Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SPUD WRENCH

Did you know... Wrenches get the best nicknames out of virtually any tool.

 

Casual home improvement projects don’t usually call for a spud wrench, a tool that turns fasteners on one end and features a long, tapered spike on the other. It’s a curious design, albeit one that still occupies the equipment collection of specialty workers. In the tradition of many other wrenches—the monkey wrench, the Allen wrench, and the Crescent wrench—it also sports a strange name. So why is it called a “spud wrench”? And what exactly is it used for?

 

The Origin of Spud Wrench
The Oxford English Dictionary’s first citation for the term spud wrench in print occurred in 1939 (though we were able to actually date a reference back to 1906). Per the OED, a book with the high-octane title of Steam and Hot Water Fitting described the spud wrench as “another handy tool … made to fit the spuds of the different sizes of the union radiator valves and traps.” In this instance, spud appears to refer to a plumbing component, hence the need for a specialty wrench.

 

Another OED citation, this one coming in 1960, provides a different perspective with some regrettable language. The wrench “is so called because the handle is formed into a long, heavy pin (or spud) that is thrust through and used by the erection men for matching up holes in connections to be fastened together.”

 

 

In one case, the spud is a part. In the latter, it’s the handle itself—a piercing tool used by “erection men” to line up holes in steelwork so that a bolt or other securing hardware can be threaded through. But the OED omits any etymology for the term.

 

One possible explanation comes with the slang term for food. Spud was used to describe a potato as far back as the 1800s. The tool used to uproot the potato was also known as a spud. The most likely explanation is that a spud wrench may have reminded someone of such a tool, though its purpose was to align holes, not to be used for farming work.

 

Why People Reach for a Spud Wrench
The spud wrench grew popular with the growth of high-rise construction in the 20th century when workers had to secure iron or steel beams and girders and needed a tool that could perform several functions at once. The tool became known as an ironworker’s spud wrench for this reason, though it also had applications in automotive assembly. The appeal was in the versatility: Line up two holes with the tapered end, then flip it to use the wrench to secure a bolt.

 

But the wrench isn’t relegated strictly to steelwork. As the OED noted, plumbers use a spud wrench to loosen specific components (bolts, collars) in older toilets, which connect the toilet with the refill water tank. This version of the spud wrench, however, is considerably different in design than the construction spud wrench, with two adjustable heads meant to circumvent the tight space of plumbing fasteners.

 

 

Spud wrenches are still part of the ironworker’s tool belt. They’re emblematic enough of the trade that in 2003, a gathering of workers involved a spud wrench tossing competition in which players scored points by landing the wrench’s spiked end on a bull’s eye 25 feet away.

 

Tossing, dropping, or otherwise mishandling a heavy tool of impalement can have consequences. In 1979, a Missourian worker named Al Shaw was sitting on a beam when a spud wrench fell 125 feet, plunging into his back. It missed his spinal column by just 2 inches.

 

 

Source: Why Is It Called a “Spud Wrench”?

Edited Tuesday at 02:08 PM by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NORTH ALWAYS AT THE TOP ON MAP

Did you know.... If anyone is responsible for modern maps’ northward focus, it’s Claudius Ptolemy.

 

North doesn’t always mean “up” when it comes to geophysics. Scientists have known for decades that magnetic north, a spot once located in Arctic Canada, is moving toward Siberia. And magnetic north is different from geographic north, a place where all the meridians of longitude intersect in the Northern Hemisphere. But even these facts don't quite explain why modern maps always feature north at the top.

 

There’s nothing inherently upward about north. Some ancient Egyptian maps put south on top; in medieval Europe, Christian cartographers tended to give that distinction to east, since you had to turn that way to face Jerusalem. Others placed east on top because of the rising sun (that’s why we “orient” ourselves). And early American settlers sometimes used maps with west on top, because that was the direction they often traveled.

 

 

If anyone is responsible for maps’ northward focus, it’s Claudius Ptolemy. His Geographia, written in the 2nd century CE, featured a map of the known world with north on top. Why he positioned it that way is not clear, but it may be that the Library of Alexandria, where he did his research, just didn’t have much information on the Southern Hemisphere. Renaissance scholars revived Ptolemy’s work, and by then, the phenomenon of magnetic north had been discovered, making his layout even more appealing to mapmakers.

 

The magnetic north pole, however, was not located until 1831. On an otherwise disastrous expedition to Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage, British explorer James Clark Ross discovered the pole—the spot where a compass needle on a horizontal axis points straight down—on the west coast of Canada's Boothia peninsula. "I must leave it to others to imagine the elation of mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition," Ross wrote. "Nothing now remained for us but to return home and be happy for the rest of our days."

 

 

Source: Why is North Always At the Top on a Map?

Edited yesterday at 02:35 PM by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NEW COLOR

Did you know.... If you’ve never heard of olo, there’s a good reason for that: You’ve almost certainly never seen it either. The new color, described as a “blue-green of unprecedented saturation,” has been seen by only five people in a laboratory setting, as it’s beyond the range of normal human visibility. Researchers discovered the teal-like hue by stimulating the M cone in subjects’ retinas with a laser device called an Oz, which allowed them to see a color said to be more saturated than any found in the natural world. 

 

The retina has three cones — L detects long wavelengths, M detects medium wavelengths, and S detects short wavelengths — that typically overlap to a certain degree. By using the Oz, scientists were able to activate the M cone in isolation, making it possible to see a color never perceived by humans before.

 

“It was jaw-dropping. It’s incredibly saturated,” said Ren Ng, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, who both co-authored and participated in the study, in an interview with The Guardian. “We predicted from the beginning that it would look like an unprecedented color signal, but we didn’t know what the brain would do with it.” 

 

Researchers believe, or at least hope, that the science that enabled the participants to see olo could one day help people with red-green colorblindness experience the full spectrum of color.

 

 

Source: Scientists have discovered a new color only five people have seen.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SAYINGS

Did you know.... The phrase‘s history traces back to knights, duels, and a battle for honor.

 

The phrase throw down the gauntlet isn’t reserved for life-or-death challenges today. However, someone who did this in the 16th century wasn‘t playing around. To understand why knights were tossing gloves around, we need to trace the origins of the idiom back hundreds of years.

 

The earliest known use of the word gauntlet (borrowed from the French term gantelet) was in the Middle English period, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was around 1420 when John Lydgate, a poet and prior of Hatfield Regis, wrote it in his work.

 

Gauntlets were armored gloves originally designed for battle, and they eventually became the key component of a loaded, symbolic gesture. History says that the phrase throw down the gauntlet refers to someone—most likely a medieval knight—throwing down a gauntlet at an opponent’s feet, indicating they wanted to duel. The person on the receiving end was usually expected to take on the challenge by “taking up the gauntlet,” otherwise they’d be dishonored.    

 

When steel armor lost popularity, the meaning of the word gauntlet changed. The name came to describe any heavy, durable glove with a protective cuff that covered the wrists. Gauntlet challenges ended when duels fell out of favor in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. Now, throw down the gauntlet doesn’t always refer to physical altercations. It can apply to any situation where someone presents a challenge or shows they’re ready for a fight—even an intellectual one.

 

The medieval term for a protective glove also appears in the less-common phrase run the gauntlet. This derives from the English word gantlope, which originated with the Swedish gatlopp (a combination of gata, meaning “road,” and lop, meaning “course”). It referred to a military punishment where a person had to walk between two rows of armed men who swung at them with clubs or other weapons. Like throw down the gauntlet, run the gauntlet is related to a challenge or trial a person has to endure.

 

Source: Why Do We Say “Throw Down the Gauntlet”?