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From the late nineteenth century until just after the second world war, the Philadelphia based North Brothers company produced a line of very high quality tools based on a push to spin mechanism. (North Bros was an established company before they licensed the patents of Maine native Zachary T. Furbish, and produced many other quality tools like eggbeater drills, breast drills, braces, even ice tongs.)

In nineteen-fourty-six Stanley purchased the North Brothers company and from here there is a gradual decline in the quality of the tools. Stanley is still today manufacturing push drills/screwdrivers bearing the Yankee name — but only in England. Yet for two or three times the price of a new one, a used one fifty or more years old can be found, and that older tool will outlast the newer.

In this age of cordless electric screwdrivers, some might attribute the lure of the Yankee Drill to mere antiquarianism. Those people have never compared using the North Bros tool to a modern equivilent. Firstly there is the advantage of no batteries to replace or charge, and no cord to plug in. The screwdrivers are favored still today for several reasons. Boatmakers like a tool that won’t over-torque and damage the wood, yet can also be used one-handed underwater. The drill bits have sturdy straight fluted shanks, less prone to breakage; are very easily used one handed, while one holds the piece in place; and are almost as quick as a power tool for the small hole sizes of the original bits.

It is perhaps inevitable that quality companies will not last forever, but it is comforting to know that most of the tools from North Bros were built with such skill and care that they continue to be serviceable long after their maker’s demise.

In the modern bid to find ever new ways of delivering advertising, one company has looked back in time to the Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope, and related devices. This new device, like its inspirations, uses a successions of still images viewed in a small interval of time to create the illusion of movement. The new twist here comes from the images remaining still while the viewer is moved. Most often the audience is captive and did not come for the “show”. One company bringing us this “advance” in advertising is Sidetrack Technologies, an allusion to the placement and method of animation. These are to be placed in the tunnels of BART, and similar commuter trains. They are not alone in this wave of nostaglia. Sub-Media has already installed such advertisements in New York-New Jersey PATH trains (fifteen megabyte, two and a quarter minute motion picture experts group file).

The recent posting of a antique blue light bulb originally sold as a prostate warmer on BoingBoing has prompted us to write about the choice of blue. An excellent write up is to be found in Banvard’s Folly, a book by by Paul Collins (2001, ISBN 0-312-26886-6) which has thirteen chapters devoted to big ideas that failured in one way or another. A wholely satisfying book, we found, but one chapter is particularly relevant to this electrical health gadget.

In 1861, Mr Augustus J Pleasonton made a greenhouse with some clear glass and some blue glass. After ten years, during which time he took a leave of farming to be a Civil War general, Mr. Pleasonton decided that the blue light in his greenhouse was particularly healthy to plants and young animals. He patented his use of blue light in 1871, receiving US Patent #119,242.

Then he published a book extolling the virtues of blue light which created a storm of interest. Contrary evidence was published in the late 1870s which killed the idea for a while, but every few decades it has resurfaced again. Mr John Kellogg had a version (of Kellogg’s Cereal fame) around 1890. Mr Neils Finsen had a turn of the century version. Mr Dinshah P. Ghadali had a mid-1920s variant that designed to separated fools from their money. In 1940 Mr Roland Hunt had a book published entitled The Seven Keys to Colour Healing which extended the powers of the color blue to things besides light, such as colored water.

Even today fringe elements cling to the notion that blue light is particularly healthy, such as The Owner Build Home and Homestead by Mr Ken Kern at Mother Earth News and Hemp Husbandry by Mr Robert A. Nelson at Rex Research. Both of those go so far as to cite Mr Pleasonton, to give the notion historical credence.

In 1972 in Oklo, Gabon, a uranium mine was being operated. But when was taken to be enriched, it was discovered that the U-235 to U-238 ratio was very odd. A careful examination of the mine turned up fossil evidence of several naturally occuring nuclear fission reactors. At least one of them was a fully functional breeder reactor: from the fissioning U-235 a neutron converts U-238 to U-239 which beta decays to Pu-239, and then that alpha decays to a new U-235. There is not much left to these reactors due to the mining, but there are a few remain, and number fifteen is typically described as “well preserved.” Here are a one page summary of the Oklo reactors and a more detailed discussion of Oklo. These natural reactors are not well known to the public, but well studied for insights into long term nuclear waste storage.

We remember visiting the last of the Horn and Hardarts many years ago. We would have expected these automatic resturants to have a natural appeal to the stereotypical computer user. Perhaps they are all too young to have known the Automat, however. That would explain the dearth of good websites. There is at least two worth the time to look at, though: theautomat.com with history, some photos, and information on buying automat machines; and theautomat.net which many exists to promote a book, but has some more photos.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is a small Los Angeles museum in the tradition of a late Renaissance Wunderkammern. We were alerted to it’s existence having recently read a book about this obscure institution (Mr Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler), but being no where near Los Angeles to visit the place in person, we decided to use this newfangled Internet for a deskchair tour.

Museums as we now know grew out of the personal collections of wonder inducing stuff that men of affluence collected in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These were typically a hodgepodge of art, technology, and natural items — all seen as facets of God’s wonderful creation. The MJT is such a collection, and imitates those wonder cabinets not just in scope but also in lack of fact checking. Truths, half-truths, fictions, and simply art all there to serve as an inspiration of wonder.

We regret to say that we missed Paul DeMarinis’ gallery show of Firebirds in San Francisco. These are colorful flames trapped in birdcages. If that were it, we wouldn’t have missed much. But the burners of these flames used Higgins’ Singing Flame, first reported in 1777. When a gas flame is enclosed in a tube, some complex physics goes on allowing the expanding hot air to resonate. Changes in pressure change the accoustics, and the flame is made to sing. Or in Mr. DeMarinis’ work, speak the voices of long dead dictators.

See also the chemical harmonica.