Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Homemade Jar Opener
The accompanying sketch shows a handy device for turning up and unscrewing the covers on glass fruit jars. The loop is slipped over the cover and the handle turned in the direction of the arrow. To unscrew the cover, the tool is turned over and the handle turned in the opposite direction.
The Loop in the Leather Grips the Cap Tightly When the Handle is Turned as the Arrow Indicates
The loop should be just large enough to slip over the cover easily. It is made of leather and fastened to the wood handle with screws.
—Contributed by J. B. Downer, Seattle, Wash.
Excerpt from the book:
THE BOY MECHANIC - BOOK 2
1000 THINGS FOR BOYS TO DO
HOW TO CONSTRUCT DEVICES FOR WINTER SPORTS, MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA, INDOOR GAMES, REED FURNITURE, ELECTRICAL NOVELTIES, BOATS, FISHING RODS, CAMPS AND CAMP APPLIANCES, KITES AND GLIDERS, PUSHMOBILES, ROLLER COASTER, FERRIS WHEEL
AND
HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH DELIGHT EVERY BOY WITH 995 ILLUSTRATIONS
PUBLISHED 1915, BY H. H. WINDSOR CHICAGO
POPULAR MECHANICS CO. PUBLISHERS
Read more »
The Loop in the Leather Grips the Cap Tightly When the Handle is Turned as the Arrow Indicates
The loop should be just large enough to slip over the cover easily. It is made of leather and fastened to the wood handle with screws.
—Contributed by J. B. Downer, Seattle, Wash.
Excerpt from the book:
THE BOY MECHANIC - BOOK 2
1000 THINGS FOR BOYS TO DO
HOW TO CONSTRUCT DEVICES FOR WINTER SPORTS, MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA, INDOOR GAMES, REED FURNITURE, ELECTRICAL NOVELTIES, BOATS, FISHING RODS, CAMPS AND CAMP APPLIANCES, KITES AND GLIDERS, PUSHMOBILES, ROLLER COASTER, FERRIS WHEEL
AND
HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH DELIGHT EVERY BOY WITH 995 ILLUSTRATIONS
PUBLISHED 1915, BY H. H. WINDSOR CHICAGO
POPULAR MECHANICS CO. PUBLISHERS
Strings Attached
Deciding on the prime time to pick a bean pod is s tricky business. Leave it too late and the pod will become tough and stringy - and the reason for that is because as it grows the pod begins to prepare to shed its seeds. Members of the pea family - the leguminosae - carry their seeds in pods that naturally become brittle when they dry and ripen, when tensions developed along the suture between the two pod halves and in the pod wall eventually become so great that the pod splits open violently, hurling out the seeds. Plant breeders have worked hard to breed this trait out of legume crops, but species like runner bean still produce long strands of woody, lignified cells in their pod walls as they ripen. In this fluorescence micrograph, showing a cross section of the upper suture of a developing pod, the bright yellow arcs of cells at the top are the strings that you need to strip out of the pod before you eat and cook it if youve left it too long before harvest. The yellow cells just creeping into the picture at bottom left belong to the parchment layer that develops in the pod wall. Together, these thock-walled cells develop the tensions in the pod as it dries that will eventually split it open along its longitudinal sutures and release the seeds.
Reading Now
Currently,I have been reading Chemical Equations from Chemistry (That is what we have in Syllabus) and the only part it is confusing is the state of the products formed. For eg. MgO (Solid) + H2O(Liquid) = Mg(OH)2 (Solid) whereas CaO(Solid) + H2O(Liquid) = Ca(OH)2 (Aqueous). In Physics,we are having Electricity this time and its good but again,its confusing sometimes about calculating equivalent resistances by looking at the given figures,I mean its sometimes confusing to understand where the Current Path gets divided. In Biology,we have Life Processes (Digestion,Nutrition etc.). In Maths,we have Real Numbers,Polynomials and Linear Equations in Two Variables - The last one has so much and so much of Algebra (Oh so happy about that).And so,let me go and read,the first part of the session is very tough.Ill have to try.
DID YOU KNOW
1. Neither letter b nor c appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to
999,999,999.
(Letter b comes for the first time in Billion.)
2. Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins.
3.The pupil of an octopus eye is rectangular.
4.There are 31 billion searches on Google every month.
5.111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321.
6. The thing responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the
mosquito.
7.The " typewriter " is the longest word that can be made using the letters
only on one row of the keyboard.
8. The Vatican is the worlds smallest country, at 0.16 square miles.
9. Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.
10. All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus.
It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
11 . Our eyes are always the same size from birth.
12. The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.
Read more »
999,999,999.
(Letter b comes for the first time in Billion.)
2. Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins.
3.The pupil of an octopus eye is rectangular.
4.There are 31 billion searches on Google every month.
5.111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321.
6. The thing responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the
mosquito.
7.The " typewriter " is the longest word that can be made using the letters
only on one row of the keyboard.
8. The Vatican is the worlds smallest country, at 0.16 square miles.
9. Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.
