing. Convoys had front doors and back doors – the front or back truck in the group that would keep an eye open for bear traps. Motion lotion was fuel; the hammer lane was the fast lane (hammer was the gas pedal, and to hammer down was to drive full-speed). Break/breaker: Informing other CB users that one wanted to start transmission on a channel; a handle might be introduced, or requested if someone was looking for a CB friend. “Breaker, this is Spider-Fingers, over.” Asking for a comeback meant that you couldn’t hear the last transmission or wanted the other driver to talk. Break check meant traffic congestion ahead, slow down. A Bumper Sticker/hitchhiker is a vehicle that is tailgating another vehicle.

Aside from hundreds of slang terms, there was a whole list of codes (I guess you could say that the codes were the precursors of emojis!):

10-4: Agreed, understood, acknowledged

4-10: The opposite – asking for agreement or if a transmission was received.

10-6: Busy, stand by

10-7: Signing off

10-10: Transmission completed, standing by (you’ll be listening)

10-20: Location – What’s your (10-)20? Home-20 was asking for a driver’s home location/base.

10-33: Emergency traffic, clear the channel. CB code for Mayday for trucks and police cars.

10-42: Accident on the road

3s and 8s: Well wishes to a fellow driver. Borrowed from amateur ham radio codes “73” (best regards) and “88” (hugs and kisses).

The lists go on and on! I love the dry sense of humour reflected in the slang, and I think our everyday language could be a bit livelier if we included a few phrases that looked at things from a different perspective. Everyone could do with more 3s and 8s, 4-10?

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December 3, 2025 · 12:38 PM

History Undusted: Canning Jars

My quirky brain went down a rabbit hole last week; as I was putting away groceries into glass jars (for that explanation, please click here), I wondered who had been the genius behind the thread around canning jar lids, or, as most of my jars use, the bail closure.

Just to clarify terminology: Here is a threaded jar, a type of screw-on lid that is either one part or two:

Here is a jar with a bail closure, aka flip-tops, lightning jars, known also by their various brand names, e.g. Fido, Le Parfait, Kilner:

A third type of jar, German-made, is the Weck jar, with metal clips and a glass lid. I don’t like using these, so you won’t find them in our house.

5000-Year-Old Pharaonic wine jars found intact at Abydos – Egypt Museum

Closures have been an issue for thousands of years; ancient amphoras, which were used to transport wines and oils, were sealed with wood, cork, or a ceramic or pottery lid sealed with a type of mortar. Archaeology has many examples of clay or pottery pots with lids, Norse ornate metal containers with lids, and even ancient Egypt’s canopic jars, with their ornate lids. Another variety of closure is found on wooden barrels, which have side holes called bungholes, plugged with a cork or other wood.

The threaded jar lid was invented by the tinsmith John Landis Mason in 1858. Prior to his invention, a glass lid was laid atop an un-threaded canning jar and sealed with hot wax. It was messy, and if it wasn’t done right every time, it could allow dangerous bacteria into foods. Before refrigeration, the only way to preserve garden produce was basically to can with a wax seal and take your life into your hands. There were other preservation methods, such as drying, salting, smoking or pickling, but the new way of preserving offered a convenient, faster alternative; Mason’s threaded lids, combined with a rubber ring and a threaded glass jar, revolutionised canning. Unfortunately, he was not a savvy businessman, and though he filed a patent for the threaded screw-top jars, he failed to patent the rest of the invention, such as the rubber gaskets. He let the patent expire in 1879, and manufacturers took the idea and ran with it. Mason never made a fortune; in fact, he died in poverty in 1902. But his name lives on in the common term, “Mason Jars”. The concept is now used with countless products, from drinks to shampoos to household cleaners.

The invention of the bail closure design is a bit murkier: In the early 1840s, the Yorkshireman John Kilner invented the Kilner jar, using the rubber seal and wire bail closure.

In 1893, beverage bottles began using the Hutter stopper – a porcelain plug with a rubber gasket held in place with a metal strap.

In the 1930s, the La Parfait jars began production in Reims, France, by Verreries Mécaniques Champenoises, a historic French glassmaker.

The Bormioli family is an Italian name associated with glass-blowing since the Middle Ages; among their many brands is the Fido airtight jar, using the bail closure, which began production in 1968.

I personally have Kilner, La Parfait and Fido bail-closure jars, as well as many screw-top jars similar to Mason from these companies.

Do you use any such jars for storage in your home? Do you use them for canning or storing dried goods, or both? Please comment below!

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November 5, 2025 · 10:00 AM

History Undusted: Radium Girls

I’ve been thinking about writing on the topic of the Radium Girls for some time now. In our home library, the book by Kate Moore, The Radium Girls – The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women (2017), has been glowing at me (not literally, thank goodness!). The book is a fascinating history of the women who worked in watch-making factories across the States, and the groundbreaking battle for workers’ and women’s rights, which helped shape labour laws that would protect future generations from shameless exploitation.

