Rasky's
KID'S FACTS
Did You Know About Pencils
A ferrule is the little crimped metal on the end of the pencil that holds the eraser
Philadelphian, Hyman Lipman, is credited for attaching erasers to pencils in 1858
Per the Incense Cedar Institute, erasers were originally calle rubbers because they rubbed out marks made by a pencil
Erasers are made from vinyl or rubber and, to their manufacturers, are known as plugs when they sit on the end of a pencil
95 percent of the pencils sold in the United States are yellow
In the 1880's, the best graphite came from China
Because yellow is associated in China with respect, American pencil manufacturers decided to use yellow to let the world know its pencils were filled with regal Chinese
There is no lead in a lead pencil. It is graphite and clay
Graphite came into widespread use in the 16th century
This soft but brittle substance was first wrapped in string to make pencils
Eventually it was slipped into a han-bored tube inside wooden sticks
Pencils are usually made from cedar cut into blocks and then slats
The slats are stained and grooves are cut into one surface
Prepared leads--they are graphite and clay but are still called leads--are placed in the grooves
A second slat is placed on the top and bonded with the first
This pencil sandwich is milled and sparated into individual pencils
Finishing touches--paint, erasers, etc.--are added
One pencil can write 45,000 words
Pencils come from the Latin ~penicillum~, a paint brush
Approximately 110 million gross of pencils are manufactured every year
in the world
A gross equals 144--math majors start multiplying
Grapes O f Wrath author John Steinbeck used as many as 60 cedar pencils
every day
Thomas Edison kept a 3-inch pencil in his vest pocket to jot down ideas
Pencils made from tropical rain forest wood have a brownish color with
little red or dark brown flecks
A typical pencil can draw a line 35 miles long
Source
Incense Cedar Iinstitute
Please Visit The Cedar Institue At
www.Pencilpages.com
Did You Know About Crayola Crayons
Teachers wanted better materials--espescially a chalk that would not crumble and create clouds of dust
Cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith who were the heads of Peekskill Chemical in New York had just developed a new wax crayon to mark crates and barrels
They eould soon corner the student market
In 1903, the 5-cent box of crayons--nontoxic and encased in hand-rolled labels--hit the market
Alice Binney combined the French word craie--chalk-- with ola--oleaginous--because the crayons were made from petroleum based paraffin --to coin the name crayon
Crayolas are availible in 120 colors, including 20 blues, 19 greens,
15 oranges and 13 purples
If all the Crayolas made in one year, 3 billion, were laid end to end on the
equator, they would circle the Earth six times, just before melting
The average child will wear down 730 crayons by their 10th birthday
The first box of crayons contained the same colors in the eight-count box today
Red
Blue
Yellow
Green
Violet
Orange
Black
And Brown
Source-BinneySmith
Elmers Glue
Who was Elmer?
He is Elsie--the Borden symbol--the cow's husband and the name of the glue that has been on school desks since 1947
At that time, the white glue was called Cascorez Glue and was packaged in glass bottles with "ice cream pop" type wooden sticks attached with a rubber band
But Cascorez was not a catchy enough brand name
So came Elmer, Spokesbull and Elmer's Glue All
More than 47 million elementary school students use Elmer's Glue on a weekly basis
Elmer's Glue is white because of the natural reaction of the raw materials used to make the glue
Elmer's Glue was used to build a pasta bridge supporting 2350 pounds
The bridge was built by a high-school student
It was the winning entry in a pasta-bridge building contest held in Rhode Island
The strength of the glue bond is due to the attachment of the polymer adhesive to the surface of the piece to be glued
Source
Elmer's Products Inc.
Top Reasons For Not Handing In HomeWork On Time
1----My pet ate it
2----My sister could not find her same assignment from last year
3----It's in my aunt's boyfriend's truck
4----It's in my aunt's boyfriend's truck, and he just sold it
5----The family printer didn't work
6----My mom's computer is not compatible with my dad's computer
7----I pushed "save," but the computer didn't save it
8----I gave it to (fill in the blank) to hand in, and they didn't do it
9----I had it in my hand, but I left it in the bathroom
10--My Mom is reading the book
11--My Dad tore it up because it did not look important
12--It fell out of my binder
13--We had to go out to eat
14--I did not have a pencil at home
15--It has been recycled
16--It blew away
Marbles
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise
Or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other
What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time
Let me tell you about it
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net
Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice
You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business
He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles"
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job
I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much
Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet
Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital"
He continued,
"Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities"
And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles"
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic
The average person lives about seventy-five years
I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years"
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime
Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part"
"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on
"By that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays
I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five
I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy"
"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had
I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles
I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away"
"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life
There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight"
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast
This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container
I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time
And the one thing we can all use is a little more time"
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band
75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off
I guess he gave us all a lot to think about
I had planned to work on the antenna that morning
Then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss
"C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast"
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile
"Oh, nothing special
It's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids
Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?
I need to buy some marbles
Author Unknown
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