Bitter Grounds Magazine
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New Articles from History of tech
Holidays, cranberries & 1 patent to put ridges on the jelly
Holidays equal cranberries. And what holiday meal is complete without a feeding of freshly cooked cranberry sauce. In my family, cranberry sauce was home-made, starting with raw cranberries. Put them on to boil, add some sugar and serve. Nothing is easier. I like to...
Doping & 1 scarce Royal Flying Corps manual
Today, we’re going to look at doping. No, no, not that kind, the aviation kind. Early airplanes were made of cloth pulled taut over a wood frame. To protect the wood, and create a streamlined body, the material was covered in something called dope, a liquid designed...
The Pringles can, 1 patent & a new design
Pringles cans have been in the news lately so I thought I'd look up the original patent for the container. Along the way, I learned a few interesting things about the can, Pringles and their “hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped potato chips”, or as the rest of us describe it...
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NASA patents & technical drawing bonanza
I’ve been rooting around looking for something interesting to explore and came across NASA Patents of Apollo Drawings and Technical Drawings page. I was looking for a couple of space-related patents and started with NASA's website to see if I could narrow down...
We were promised magnificent flying cars
I know I promised irradiated feet, but I couldn’t pass up the Edsel of flying cars. Take a moment to appreciate the breathtaking fins on this: Every time I look at the drawing, I think it needs to be a deep cherry red with chrome so bright you need sunglasses to...
The unmitigated terror of lawn darts – why they were banned
Are you old enough to remember being terrified of being skewered by lawn darts? You know, those metal pointed, weighted darts that look like miniature javelins with fins? In any other dimension, they’d be treated as a weapon, not a game for children. I’m periodically...
You knew I’d get around to litter boxes eventually
You just knew I was going to get around to litter boxes eventually, didn’t you? It was inevitable I’d start poking around patent archives to see what was out there. Colour me surprised – there are a LOT of patents for various cat litterbox designs. Everything from...
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