There's got to be a 3rd year undergraduate food technologist project there, hasn't there?
Or given the level of dumbing down, a PhD project.
Can we stop talking about this? I keep having to go and make toast.
Hmmm... I feel an urge to go play with the laser cutter. It can even trim the crusts off if you're that way inclined... :)
Theo
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Speaking for myself (as if otherwise ;-), I'm really not keen on damp toast. Even worse is toast that's been buttered when hot and allowed to go cold. Ugh!
them and finally forked out the massive amount of
nice enough but took up a lot of space and it drove
when you switched it on it wouldn't toast anything
minute the middle elements which were back to back
inserted at this stage was toasted on one side only.
was quickly toasted on one side and burned on the
marked with numbers (that bore no relation to any
corresponded to your preferred toastedness, advance the
dial) release it and let it TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK
heck. I couldn't hear the Today Program over the noise
control knob there was no audible signal that your
elements were turned off as the knob approached zero
seconds; for long enough to make sure that your toast
of course doesn't 'pop up'.
even this could be annoying. After a few years the
Four elements in the toaster - so you were
it going. And those elements - They were made of
probably 25 quid each by now, more than the price of a
breakfast happy, relaxed and in peace. An nice retro
adequately and when it goes phut I just buy another. Wasteful
I bought some large sheets of mica to make waveguide covers for microwave ovens. They also made great Rolf Harris wobble-boards. I don't remember them being particulaly expensive.
When I was at an age when I was trusted to use kitchen appliances all by myself I remember asking my mother how I would know when there was enough water in the kettle. She replied that I should stop filling it when it began to get heavy.
I am proud of the fact that the younger me was not happy with such a subjective test.
I don't think we can be talking about the same thing. I presumed mica was expensive but I don't know. I don't think you can get pieces of any great size, doesn't it have to be split / cleft into sheets. It used to be sometimes called isinglass and was used for little windows in boilers and stoves because it is heatproof, also early circuit boards until superceded by 'form'-mica.
Tim w
In message , Tim W writes
Isinglass is a protein made from the swim bladders of fish, used for clearing beer and wine
Mica still has plenty of industrial uses. Sheets up to 1000 x 2400 mm seem to be available:
I'd never heard it called that before, but the OED says you're right. As well as the meaning mentioned by Geoff it has:
"2. A name given to mica, from its resembling in appearance some kinds of isinglass."
Is that where "Formica" comes from (as well as being Latin for "ant")? The OED has this first citation:
"1922 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 10 Jan. 409/2 The Formica Insulation Company, Cincinnati, Ohio?Formica. Electric Insulating Compound."
+1. I like crisp dry toast. YMMV.
Formica Insulation Company, Cincinnati, Ohio Formica
FICC OF?
How confusing. I am no expert and no chemist.
I don't know where I got it from but I understood that the first application of Formica was indeed as an alternative to mica for a heatproof electrical insulating sheet. Formica is papers laminated in a resin, and formic acid is involved in the process somewhere, so called because it is the chemical ants use to sting with. It is the same plastic resin used for bakelite and melamine. But I could be wrong.
Tim W
Try urea-formaldehyde IIRC that is the resin
came along before polyesters and epoxy.
POSSIBLy coal derived. Not sure
it looks like melaime formaldehyde.
Not urea a I said
This came up across the extended family recently.
All the toasters we have which are >= 20 years old are fine (and that includes my parents' 50 year old toaster:
Anything < 20 years old has been crap. Of particular note was a John Lewis toaster and kettle bought about 18 months ago, neither of which worked due to very poor design.
Anything < 20 years old has been crap. Of particular note was a John Lewis toaster and kettle bought about 18 months ago, neither of which worked due to very poor design.
I was in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 1997 which coincided with the centenary of the arrival of the railway - Cecil Rhodes got the last 400 miles laid in
400 days! As part of the centenary the museum had a special exhibition. In one place they were showing a video about Garratt articulated locos being built by Beyer Peacock, Manchester - huge 1950s drawing office with the boss explaining that each loco type ordered was custom designed. Another display was locos on stamps, a note re one saying that thousands of this type (a Siemens IIRC) had been built and sold all round the world. It helped explain the industrial collapse of the UK.
Ah, beware of marketing speak. The small class of Rhodesian Railways class DE5 locos, with MTU engines and Siemens electrical equipment, were still a custom design, as almost all locomotives were outside the USA. They entered service in 1975, half were out of use by 1985, and all were scrapped before 1995.
The Garrats, on the other hand, were also custom built to the railway's requirements, but from a standard design kit proven over 40 years of development and experience. They remained in front line service until five years after the DE5s had been scrapped, and a few are still doing commercial work today (although admittedly those are the 1940s build rather than the 1950s !)
Nick
Amazing what you can achieve with kindness.
And I wonder how many slaves died in the process.
BTW: I eventually got a Magimix toaster. More expensive but at least it works.
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