10. All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus.
It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
11 . Our eyes are always the same size from birth.
12. The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.
Plant Cuticles
The surface of plants (with a few exceptions, such as those that live submerged under water) is covered with a tough, transparent, waxy layer called the cuticle, composed of cutin secreted by the layer of epidermal cells that it covers. The best way to see the cuticle is to snap the leaf of a drought-adapted succulent plant like Crassula ovata and pull one part of the leaf against the other, peeling away the cuticle, which covers the above ground parts like a wrapping of cling-film.
These cuticular peels, often with a single layer of epidermal cells attached, can be mounted on a microscope slide .....
..... and viewed to reveal the pattern of cells and the .....
...... stomata, which allow carbon dioxide to enter for photosynthesis. The two images above are of cuticular peels of spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana.
In this vertical section of a leaf, stained with fluorescent dyes, the cuticle appears as the bright yellow layer on top of the epidermal cells. In the centre you can see a single stoma in vertical section, with closed guard cells and its adjacent subsidiary cells, with a sub-stomatal cavity below leading to the loosely packed mesophyll cells, where photosynthesis takes place. The cuticle has a dual function - keeping water in and keeping the leaf surface dry.
In plants adapted to arid conditions (xerophytes), like this Aloe variegata , the cuticle is visible as an extremely thick transparent layer that allows very little water to escape from the leaf.
In plants that are subjected to frequent rainfall, like this nasturtium Tropaeolum majus leaf, fine grooves in the cuticle surface trap air below the water droplets, which then round-up under their own surface tension and simply roll off the leaf when it shakes in the wind. This is vital, as a wet leaf surface blocks stomata and prevents carbon dioxide from entering, slowing down photosynthesis. As the water rolls off the leaf it carries away dirt and dust, so the leaf cuticle is effectively a self-cleaning surface - a phenomenon known as the lotus effect, referring to the extremely hydrophobic self-cleaning leaves of sacred lotus. The silvery area under the central water droplet in the image above is caused by minute air bubbles, trapped between the water and the leaf surface.
The cuticle can also have a secondary defensive role, as seen in this painfully prickly leaf of the hedgehog holly Ilex aquifolium ferox, which is covered in cuticular spines. In general, leaves of evergreens, that survive for several years before they are shed, tend to have thick cuticles that protect the leaf against herbivore attack throughout their extended life.
Snail Eggs
Some of our project students have been working on the feeding habits of garden snails Helix aspersa and one of our postgrads, Chantelle Kerr, drew my attention to the fact that some of their snails had been laying eggs in the tanks where we were keeping them. I was hoping to see some signs of the developing embryos when I took a look at these under the microscope, but the eggs were disappointingly cloudy. But then, on closer examination, the cloudiness turned out to be something rather interesting. Take a look at the eggs on the microscope slide above and you can just about see clusters of white specks inside them (double click for a larger image), especially in the two at the back.
These turned out to be vast numbers of calcium carbonate crystals, embedded in the outer gelatinous egg capsule. The purple background colour is the result of using a colour filter to improve the contrast - not the real colour of the egg interior, which is colourless.
At higher magnification you can see that some crystals are simple cubes, while others are aggregated together. What are they for? Well, a quick search of the web reveals that the embryonic snails use this store of calcium to produce their first shell - the parent snail provides them with a supply of building materials for a shell when it lays the egg. You can read more about the chemistry of snail shells by visiting the excellent Snails Tales blog.
All That Comes To Mind 2
As declared in the blog,I am going to share my personal feelings in a slightly covered up way in All That Comes To Mind series of posts.So,it was quite a hard-working day today and if I am asked to catch up memories of Leisure this weekend,it was yesterday when I watched the animation movie Up (I am going to review this soon.) and I loved it.Though it was purely unscientific almost in every part of it,the emotions were nicely thought of and presented in a truly artistic way.Usually,I stay away from what they call Romantic Movies - the concept turns out a bit irritating to me.Its like,a boy meets a girl and then they suddenly get chased by Martians or gangsters (doesnt matter the former or latter) and they get lost somewhere and have to cling to each other all the time.I like realistic movies,but if I am asked to go psychedelic or fictional,I would readily agree.But this is neither fictional,nor psychedelic - this is STUPID.Coming back to Up, I quite loved the way how the romantic things between Carl and Ellie have been captured.The entire movie was based on their relationship,Carls love for Ellie,their sorrows and smiles and emotions and sharing it all;rather the memories of it all.So,even people who do not like Romantic Movies have to love this.And about FIFA World Cup,I want to see two things - the Referees who conducted the matches between Nigeria and France sent to jail.They kicked Nigerian players,threw them to the ground and whatever wrong things they did,the referee kept observing and did not show the littlest honesty anytime.He did not even show an yellow card to those idiots from the French team.I want them to go to exile and I mean it.The other thing is the Colombian player who hit Neymar. I want that creature in jail. Its raining here quite well and almost everyday and the scenic beauty along with the feeling that comes with the calm,refreshed environment is amazing.Loved to share it all.Thanks for reading the blog.
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