What Makes Flamingos Pink?

by Bill McLain

  Franklin V. Canning, a drugstore owner, invented the first pinkish-colored gum. He claimed it aided oral hygiene. He combineds the words “dental” and “hygiene” to create a name for his new gum, “Dentyne.”

  The first bubble gum ever made, called “Blibber-Blubber,” never sold well because it was too sticky.

  William Wrigley, Jr., devised a marketing technique that caused sales of his gum to soar. He mailed one stick of gum to every person in the United States who was listed in the phone book.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  The world record for bubble-gum blowing is a 23-inch diameter bubble blown by Susan Montgomery Williams of Fresno, California. You may not be able to equal that feat, but professional bubble-gum blowers have some tips that will help your bubbles be bigger than ever.

  The more gum, the better. Some people can hold up to 20 packs of gum in their mouth at one time. That’s way too much for a beginner. However, if you have a lot of gum, you can blow bigger bubbles as long as you can keep moving the wad of gum around in your mouth.

  Sugar doesn’t stretch. Before you even start blowing, chew all the sugar out of the gum. Once the flavor is gone, you can start blowing bubbles.

  Keep a smooth consistency. Chew the gum well to prevent air pockets from forming.

  Stick out your tongue. Stick your tongue into the bubble as far as you can. That way you will get as much gum as possible into the bubble before you start blowing.

  Keep your blowing uniform. Slow, steady blowing will produce a much more even, and larger, bubble.

  With practice, these tips can help you blow bigger bubbles.

  If during your practice the bubble should pop, wipe the gum from your eyes, go to the end of this chapter, look up the Web site on “Everything you ever wanted to know about bubble gum,” and read the section entitled “Removing gum.”

  Good luck!

  Who invented plastic? (Did it start with billiard balls or bugs?)

  In the late 1800s, billiard balls were made of ivory. A United States inventor, John Wesley Hyatt, was trying to find a low-cost substitute for the expensive ivory balls. After many failures, he made a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and alcohol, heated it so it could be molded, and let it harden. His discovery became known as “celluloid.” Celluloid was strong, tough, and could be cheaply produced in a variety of colors. It was eventually used to make combs, toys, and other products.

  Shellac, a secretion of an Asian beetle, was used as a varnish for preserving wood. It was also an excellent electrical insulator. In the early 1900s, electricity came into its own and there was more demand for shellac than could be produced by the cottage industry in Asia. A chemist, Leo Baekeland, began experimenting to produce a synthetic shellac.

  After three years of experimenting, he heated phenol and formaldehyde to produce a liquid goo that when heated further turned into a hard but translucent substance. It was plastic and Baekeland called it “Bakelite.” It wasn’t long after its discovery in 1907 that Bakelite was used to make telephone handsets, radio cabinets, rosary beads, automobile distributor caps, cooking pot handles, and hundreds of other products. It is still used today in the manufacture of buttons, costume jewelry, pot handles, knife handles, and other items.

  Celluloid was invented in 1869, almost 40 years before the invention of Bakelite. Yet Leo Baekeland is considered by most authorities to have been the inventor of plastic. The reason is simple. Celluloid is made from chemically treated cotton and other substances containing vegetable matter. Bakelite was produced by combining chemicals; no natural substances were used. As a result, it was the first 100 percent synthetic material.

  FACTOIDS

  The first production automobile to have an all fiberglass body was the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette.

  The “House of Tomorrow” premiered at Disneyland in 1957. The walls, roof, floors, and furniture were all made of plastic. It was so strong that when it was torn down years later, wrecking crews had trouble demolishing it.

  An experiment to create synthetic rubber failed, and the researchers ended up with a soft plastic they called “nutty putty.” It was later sold as “Silly Putty,” which became one of the most popular toys ever sold.

  In the 1950s, many automobile manufacturers made entire cars of Plexiglas for display at auto shows. Even the engine was a clear plastic block so onlookers could see the internal engine parts. Unfortunately, curing the plastic with heat often created unwanted bubbles. Therefore, the plastic was cured at low temperatures by being put in a large refrigerator. It could take as long as six months to cure the plastic this way. Although a plastic Coke bottle was first produced in 1958, it didn’t meet commercial standards. It took almost 20 years more to develop an acceptable plastic commercial Coke bottle.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  People today don’t pay much attention to cellophane, but at one time it was so valuable that it was locked in safes at night.

  It all started around the time Bakelite was invented. A Swiss chemist, Jacques Brandenberger, was tired of looking at unwashed and stained tablecloths in Paris restaurants, so he decided to invent some type of covering that could simply be wiped clean. He sprinkled liquid viscose on a tablecloth and it became glossy but very stiff. He then decided to try to make some type of transparent sheet that could be laid over the tablecloth.

  By using a cellulose product, he managed to create a transparent sheet. He combined the French words cellulose with diaphane, meaning “transparent,” and called his invention cellophane.

  Brandenberger tried selling cellophane to the movie industry to replace the highly flammable film they were using at the time. Unfortunately, cellophane became distorted when hot, so he decided to sell it as a wrapping for expensive products. The cost of cellophane was so high at the time that only the most exclusive Paris boutiques could afford to wrap their finest perfumes in it. At night, they kept it locked in the store safe.

