Why do Clocks run clockwise?

by David Feldman

  Submitted by Joanna Parker, of Miami, Florida. Thanks also to: Jo Hadley, of Claremont, California.

  Can Raisins Be Made Out of Seeded Grapes?

  At one time, no doubt, raisins had seeds. Humans have eaten raisins for at least three millennia, presumably ever since someone was hungry enough to do a little experimentation with a cluster of sun-dried grapes. We do know that raisins were a valuable commodity long before the birth of Christ, especially in the Middle East, where foods that could withstand the hot sun and store indefinitely without spoilage were prized. We know that raisins were cherished in southern Europe, as well: in ancient Rome, two jars of raisins could fetch you a slave boy in trade.

  Today, raisins have no seeds. When we pop a raisin into our mouth, we are saved that moment of nervous anticipation we encounter with table grapes, wondering whether we are about 218 / DAVID FELDMAN

  to bite into a hard pip. More than 90 percent of all raisins are made from Thompson seedless grapes, exactly the same table grape that is omnipresent in produce sections of the supermarket.

  When they have reached the proper ripeness, in early autumn, Thompson grapes are taken from their vines and placed on paper trays to sun-dry. It takes about two to three weeks in the sun before the raisin reaches the correct degree of moisture (15 percent, as opposed to the 78 percent water content of table grapes), and the desired color and flavor. Four to five pounds of grapes sacrifice their lives to yield one pound of raisins.

  About 6 percent of the Thompson seedless crop is taken to raisin plants for immediate processing. There the grapes are cured with sulfur dioxide to preserve their color and dried in ovens. The result is golden seedless raisins (also known as “goldens”), which are popular in baking recipes, especially fruit cakes. The grapes used for golden seedless are thus identical to those that make dark brown raisins.

  The tiny currants used in hot cross buns and the tart sultanas are limited in availability and used primarily by bakers. Both are seedless.

  But yes, a seeded grape can be, and is, used for making raisins.

  Approximately one percent of the total raisin crop is derived from the seeded Muscat grape. The Muscat is also the largest and sweetest grape used to make raisins, and is therefore prized for baking. The Muscat is sun-dried on paper trays like regular Thompson seedless grapes, but it must undergo an additional step during processing.

  The dried Muscat raisins are puffed with steam and passed between rollers that force the seeds out. The wrinkles do a nifty job of hiding the resultant scar tissue, which is why our readers might have assumed that all raisins are made out of seedless grapes.

  Actually, one other surgical maneuver is performed on all raisins during processing. They must, of course, be cleaned, but their wrinkles assure that there will be hard-to-reach crevices where dirt could hide. So raisins are first washed in tanks of hot WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 219

  water, which opens up the wrinkles and ensures that they have been scrubbed behind their metaphorical ears.

  Submitted by Henry J. Stark, of Montgomery, New York.

  When a Fly Alights on the Ceiling, Does It Perform a Loop or a Roll in Order to Get Upside Down?

  The problem, as David Bodanis states it in The Secret House, is that

  “Flies, like most airplanes, lose their lift when they try to go through the air bottom-side up, and become not flies, but sinks.”

  We would not venture an uninformed opinion on such a weighty subject. When confronted with a fly question, we of course immediately think of contacting the Canada Biting Fly Centre (or as Maurice Chevalier preferred to call it, Centre Canadien sur les Insectes Piqueurs). Its director, Dr. M. M. Galloway, was bold enough to offer a definitive answer: “A fly lands by raising the forelegs above its head, making contact with the ceiling and then bringing its second and hind legs forward and up to the ceiling. The fly thus flips with a landing.”

  Bodanis points out the extraordinary efficiency of this technique:

  “As soon as these two front legs contact the ceiling the fly will aerobatically tuck up the rest of its body and let momentum rotate it to the ceiling. The manoeuver leaves the fly’s body suspended upside down, without it ever having had to do a full roll, a remark-able piece of topological extrication.”

