Why do Clocks run clockwise? (13 page)

All bets are off, however, if sugar is dissolved in water. The more dilute the sugar solution, the more likely yeasts and molds will thrive in it. Even exposure to high humidity for a few days will allow sugar to absorb enough moisture to promote spoilage and mold.

Storing sugar in an airtight container will retard the absorption of moisture even in humid conditions. If stored in an atmosphere unaffected by swings in temperature and humidity, sugar retains its 0.02 percent moisture level and has an unlimited shelf life.

Submitted by Joel Kuni, of Kirkland, Washington
.

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Why Do Nurses Wear White? Why Do Surgeons
Wear Blue or Green When Operating?

Florence Nightingale always wore a white uniform. White, of course, is a symbol of purity, and in the case of a nurse, an appropriate and practical one—white quickly shows any dirtiness.

Surgeons also wore white until 1914, when a surgeon decided that red blood against a white uniform was rather repulsive and needlessly graphic. The spinach green color he chose to replace it helped neutralize the bright red.

At the end of World War II, the lighting was changed in operating rooms, and most surgeons switched to a color called “misty green.”

Since about 1960, most surgeons have used a color called “seal blue,” which contains a lot of gray. Why this latest switch? According to Bernard Lepper, of the Career Apparel Institute of New York City, seal blue shows up better on the TV monitors used to demonstrate surgical techniques to medical students.

Submitted by Norman J. Sanchez, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Thanks also to: Lori Bending, of Des Plaines, Illinois; Andrew
Neiman, of Dallas, Texas; and Reverend Ken Vogler, of Jeffersonville, Indiana
.

86 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Doesn’t a “Two-by-Four” Measure Two Inches
by Four Inches?

Before the invention of mass-scale surfacing equipment, most lumber was sold to the construction trade in rough form. In the “good old days,” a “two-by-four” was approximately two inches by four inches.

Even then, two inches by four inches was a rough estimate—cutting equipment trimmed too thick or too thin on occasion.

As the construction trade demanded smooth edges, surfacing machinery was created to handle the task automatically. These devices reduced the dimensions of the rough lumber by at least one-eighth of an inch in thickness and width.

The radio talk-show caller who posed this Imponderable wondered why he got gypped by buying finished “two-by-fours” that measured 1 5/8 inches thick by 3 5/8 inches wide. The answer WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 87

comes from H. M. Niebling, executive vice-president of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association, Inc.:

[After the early planers were used,] profile or “splitter” heads were developed for planers, wherein one could take a 2 × 12 rough piece and make 3 pieces of 2 × 4s in one surfacing operation

[i.e., as the lumber went through the planer it was surfaced on four sides and then, at the end of the machine, split and surfaced on the interior sides]. Unfortunately, the “kerf,” or amount of wood taken out in this splitting operation, further reduced the widths.

The size of these “kerfs,” three-eighths of an inch, didn’t allow processors to make three pieces 3 7/8 inches wide (three times 3

7/8 plus three times 3/8, to represent the “wastage” of the kerfs, equals 12¾ inches, wider than the original 12-inch rough piece).

This is why the dimensions of the finished piece were reduced to 1

5/8 inches thick by 3 5/8 inches wide.

If you think this is complicated, Niebling recounts other problems in settling the dimensions of lumber. Fresh-cut lumber is called

“green” lumber, whether or not it is actually green in color at the time. Green lumber must be dried by natural or artificial means.

When lumber dries, it shrinks and becomes stronger. Some lumbermen believed that either dry lumber should be sold smaller in size or that green lumber should be sold larger. Recounts Niebling: “The result was that 2 × 4s surfaced dry comes out at 1½ by 3½ instead of 1 5/8 by 3 7/8 . To settle the fight between green and dry producers, a green 2 × 4 is surfaced to 1 9/16 by 3 9/16 . In effect, they reduced the green size too to settle the fight.”

The lumbermen we spoke to agreed that the pint-sized two-by-fours provided the same strong foundation for houses that the rough original-sized ones would. One expert compared the purchase of a two-by-four to buying a steak. You buy a nice steak and it is trimmed with fat. Sure, the butcher will trim off the fat, but then he’ll raise the price per pound. One way or the other, you pay.

88 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Is an Acre 43,560 Square Feet?

“Acre” is an Anglo-Saxon word that means, literally, the amount of land plowable in one day. The term was used before the tenth century, the acre originally referring to the area that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in one day. The actual footage of the acre varied from region to region.

In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Edward I and Edward III tried to codify English measurements. Although the quantity of land that could be plowed in one day was obviously variable, depending upon such factors as the durability of the animals pulling the plow, the plowing equipment, and the topography of the land, there were obvious advantages to standardization. By the reign of Henry VIII, there was universal agreement that an acre should be 40 poles long by 4 poles wide (or 160 square rods). These nice round units of measurement (one rod = 16.5 feet; one pole =

one square rod), popular in agricultural societies, translate exactly to our current standard of the acre as 43,560 square feet. With modern machinery, any farmer can plow considerably more than one acre in a day, but the acre has proved to be an enduring unit of measurement.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 89

Why Do Men’s Bicycles Have a Crossbar?