  Over time, cellophane became less expensive, and eventually DuPont scientists created a version that was moisture proof. From that time on, cellophane became the packaging of choice for candy, cigarettes, and a host of other products.

  The next time you receive a gift wrapped in colored cellophane, just be thankful you don’t have to lock it up in a safe at night.

  More questions? Try these Web sites.

  INVENTORS AND THEIR INVENTIONS

  http://inventors.about.com/education/inventors/msub12.htm

  This wonderful site lists most major inventions. Just click on a letter of the alphabet to find a list of inventions beginning with that letter. Once you find an invention you like, click on it to see a Web page full of links related to that invention. The site covers most inventions from air bags to the zipper.

  If you’d prefer to look up the inventor, the following page lists inventors from Edward Acheson (who invented carborundum) to Vladimir Zworykin (who invented the cathode-ray tube): http://inventors.about.com/education/inventors/msub1_1.htm

  ALL ABOUT GUM

  http://www.nacgm.org/index.html

  The National Association of Chewing Gum Manufacturers has an excellent site. Click on “Consumer section,” and you’ll find topics such as “The story of gum,” “How gum is made,” and even “Tips for getting unstuck.”

  If you enjoy bubble gum, you should have a lot of fun at Pud’s Clubhouse at: http://www.dubblebubble.com/clubhouse/index.html

  EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BUBBLE GUM

  http://www.welcome.to/BubbleGum

  Ms. Demeanor’s bubble gum page is chock full of information about bubble gum, including history, fun facts, ingredients, making gum, gum music, languages, links, fun and games, books, removing gum, bubble blowing, cocktails, gum forum, and gum chat, frequently asked questions, gum e-mail, and much more.

  Make sure you scroll down the left side of the page to see all of the topics.

  GALLERY OF OBSCURE PATENTS

  http://www.delphion.com/gallery

  This fun site has drawin
gs and descriptions of real, although strange, patents. Some of the inventions shown include a motorized ice cream cone so you don’t have to turn it while licking it, a Santa Claus detector, a gravity-powered air conditioner for shoes, a fly swatter that plays music, an enclosure to protect you from killer bees, and a greenhouse helmet that contains plants so you can breathe the oxygen they give off.

  Another site with weird inventions is http://www.lightlink.com/bbm/weird.html

  GREATEST INVENTOR OF ALL TIME

  http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/

  Some of the most fascinating inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are shown here. Click on “Inventor’s workshop” to see some of the inventions. Once there, you’ll find other links. For example, if you click on “Visions of the future,” you’ll see modern machines that Leonardo described and sketched, including the parachute, helicopter, tank, and scuba gear.

  If you want to have some fun, click on “Leonardo’s mysterious machines.” Click on one of the numbers to the left to see a drawing of the machine. Then see if you can guess which of the four machines it is by clicking on the appropriate word beneath the picture.

  9

  Language

  Where did the term “You’ve been 86’ed” come from? (Throw it out the back door.)

  Many years ago, Chumley’s Restaurant, at 86 Bedford Street in New York City, had a custom of throwing rowdy customers out the back door. Eventually, restaurant workers started using “86’ed” as a synonym for something being thrown out.

  The term soon became part of the colorful “hash house” or “lunch house” jargon adopted by the brash and often sassy waitresses and countermen who worked in diners in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s.

  In those years it was a common practice for a waitress to call out the order to the cook. For more efficient ordering, the waitresses created a shorthand method of giving orders. The jargon they developed used just a few very descriptive words to make sure the cook understood the order.

  For example, if you ordered two poached eggs on toast and a glass of milk, the waitress would yell out to the cook, “Adam and Eve on a raft and moo juice.” If you ordered a toasted English muffin with coffee, the waitress might yell, “Burn the British and Joe.”

  Although the colorful language of the diners died out many years ago, a few words have remained in use today, such as, O.J. (orange juice), stack (pancakes), BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich), mayo (mayonnaise), and the various ways of cooking eggs such as over easy or sunny side up.

  Years back it was fun to eat at the lunch counter and try to figure out what the waitress was saying. It’s rare to hear this colorful slang today but you may still hear it in some of the old lunch counters in the smaller, older cities of the United States. There are also a few diners that use nostalgia as their theme and thus use the old hash house lingo.

  FACTOIDS

  Here are just a few examples of hash house lingo:

  Axle grease: butter

  Blowout patches: pancakes

  Bowwow, barks, or groundhog: hot dog

  Baled hay: shredded wheat

  Bessie: roast beef

  Bessie in a bowl: stew

  Cackleberries: eggs

  Rabbit food: salad

  Sinkers: dougnuts

  Sweep the kitchen: hash

  Whiskey: rye bread (derived from rye whiskey)

  Yummy: sugar

  DID YOU KNOW?

  When reminiscing about the old diners, you may think of one of the most popular meals they served: the hamburger.

  Although it is widely accepted that the name was derived from the town of Hamburg, Germany, around 1884, people still argue about who created the hamburger as we know it today. Some insist it was Charlie Nagree, who sold burgers at a county fair in Wisconsin in 1885; while others claim it was Louis Lassen, who featured them at his lunch wagon in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1900. There are many other claims.