  Submitted by W. A. Nissen, of Visalia, California.

  220 / DAVID FELDMAN

  How Can “Perpetual Care” Be Assured In Cemeteries After They Run Out of Space for New Plots?

  The cemetery industry has long promoted perpetual care, the notion that your burial area will be tended, well, perpetually. But how can a cemetery continue to pay the expenses for perpetual care after its source of income, new burials, is eliminated?

  Stephen L. Morgan, executive vice-president of the American Cemetery Association, explained how perpetual care is supposed to work:

  By law, most private cemeteries operate as endowed care cemeteries and are statutorily required to invest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of a lot [and usually, mausoleum sales], frequently a minimum of ten percent in many states [the range is 5-30 percent], into an irrevocable trust fund. The principal of the trust cannot be spent but the trust income is used for cemetery maintenance and repairs. In this manner, income for care and maintenance will be available long after all lots have been sold.

  The obligation is continuing and literally perpetual, hence the term “perpetual care.”

  John R. Rodenburg, vice-president of the Federated Funeral Directors of America, acknowledges that the principle often breaks down in practice, “as can be seen by looking at many inner-city and country cemeteries that have fallen into disrepair.” In the past, small cemeteries were frequently abandoned after they stopped generating cash flow, which is why perpetual-care laws were established in the first place.

  In many towns, the responsibility for maintaining cemeteries has fallen on churches, local civic groups, and associations of property owners. Church-owned cemeteries often hand over the tending of the cemetery to a nearby for-profit funeral director.

  The standards of service provided by perpetual care vary from state to state, but are almost always minimal compared to the services rendered by active cemeteries or funeral parks. In most cases, perpetual-care statutes mandate that grass must be cut and rows plowed.

  There is no provision, necessarily, that the WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 221

  grass must be leveled or the grounds landscaped with plants or flowers. Nor do most states have a regulation insisting that snow be plowed away during the winter or even that the cemetery be passable for visitors. “Perpetual care” doesn’t include the maintenance of markers or memorials, either.

  One small-cemetery owner we talked to said that although the interest on his perpetual-care trust was significant (more than $10,000 annually), this money still represented less than what was needed to hire one full-time employee. How can anyone be expected to maintain a cemetery properly when the income generated by the perpetual-care trust doesn’t pay for one maintenance worker?

  222 / DAVID FELDMAN

  What Is the Purpose of the Pinholes Around the Sides of Screw Caps on Soft-Drink Bottles?

  The sole purpose of these holes is to vent the pressure from the bottle when it is opened. As the cap is unscrewed, it is important to release this “head space” pressure as fast as possible; without these tiny holes, there would be a danger of the cap flying off. Anyone who has ever been hit by an errant champagne cork will applaud this safety feature.

  Submitted by Henry J. Stark, of Montgomery, New York.

  Why Are Military Medals Worn on the Left?

  Military historians generally trace the custom of wearing military decorations on the left breast to the Crusaders, who wore the badge of honor over the heart. Whether this spot was chosen for its sym-bolic purpose or to use the badge as a shield for the heart is unclear.

  We do know that the Crusaders carried their shields in their left hands, freeing the right hand for manipulating a we
apon. (This poses an ancient Imponderable: did left-handed Crusaders carry their shield in their right hand, exposing their heart to the enemy?) Military decorations are a relatively recent phenomenon and were originally worn at the neck or from a sash. According WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 223

  to S. G. Yasnitsky, of the Orders and Medals Society of America, the practice changed in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

  During the Napoleonic campaigns, many awards were given to and by the different governments that participated in these wars. More and more orders were created for the lower classes, as well as medals given to all classes of the military and civil participants, with the proviso that they were to be worn “from the buttonhole.”

  Many fighting alliances between countries were forged during the Napoleonic period, and decorations were exchanged frequently.

  Medal inflation was rampant. A good soldier could expect to be decorated not only by his own country but by an ally or two as well.