Curie is the unit of measurement for radioactivity, named for both Marie Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie (co-winners of her first Nobel Prize, in Physics, 1903); Marie went on to win a second in another field (Chemistry, 1911). Their oldest daughter, Irene Joilet-Curie, won the Nobel Prize (with her husband, Frédéric) in 1935, also in chemistry. Marie Curie died from the effects of exposure to radiation on 4 July 1934 (her husband would have had the same fate, but he was killed in 1906 in a road accident). Even today, her papers and even her cookbook are so radioactive that they are stored in lead boxes, and anyone examining them must be fully protected. I could do a whole history of the Sklodowska and Curie families; the women were intelligent, educated, ahead of their time and left their marks on history in several fields of science. [I don’t know if the book would be available where you live, but the youngest daughter of Marie, Eve Curie, wrote a biography about her mother, published in 1937 in several languages (I have the 1938 Swiss edition, in German). The book can be found in e-book formats as well.]

Marie and Pierre Curie experimenting with radium. Drawing by André Castaigne. Notice that they are all handling the radioactive material without protective gear…

Radium, discovered by the Curies in December 1898, caught public fascination; soon, Radium was touted as the cure-all of the new century. It was sold as healthy, as something that would make your skin glow. It was said to cure ailments and recharge your physiological batteries with pure energy. It was put into toothpastes, face creams, soaps, bath salts, makeup, and pure energy drinks. And it was painted onto the face of watches: Each painter would mix her own paints in a small crucible; they each had a camel hair paint brush and were instructed to keep their brushes pointed with their lips: Lip, dip, paint. The girls at the factories would paint their nails and faces with the paint for fun.

And then people started getting sick. Eaten from the inside out, their bodies started disintegrating, and they started dying. And at the time, workers at factories were earning a penny per watch face painted; they were too poor to quit, and too sick to work. And the company big boys denied all responsibility, medical aid or financial compensation. Eventually, though some of the Radium Girls tried to sue the United States Radium Corporation, the company dragged the case on so long that most of the women were bedridden by the time the company forced them to settle out of court. It was too late for those girls and those like them still working in the factories; their bones will glow for a thousand years. But public opinion was already on the side of the women, and it fueled a turning point in protective legislation, not only in America but in Europe as well.

For a fascinating insight into this topic, here are two links:

Radium Girls, Wikipedia

The film: Radium Girls (2020) (1:37)

Oh, and by the way: If you find an old, glow-in-the-dark watch face for sale made any time before 1971, give it a WIDE berth.

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July 30, 2025 · 10:00 AM

Geology Undusted: Rock vs Stone

Today’s topic is the kind of thing that flashes through my brain at 4 a.m. when I’m dropping off to sleep.

Sometimes rock and stone can be used interchangeably, depending on the context of science, society or conversation; but some phrases are intuitively either stone- or rock-rooted: We say rock road, rockslide and rock salt, but stonemason, stone wall and Stonehenge.

In geological terms, a rock is a naturally occurring mass of minerals, particularly those with a distinctive composition (e.g. granite, bedrock, igneous, or features such as Ayers Rock). Other geological terms range from clay, silt, sand, pebble, gravel, cobble, boulder or glacial erratic (material moved by geological forces from one location to another) to mountain in size.

In Archaeological terms, rock refers to a geological formation, while stone refers to any rock that has been placed or modified into a tool by humans (ergo, Stonehenge, not Rockhenge). When an archaeological dig is underway and they pull out a rock, trained eyes can spot signs of scarring, or scoring, such as on a core, which is a piece of rock that has been worked by a stone tool referred to as a hammerstone (for obvious reasons), used to shape another rock into a tool, such as in the process of flint knapping (the more refined the knapping process, the more refined the tools become, such as using antler or copper nubs to chip away finer areas of an arrowhead or hunting barb). In Kansas, where I grew up, arrowheads are still discovered occasionally; I have a small collection, along with a few obsidian arrowheads.

In archaeological excavations, what might appear to be a natural rock formation may turn out to be an ancient boundary wall, with stones intentionally stacked for a specific purpose. In that sense, though a rock road has intentionally been placed, it is not stone – it is placed for a purpose, yes, but its arrangement is left as it falls, so it is referred to as a rock road.

Years ago, when my husband and I were walking along a rocky riverbank in Ticino (in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland), I picked up a stone; it had obvious signs of human activity, with smoothed sides where hands held it, and scrapes along the top and bottom, such as might be caused by sharpening a tool – whether antler or arrowhead. As it was washed down from its resting place in the rapids, it was no longer in situ and therefore would have no archaeological significance.

So which is it, stone or rock? For me, the answer is this: When it has been modified or intentionally placed or ordered by humans, it’s stone; when it’s naturally occurring, it’s rock.

I’ll leave you with a few idioms carved in stone or rock:

Set /carved in stone

Living under a rock

Leave no stone unturned

On the rocks

Heart of stone

Kill two birds with one stone

Have rocks in one’s head

Cast the first stone

As solid as a rock / As solid as the Rock of Gibraltar

Written in stone

Like getting blood from a rock

Between a rock and a hard place

A stone’s throw

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