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June 9 2015 Ozark Life Publishing, LLC
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Vol 1 Issue 10
jacklb@tidbitsofnorthcentralarkansas.com
TIDBITS® VACUUMS UP
DUST
by Janet Spencer On June 8, 1869, Ives W. McGaffey patented a suction-type vacuum cleaner in Chicago, IL. Called the Whirlwind, it was difficult to use because the operator had to manually turn a crank while pushing it across the floor. Come along with Tidbits as we vacuum up the dust! UNAVOIDABLE DUST • It’s been estimated that there are over 1,500 motes of dust in a typical cubic inch (2.5 cm) of air, even air that’s considered to be ‘clean.’ Human lungs take in about 14,000 quarts (13,250 l) of air daily, and contained in those 14,000 quarts of air are about a billion and a half particles of dust. One of the major components of house dust is microscopic flakes of human skin. You inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes daily. • What is dust? It’s salt from the sea, single-celled diatoms from the oceans, forest fire smoke, volcano ash, bacteria, viruses, fungus spores, mold, pollen, and insect parts. About half of the dust that floats around in the air is a result of human activities such as agriculture, industry, and transportation. SNIGLET DEFINITION • ‘Frust’ is the small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until they finally decide to give up and sweep it under the rug. DUST AND HUMANITY • As Hannah Holmes explains in “The Secret Life of Dust” humans can’t do without dust. Cement is a mixture of rock dust and pebbles. Rock dust is used in toothpaste, talcum powder, cosmetics, and medicine tablets such as aspirin. The pencil lead is compressed graphite dust; chalk is limestone dust; bread is wheat dust; mustard is the dust of mustard seeds; cocoa is the dust of cocoa beans. • Dust has a huge amount of surface area available: you wouldn’t drop whole coffee beans into hot water; instead you add coffee dust. You don’t put a whole bar of soap into the laundry; you add soap dust. Surface area increases the amount of interaction that can take place. Sometimes that can be detrimental. GRAIN DUST • When grain is poured into a grain elevator, billions of grain dust particles fly into the air, rising into the enclosed elevator like a cloud. If the dust cloud is mixed with oxygen it becomes explosively flammable if a spark is provided. Sometimes a static electricity spark or the flipping of a light switch is all it takes to blow the roof off the grain elevator. • Between 1900 and 1955 there were around 1,000 grain dust explosions not only at grain elevators but also at malt houses and food processing plants across the U.S., killing a total of about 650 people. Similar dust explosions have happened in woodworking shops, coal dryers, fertilizer plants, cotton factories, and other industries that deal with pulverized matter. In 1998 alone there were 18 dust explosions in the U.S. • One of the biggest happened in Haysville, Kansas on June 8, 1998, when seven workers at the DeBruce Grain elevator died when something triggered an explosion of grain dust so big that houses rattled in Wichita ten miles away. It was one of the largest
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Tidbits® of North Central Arkansas (Front page continued)
1. Is the book of Luke in the Old or New Testament or neither? 2. What just and devout man held the baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph presented Him at the temple? Cyrenius, Ham, Simeon, Zara 3. Which of these books comes before the other three in the Old Testament (KJV)? Nahum, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Daniel 4. What sign sealed God’s promise not to destroy the earth ever again by a flood? Solar eclipse, Rainbow, Full moon, Ocean wave 5. From Proverbs 29, what does the fear of man bring? A snare, Redemption, Love of life, Death 6. Whose daughter found the infant Moses in the river? David, Pharaoh, Solomon, Timothy
A Note from the Publisher:
I spent over twenty minutes prone in the bedroom on the floor yesterday. Oh . . I wasn’t alone. Beside me lay Ruby. Nooo! Ruby is a four year old Golden Retriever. She was looking under the bed and whining. I strained to see what had her so disturbed. Aaah! A ball just out of her reach. Wish I could solve all of lifes problems so easily.