  However, there can be no argument that one of the first fast-food restaurants to feature hamburgers was White Castle. With a loan of $700, the first White Castle establishment opened in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. It charged five cents for a hamburger.

  In 1930 White Castle hired a well-known food scientist to determine the nutritional value of White Castle hamburgers. During one experiment, a college student lived on nothing but White Castle hamburgers and water for 13 weeks and remained in good health. People have been eating them ever since.

  Today most people would probably admit that the king of fast-food hamburger stores is McDonald’s. In 1955 McDonald’s had one establishment in Des Plaines, Illinois. Today the company has over 24,500 stores in 116 countries.

  Yet it seems that our appetite for hamburgers has not diminished in the least, as evidenced by the growing number of chains such as Burger King, Wendy’s, In and Out, and many others.

  If you were to order a hamburger in a hash house diner, the waitress might say, “Bossy on a raft and hold the mayo.”

  How many geese are in a gaggle? (If you poke a goose, are you giving it a people?)

  The word “gaggle” simply means a group of something. It does not denote any specific amount. “Herd” is a good example of a similar type of word. We say a herd of cows. The herd could be 20 cows or 2,000 cows. Either way, it’s still a herd of cows.

  It seems that almost every bird and animal has a word to denote a “group” of them. Here are a few examples:

  Army of frogs

  Bale of turtles

  Band of coyotes

  Bevy of quail

  Bouquet of pheasants

  Cast of hawks

  Charm of finches

  Clowder of cats

  Colony of penguins

  Company of plovers

  Crash of rhinos

  Descent of woodpeckers

  Dole of doves

  Down of hares

  Dray of squirrels

  Drift of hogs

  Float of crocodiles

  Gang of elks

  Kettle of hawks (no, not a “kettle offish”)

  Kine of cows

  Labor of moles

  Leap of leopards

  Murder of crows

  Peep of chickens

  Shrewdness of apes

  Sleuth of bears

  Wedge of swans

  FACTOIDS

  If a goose gets sick or wounded while in flight, two other geese drop out of the flying formation and escort the stricken goose to protect it. They stay with it until it either dies or is able to fly again.

  Although geese are very social animals among their own kind, they have a tendency to bite people.

  When migrating, a snow goose flies at speeds up to 50 mph and will travel almost 3,000 miles at an altitude of almost 3,000 feet.

  Geese mate for life and grieve at the loss of a mate.

  The most widespread goose in North America is the Canadian goose. Unlike most birds, the family stays together after the breeding season.

  Small birds sometimes hitchhike on the backs of flying Canadian geese.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Perhaps the most famous goose is not a goose at all. It’s an airplane called the Spruce Goose.

  During World War II, enemy submarines were devastating U.S. merchant ships. The cargo ships were being sunk as fast as they could be built. Henry Kaiser of shipbuilding fame thought that a solution would be to create a cargo plane that could fly over the water and deliver needed materials to the troops.

  Kaiser sought the aid of legendary airplane designer Howard Hughes and the two formed a consortium to build a giant transport plane. It was designated the HK-1 (for Hughes and Kaiser) and was originally called the Hercules.

  To avoid using critical war matériel, they decided to build the plane from wood, not realizing at the time how difficult it would be to make an airframe of birch and spruce.

  Although Kaiser dropped out of the project, Hughes succeeded, and his flying boat was the biggest airplane ever built at that time. Bec
ause of its wooden body, it was nicknamed the Spruce Goose.

  The plane had a wing span slightly longer than a football field (320 feet), and was over 218 feet long and almost 80 feet high. Its eight 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney engines had 17-foot propellers. Designed to carry 65 tons, it was capable of carrying 750 fully equipped troops or two Sherman tanks.

  Unfortunately, it was not completed until after the war ended, and the only time it ever flew was an unauthorized flight by Howard Hughes, who flew it about a mile at a height of 70 feet to prove it was airworthy.

  It was kept in Long Beach, California, for some time. The Walt Disney Company bought it but decided to get rid of it after a few years. It was bought by Evergreen International Aviation. They had it disassembled and then had each section shrink wrapped. The sections were loaded onto an ocean barge, which took it to Portland, Oregon. It was then shipped up the Willamette River to the site where its overland journey began. Three pieces of heavy moving equipment, each with 104 forward gears, moved it to its final location. Today, the famous Spruce Goose is at the Evergreen Aviation Education Center in McMinnville, Oregon.

  Although there were plans to build more of the Hughes flying boats, only one was ever built. This is one goose that will never be part of a gaggle.

  What is the origin of the word “quack,” meaning a fake or unethical doctor? (Duck if you run into one of these doctors.)

  The word “quack” is an abbreviation of “quacksalver,” a 16th-century word meaning a peddler who sold fraudulent medicines in the street. Since to quack meant to peddle, to “quacksalve” meant to peddle a salve or ointment, especially one that allegedly could cure any malady. The charlatan who did this peddling was a quacksalver. Today a quack means either a fake or unethical medical doctor.