Inventions Week! A Better Brew

Melitta Bentz was a German housewife who hated the taste of coffee.  In order to produce the java in 1908 you had 2 choices. You might dump the coffee into muslin and dunk the whole shebang into boiling water.  Or you could use the even more sophisticated 'dump the coffee directly into boiling water' method.  Either way you wound up with crunchy coffee. Melitta Bentz took action!  First she seized a pot and punched holes in the bottom.  Then she grabbed a sheet of paper, cut a circle out of it and stuffed it into the bottom of said pot.  Creating a filter.  She put dry coffee in the pot, poured boiling water over it and drank the resulting beverage.  It was good.  Melitta Benz and her husband had tin filters made, sold them, and  eventually the Melitta Company was born.  It is still in business and now sells coffee filters made from bamboo.  Ever the innovator. 

Sources:  Biography Resource Center
World of Invention

Invention Week! Iowa Inventors!

Such a cool thing.The State Library of Iowa created an Iowa Inventors Database. You can wander through the patents by keyword or location. You can find out if someone, anyone from Aurelia has patented objets d'function. Why, it turns out Aurelia is a veritable hotbed of innovation! According to the database, Frank and Irving Minor of Aurelia invented the wheel. Hmmmm... could there be a connection to Asia Minor? Or was it a specific, mysterious type of wheel? Alas, the database does not reveal those details. But we do have a patent number of 1011987 and a date of 1911. Someone out there knows. Have fun trolling the Iowa Inventors Database!

Inventions Week! Keeping it Close to the Chest

The proud people of law enforcement  are safer today because a young woman with an interest in fashion pursued a career in her other passion, chemistry. Stephanie Louise Kwolek decided to focus on fibers in her research. Circa 1964 she began to develop a fiber intended to make stronger radial tires.  Radial tires.  Hah!  Her discovery went waaaay beyond that.  It took  the form of a liquid polymer, which needs to be spun in a ... wait for it... spinneret!  The spinneret guy didn't want to put Kwolek's goop in the machine for fear of clogs(lumps, not shoes).   Eventually he was persuaded, and the fiber that resulted was so light and strong Kwolek didn't want to file her report because she could not believe it.  And then she could.  The stuff they named Kevlar is five times stronger than steel and one heck of a lot more comfortable.  So even though Dr. Kwolek did not become a fashion designer, folks are wearing her creation.

Source: Biography Resource Center as accessed through EBSCOhost

Inventions Week! Listen Up

Everybody loves a good invention.  Like the paper clip or the zipper.  Or one with a really great story behind it.    Let's have fun with inventions this week!  In 1816, young physician ReneTheophile Hyacinthe Laennec was attempting to assess the heart condition of a very large young woman.  And I don't mean tall.  The usual method, pressing his hands down on the area of the heart, was not cutting it.  Too much in between his hands and the lady's ticker. The other usual method, planting his ear in that area, was not an option for Dr. Laennec as he was uncomfortable getting that close to a young woman's bosom. 
But all was not lost!  Rene had some basic knowledge of acoustics and here's what he did:  rolled 24 sheets of paper into a tube and placed one end  against the patient's heart, the other end to his ear.  Viola!  He could now hear the heart better than he had with the direct ear method. You know, with other patients.  Less large.  He made  a more sophisticated tool out of wood and the rest of us can sit back and enjoy the application of a freezing cold piece of metal to our tender skin.  Thank you Rene.  Looks like it was a good thing for us that the young lady was large. 

Source:  Biography ReSource Center, as accessed through EBSCOhost

Wedding Etiquette - All New

I'll be attending my nephew's wedding this weekend and I'm all aflutter.  Who knows what the etiquette is for kids these days?  We RSVP'd to their Facebook page. Does Emily know about this? Which of the old stand-by's still apply?  I hope I don't do something egregiously stupid with cutlery. Fortunately both my nephew and his fiancee are just the best, and I'm pretty sure the ceremony involves real people talking with no electronic intermediary. On the other hand there will be a soundboard.  Amidst all this change, you would not believe all the Wedding Etiquette Books we have.  Go ahead. Just try to figure this out.  And if you do, tell me because I have two more weddings coming up!  Yay!