We’re sure you’ll be overjoyed to learn that everyone we talked to agreed on the paramount issue: that crossbar at the top of the frame makes men’s bikes far sturdier than women’s. After centuries of experimentation, manufacturers have found that the best strength-to-weight ratio is maintained by building frames in the shape of diamonds or triangles. Without the crossbar, or as it is now called, the

“top tube,” part of the ideal diamond structure is missing.

A man’s bicycle has its top tube parallel to the ground; on a ladies’

bicycle, the top tube intersects the seat tube several inches above the crank axle. Why is the women’s top tube lower than the male’s?

The tradition is there for no other reason than to protect the dig-nity and reputations of women riding a bicycle while wearing 90 / DAVID FELDMAN

a skirt or dress. Now that most women bicyclists wear pants or fancy bicycle tights, the original purpose for the crossbar is moot, although Joe Skrivan, a product-development engineer for Huffy, points out an additional bonus of the lower top tube: it allows for easy mounting and dismounting.

Skrivan notes that the design difference creates few complaints from women. Casual women bicyclists don’t necessarily need the rigidity of the higher crossbar. Serious female bicyclists buy frames with exactly the same design as men’s.

Submitted by Linda Jackson, of Buffalo, New York
.

Why Is Royalty Referred to as “Blue-Blooded”?

In the eighth century, a group of Islamic warriors, the Moors, in-vaded and occupied Spain. And they ruled over the country for five centuries.

This didn’t sit too well with the aristocrats of Castile, who began referring to themselves as
sangre azul
(“blue blood”) to differentiate themselves from the Moors. No, the Castilians’ blood was no different in color than the Moors, but their skin complexion was lighter than their conquerors.

The Castilian pride in their “blue blood” was a thinly veiled pro-clamation of pride in their light complexions, and a subtle way of indicating that they were not, as the
Oxford English Dictionary
puts it, “contaminated by Moorish, Jewish, or other foreign admixture.”

For the paler the complexion of the skin, the more blue the veins appear.

Submitted by Daniel A. Placko, of Chicago, Illinois
.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 91

Why Are People Immune to Their Own Body Odor?

How can so many otherwise sensitive people expose others to their body odors? Surely, they must not know that they (or their clothes) are foul-smelling, or they would do something about it. Right?

Right. Compared to most animals, humans don’t have an acutely developed sense of smell. According to Dr. Pat Barelli, secretary of the American Rhinologic Society, “The olfactory nerve easily becomes

‘fatigued’ in areas where there are odors.” In order not to be overloaded with information, your nervous system decides not to even try being “bothered” by your body odor unless it changes dramatically. Whether you regularly smell like a spring bouquet or like last night’s table scraps, you are unlikely to notice—even if you are sensitive to the body odor of other people.

Dr. Morley Kare, director of the Monell Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, adds that this fatigue principle applies to many of the senses. Workers at automobile factories must learn to block out the sounds of machinery or risk being driven insane. Residents of Hershey, Pennsylvania, stop noticing the smell of chocolate that permeates the town.

Students often can’t discriminate the taste of different dishes served in their school cafeteria. Of course, this phenomenon might be explained by the fact that all the cafeteria dishes
do
taste alike, but we would need a government grant to confirm the thesis.

Submitted by Karole Rathouz, of Mehlville, Missouri
.

92 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Are the Outside Edges of the Pages of Many
Paperback Books Colored?

In the early days of paperback books, the paper used was of very low quality, usually newsprint. Consumers rejected the soiled and discolored appearance of the pages. Publishers hit upon the notion of “staining,” which made the paper look fresh, even pretty, and most important, prolonged the shelf life of their books.

Some publishers used the same color stain for long periods of time, in an attempt to make their company’s product easily identifiable in the bookstore. For a long time, Dell’s paperbacks were stained blue; Bantam’s were yellow; Pocket Books favored red.

As the paper quality improved, the necessity for staining decreased.

Some publishers still stain some of their mass-market (small-sized) paperback books. Occasionally, even today, the paper quality is low, or the paper within one book varies slightly in color—staining eliminates these problems. Trade (larger-sized) paperbacks use higher-quality paper, so staining is rare. Ironically, the tradition of staining dates back to the days of Gutenberg, when Bibles were stained for aesthetic purposes. Some expensive hardcover books are stained today to add a touch of panache.

Paperback books are stained by machine after they are completely bound. The books are moved on a conveyor belt that has sides and walls to protect the books from errant ink. Two jets spray ink all over the top, bottom, and nonbound side of the paper.

The staining of hardbound books used to be done by machine, but since the practice has almost completely died out the machinery has been sold off. Today, staining of hardbounds is done by hand, with a spray gun. The books are taken off the assembly line before they are cased. Protected by backboards

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 93

and wings, the books are sprayed three at a time. The ink dries exceptionally fast.

Although staining adds some expense to the production cost, publishers must wonder: Does anyone notice? Does anybody care?

The production experts we spoke to felt that the custom of staining persisted more because of inertia than for any practical purpose.

Submitted by Pat O’Conner, of Brooklyn, New York
.