  Buttonholes were bursting. Only tailors were happy. What could be done about this crisis?

  As Yasnitsky told us:

  Common sense prevailed. No one wanted to hide his gorgeous accumulation of gold and enameled awards, so several methods were tried out. Some had their jewelers make smaller copies of these medals, so that they would all fit into one prescribed space on their uniforms. Others—and this became the more popular method—would display their own country’s decoration from the buttonhole, but mount the other awards so that they extended in a line from that buttonhole, from left to right.

  Why Do Bicycle Tires Go Flat When the Bike Isn’t Used for Long Periods of Time?

  When spring beckons, we go down to the basement, looking for our trusty, rusty bicycle, which we haven’t used since autumn. More often than not, we find two flat tires. Why?

  224 / DAVID FELDMAN

  1. Air escapes from the valve stem. Although a valve stem cover will help reduce the outflow, nothing can prevent leakage completely.

  As K. L. Campbell, of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, explained,

  “No materials are completely impervious to migration of gases (such as air) through them when there is a pressure differential between the inside and the outside. The bigger the pressure differential, the faster the migration.” The typical automobile tire will lose from one-half pound to one pound of air pressure per month, even when in regular use.

  2. Inner tubes of bicycles are more porous than auto tires. No inner tube can be made totally airtight. Butyl rubber, the best type of material for reducing leaks in inner tubes, is the most impermeable rubberlike substance available (car tires are made with a butyl inner liner). Less expensive, nonbutyl rubber inner tubes tend to leak even more.

  3. The actual volume of air in a bicycle tire is quite small. There might be about a pint of air at sixty pounds per square inch (psi) in a typical bicycle tire, compared to five gallons of air at thirty-five psi, in an auto tire. A small loss of air volume in a bicycle tire thus affects the bike tire much more than it would affect the auto tire.

  4. Bike tires typically require about twice the air pressure of car tires, making it much harder for them to maintain high air pressure.

  5. Tire pressure lowers as the temperature goes down. This demonstrates Amonton’s law, which postulates that for a body of ideal gas at constant temperature, the volume is inversely proportional to the pressure.

  6. Bikes contain more structural hazards to tires than cars do. To quote Huffy Corporation’s manager of marketing research, Robert J. Fink, “A bike wheel provides thirty-six opportunities to cause

  ‘pinholes’ via the spokes and nipples. Car wheels do not (usually) have spokes.”

  7. Leaks in auto tires are much less noticeable than bicycle leaks.

  With a naked eye or even a good kick or squeeze, we could WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 225

  never detect the usual one pound per month loss of air pressure.

  Why not? The sheer bulk of the car tire itself, primarily, for auto tires consist of many ply layers (actually, layers of rubberized fabric surrounded by a belt topped off with tread rubber). A bicycle tire is usually one layer of tread with an inner tube. The heavier bead of the auto tire, along with its solid rims, lack of spokes, and much lower air pressure all conspire to make the contrast between a level of thirty psi and a level of thirty-five psi visually and tactilely indis-tinguishable.

  The bike industry has tried to reduce the leakage problems by introducing plastic tires, which, though less porous, yield a stiff, shock-laden ride. Porous rubber is likely to be with us for a long, long time.

  Submitted by Pat Mooney, of Inglewood, California.

  226 / DAVID FELDMAN

  How Do They Print the “M&M” on M&M’s Chocolate Candies?

  While doing the radio promotional blitz for the first volume of Imponderables, we were inundated by questions about M&M’s. Don’t Americans have something less fattening to worry about?

  We contacted the consumer affairs division of Mars Incorporated, and although they were as helpful and friendly as could be, mere flattery, bribery, and appeals to humanitarian instincts were not sufficient to pry away a definitive answer.