Benet's Surfed

Three things I found in Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia that I'd never heard of:

1. The Girondists. A political party circa French Revolution.  In France.  These were middle class guys who wanted the monarchy overthrown. They themselves were overthrown in June1793. Oh the i-ron-y.   p. 402 

2.  King's evil.  Scrofula was called king's evil because the British were under the impression that it could be cured by the touch of a royal personage.  This notion lasted from Edward the Confessor (1042) to Queen Anne (1702).   p.558  
By the way, "Scrofula is a tuberculous infection of the skin on the neck."*  Ick. 
3. Kulak.  A rich Russian peasant.  Soviet authorities named them for the word fist, and they didn't mean that in a good way.  The Soviets got rid of the kulaks in the 1920's so farming could be collectivized.  p. 569

Thank you, Monsieur Benét. 
Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia
*Source:  MedlinePlus

Smoooooooooooooth

I consumed my first smoothie on Monday.  Newbie that I am I had to ask what the difference was between a smoothie and a milkshake.  The owner, instead of laughing at my ignorance, kindly explained that basically the smoothie doesn't have milk products.  I started out small with just basic strawberry plus ice and, because I am oh-so-trendy, a shot of protein powder.  Vanilla protein!  Absolutely avant-garde. The smoothie was the consistency of a snow cone and the flavor was very light and clean.  Did I mention that I purchased this delight inside the Central Library?  We have a new vendor in our little restaurant, the juice bar Natural Thirst.  And everything is fresh fresh fresh.  They'll put together any flavor combinations you want, even ones that would not appeal to yours truly.  Like banana-mango which a friend of mine finds delish. These options will change with the seasons because, well, fresh fresh fresh.  You'll like it.

Natural Thirst;   Central Library, 1000 Grand Avenue 

515-309-1582
Hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays,
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Bookplates - neither for reading nor eating

Ex Libris?  Growing up, when I saw that phrase in a book I thought it was some arcane way of saying "I see you reading my book! Watch it!"  Somehow 'From the Library of" never occurred to me.   Bookplates have been around since the 15th century. You don't see them much anymore but at one time they were quite the thing. Celebrities had them custom designed!  Isadora Duncan had her very own bookplate - ID printed over 3 yellow flowers.  This charming picture is reprinted in one of our Reference Books Nothing or the Bookplate, an intriguing title.  There is some academic interest in these little works of art.  Canada’s McGill University, the Philippe Masson Ex Libris collection owns 4,500 items.  I wonder how many have swords on them.
Source:  Why bookplates speak volumes. Irish Times; 01/11/2010 as accessed through EBSCOhost
Nothing or The bookplate; with a handlist by E. Carrick. This book cannot be checked out, but you can stop in at the Central Library and take a look!

Which One is the Superhero?

The lady in the middle has a cape anyway.  Perhaps inspired by a certain superhero? Wonder Woman debuted in 1941 as the creation of William Moulton Marston.  The same William Moulton Marston who invented the lie detector.  I kid you not.  Didn't he give her a golden lariat that forces people to tell the truth?  Nice touch, William.  And here's a revolutionary concept for a comic book her message was that girls could do anything, they just needed the right training!!  Yow! And then they could work good jobs in the factories while the men went to war. Her characteristics have varied over the years, but my favorite version of Wonder Woman is the contemporary one illustrated by Alex Ross.  She is big and muscular. As befits a superhero. Help yourself to our fine selection of resources. 

The supergirls : fashion, feminism, fantasy, and the history of comic book heroine
A list of Wonder Woman Books - click on the individual title for information

Source: Superhero History: Using Comic Books to Teach U.S. History. OAH Magazine of History; Apr 2010, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p41-47 as accessed through EBSCOhost