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This is from the 'Scotsman' newspaper:-
FACT OF THE DAY
Retail (and science) history is made today in 1938 when the first product containing a type of plastic called nylon - a toothbrush - goes on sale. Later on it was to gain a far more glamorous connotation as shorthand for ladies stockings.
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Donald/Scotland
Pretty amazing! Something we take so much for granted, has such a recent history.
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Trouts don't live in ugly places
Betty,
I like the way you refer to it a "recent" history. Makes me feel younger. I guess I'm not as old as I thought. I was born in 1938.
Bob
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There is a fine line between fly fishing, and standing in the water waving a stick.
The toothbrush was invented in Millville, NJ. If it had been invented elsewere, it would probably been called a teethbrush. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
This is a good test of age for our FAOL members. If 1938 seems like recent history to you, you fall into the wading staff group of fly fishers. If 1938 seems like a fairly long time ago, you are a careful wader and seldom venture more than knee deep in fast water. If you equate 1938 with the Civil War or the fall of Troy, you wade Brad Pitt style and regularly swim major rapids to get to your fishing spot. Me, I'm in the wading staff group. 8T
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You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.
[This message has been edited by Eight Thumbs (edited 24 February 2005).]
Thanks for those kind words Betty, I feel a lot younger now.
8T,
You can also divide up the group for those who think Browns are native to North America and Bows are native east of the Rockies http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif
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Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:1a677]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:1a677]
An interesting fact about the mother of plastics. Freshly molded Nylon gains strength as it absorbs moisture!! Some processes call for sealing the part in a plastic bag with a drop of water!! It also will swell as it absorbs water.
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Cactus
P. S. The first "plastic" was a celulose derived from wood products and used in the manufacture of Billiard Balls! Hmmmm. First the Ivory Billard Ball was replaced and then along came a product to polish the Ivories!!
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Cactus
....today in 1938 I was 5 months and 3 days away from my first glimpse of daylight.....Ive
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IveofIone-Ivebrakesforlakes
I was fortunate to be instructed by a Great History Teacher (Mentor), who said "The Future is Now, the Now is Past, and the Past is History!" Amazingly they are all connected, and to understand one, you have to understand them all.
He told us to place our School History Book, in our locker, and leave it there unread until the end of the year, when we would turn it back in. Instead he taught us the true history, not the fabricated history that rewrote what was really happened.
He was a wonderful mentor, who did not teach names and events, but what was happening then, how it still effects us now. Taught us about "Cause and Effect". The behind the scene story of how other things effected other things.
Taught about lost history, and how things that have been invented, were invented previously but forgotten, because of a missing connection (that was critical for the final completion).
It was a wonderful year as we started to understand history, as living breathing people, who lived - laughed - loved -dreamed - hoped - cried! History is not just some dusty old forgotten texts, sitting on the shelf in some forgotten corner of a library. It is the life story of all who lived before us, and left their life stories, to be shared with us. To explain who we are, and where we have been, and where we are hoping to go.
~ Parnelli
PS:
The man who invented "Nylon" suffered from Severe Depression all of his life, and a few years after his discovery of Nylon, he took his own life.
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 24 February 2005).]
OK, really want to feel old? My understanding is that the first graphite fly rod was the 1973 Fenwick HMG. I'd been married for 6 years when that came out!
Ive,
If my math is correct, that means I'm two days short of a month older than you.
Bob
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There is a fine line between fly fishing, and standing in the water waving a stick.
Best thing about 1938? That is the date on Wright & Mcgill bamboo rod nickle silver reelseat "AND" I was five years old.
Parnelli, I wish I'd had YOUR history teacher.
Hi folks, RW here
1938, hmmm...two years earlier I was born...two years later my uncle Mike put a fishing rod in my hands for the first time and took me down to the local pond for a great day of gill fishing. I never looked back.
Later, RW
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"We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours." -James Leisenring on fishing the wet fly-
I can remember some kind of excitement about the nylons (stockings) and women, my mom included going nuts about them. My mother would come to me for run repairs. A dab of model airplane dope would stop a run in its tracks...Then WW2 came and nylon went to war along with Lucky Green and everything else. No more nylon for leaders, stockings or anything else around here. Ladies and girls (my sister included)would paint their legs with some kind of goop to give them a little color. We boys laughed like a bunch of jack asses but secretly we liked the effect when combined with Bobby Sox. ADMIT IT you old letchers, I did! Then, sometime later, after a bunch of partisans had hung Mussolini up by his toes and Hitler dropped cyanide and toped it off with a slug to his head, even killed his poor pooch (the SOB). Anyhow after the war, Nylons came back accompanied by riots, black eyes and bloody noses at the hosiery counters of the nations most prestigious department stores. Did the women get pretty rough trying to secure a stupid pair of nylons? Noooooo they had the comon sense to send their husbands, boyfriends, and sons to do the dirty work. Lines of gentlemen stood for hours... getting more restless and red eyed every minute. Then things got a little violent and a few shoves were followed by fistacuffs, breaking glass and shouts of kill the bast..... Some marines at the back of the line about a block away and just back from the pacific were planning an all out frontal attack on the counter. The poor sales girls were hardly able to move due to out and out horror. All I could think was what the hell am I doing here...I've successfuly dodged the war in the Pacific by being too young. Now I'm going to be overrun and killed by a bunch of home grown terrorists in a department store? Dang, I was saved by the alomic bomb along with millions of other kids my age and millions of japanese as well and its all come down to this?. A Ranger on crutches and his head in bandages turned and said "don't worry kid, This is good training...worse than anything I saw in France.
Ol' Bill