  Despite wild theories to the contrary, the “M&M” is printed on each candy by machine, but the process is proprietary. The “M&M”

  insignia separates the Mars product from present and future knock-offs, so the company is understandably sensitive about guarding its technological secrets. Mars did reveal that the process is similar to offset printing, from which one could infer WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 227

  that the stamper does not strike the sugar coating of the candy directly. Many pill manufacturers print their logos with a similar offset technique.

  We might as well take this opportunity to unburden our readers of some of the other weighty M&M Imponderables.

  Why Are There No Seams on M&M’s?

  M&M’s are coated by a process called “panning.” After the individual pieces of chocolate are assembled, they are placed in a revolving pan that looks like a clothes dryer. As they rotate, the chocolates are sprayed with colored sugar. Cool air is blown into the pan to harden the coating. After evaporation, an even layer of dry shell is formed. The process is repeated several times to achieve the thickness that Mars desires. No seam shows because the coating is uniform and no cutting or binding of any kind was necessary to form the shell.

  What Does M&M Stand For?

  Two names—Mars and Murrie, the head honchos at M&M Candies in the early 1940s.

  Why Are There More Brown M&M’s Than Any Other Color, and How Do They Determine the Ratio of Colors?

  M&M/Mars conducts market research to answer precisely these types of questions. Consumers have shown a consistent preference for brown M&M’s, so they predominate.

  228 / DAVID FELDMAN

  Why Did They Take Away Red M&M’s? Why Have They Put Them Back Recently?

  Red M&M’s were victims of the Red Dye No. 2 scare, and were dropped in 1976. Although Mars didn’t actually use Red Dye No.

  2 to color the red M&M’s, the company was understandably concerned that the public might be frightened. Once it decided that consumers not only would accept the red M&M’s again, but would welcome them back, Mars, Inc. complied.

  Although many people know that red M&M’s were dropped and then brought back, few realize that the mix of colors in plain M&M’s is different from the peanut version:

  Color

  Percent in Plain

  Percent in Peanut

  M&M’s

  M&M’s

  Brown

  30

  30

  Yellow

  20

  20

  Red

  20

  20

  Orange

  10

  10

  Green

  10

  20

  Tan

  10

  0

  M&M’s seem to be an endless
source of Imponderables. As soon as you answer one, another pops out. Why would consumers like more peanut greens than plain greens in the mix? Why would tan, the worthy companion of plain oranges and greens, be shunned completely by peanut buyers?

  Submitted by Gail Kessler, of Newton, Massachusetts. Thanks also to: Marley Sims, of Van Nuys, California.

  WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 229

  How Do Manufacturers Decide Whether Freezers Go on the Top or the Bottom of Refrigerators?

  Until the early 1950s, almost all freezer compartments were top-mounted. This was a logical arrangement, for the compressor of the refrigerator, the warmest single device in the appliance, was located on the bottom, furthest away from the coldest device—the freezer.

  Clearly, this was the most fuel-efficient configuration, for the refrigerator unit acted to cushion the impact of the heat transference.

  Placing the freezer next to the compressor is a little like placing an air conditioner next to the fireplace and running them both at the same time—much energy is wasted.

  Mysteriously, in the 1950s, bottom-mounted freezers became the rage. The most common rationalization for the popularity of bottom-mounts was that the freezer was used less often than the refrigerator, so it made sense to place the least used compartment in the least convenient place. A more likely explanation was that by introducing bottom-mounts, refrigerator manufacturers were able to appeal to the inherent trendiness of American consumers. Bottom-mounts made a blah appliance sexy by adding a new design element. If we bought cars with V-8 engines and huge fins that got ten miles per gallon, why not buy a refrigerator that burned electricity but showed a little panache. At their peak, bottom-mounts commanded almost 50 percent of the American refrigerator market and were clearly the premium design for those of breeding and distinction—that is, until the introduction of the side-by-side refrigerator.

  Side-by-sides quickly became the choice of all upstanding, upscale Americans and have never lost that position. Today, approximately 75 percent of all refrigerators manufactured are top-mounts; 23