grain elevators in the world. The grain burned for weeks. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST • Moisture in the atmosphere condenses as it cools. However, the water must condense upon something that it can cling to. Dust serves that purpose. In air that contains absolutely no dust, droplets would simply bounce off each other and would not condense until the atmosphere reached an incredible 300% humidity. Every single drop of rain and snow that falls contains a piece of dust, so precipitation really does “clean” the air. • If there’s too much dust in the atmosphere, water droplets are divided between so many particles that none of the drops ever gets big enough to fall to the earth. A super dusty cloud can hold up to twice as much actual water as a normal cloud, but each droplet is half the normal size and no rain falls. • Huge fires such as those that sometimes burn in the tropics produce gigantic smoke plumes. Studies done by NASA showed that clouds that pass through this smoke will become super-saturated in dust and will subsequently drop far less rain than clouds that skirt the edges of the smoke. A similar study showed that when volcanoes exploded upwind of the island of Taiwan, the rainfall amounts on Taiwan dropped. This is why cloud seeding is such a tricky business. In cloud seeding, either solid particles of carbon dioxide dry ice or a fine mist of silver iodide are spread through clouds. Too much and the cloud dissipates. Just the right amount, and rain falls. NASA’S DUST COLLECTION • NASA actually keeps a Dust Library. There’s a collection of about 100,000 specks of space dust on file at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Scientists collect space dust from places such as trapped in the Antarctic ice, in the mud at the bottom of the ocean, collected by weather balloons, or gathered by spacecraft in orbit. Space dust generally clings to a magnet whereas earth dust does not, making it easy to separate and identify. PLANT STONES • If you’re a plant and you want to prevent caterpillars and other vegetarian insects from eating you, what do you do to protect yourself? Well, if you’re like most plants, you make sure there’s a hard gritty piece of stone inside each and every cell that might be eaten, making it an unpleasant meal for bugs. These microscopic stones are called phytoliths. Each of the cells in the plant’s leaves, fruit skins, or seed husks contain a tiny mineral rock, making it scratchy. This is what makes bran cereal so rough. When the plants die and deteriorate, their phytoliths are released into the air as dust. IT’S A FACT • The German word “dunst” meaning vapor gives us our word dust. • The word dirt comes the Old Norse “drit” meaning excrement. • “Manure” and “maneuver” have the same origin, the Old French word “manoeuvrer” meaning to till the soil or to work by hand. • “Bonfire” comes from “bonefire,” a fire built to cremate a dead body. • A grain of dust floating in a sunbeam is halfway in size between a sub-atomic particle and the size of the planet Earth. • When astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin returned from the moon, they dutifully declared their lunar rocks and moon dust on customs forms. • Dust storms in Arizona cause about 40 traffic accidents in a typical year. • Just when people in a Texas town met to decide the name of the city, a violent sandstorm whipped up dust in huge clouds. Taking this as a sign from God, the town was named Earth. • During medieval times, mummies found in Persia were ground into dust and sold as medicine.
1. Three players have hit 400 home runs in a Boston Red Sox uniform. Name them. 2. In 2014, Mike Zunino set a record for most home runs by a Seattle Mariners catcher (22). Who had held the mark? 3. Denver’s Peyton Manning, in 2013, became the second quarterback to be named to The Associated Press NFL All-Pro team seven times. Who was the first? 4. When was the last time that the Creighton men’s basketball team reached the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16? 5. In the 1959-60 season, Boston’s Doug Mohns became the second NHL defenseman to tally 20 goals in a season. Who was the first? 6. How many consecutive seasons has NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon captured at least one pole position? 7. When was the last time before 2015 that tennis star Roger Federer failed to reach the Australian Open semifinals in men’s singles?
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Sleep Mart
by Samantha Weaver * It was back in the 19th century that American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau made the following sage observation: “Men have become the tools of their tools.” * Clinomania is an affliction that affects a large percentage of the American population. If you suffer from an overwhelming desire to stay in bed, you’re one of us. * If you’re like most parents, at one time or another you’ve been shocked by how quickly your kids outgrow things -- especially shoes. What may be an annoyance in a developed country is a major problem in undeveloped areas of the world; Kenton Lee is working on changing that. As a volunteer in an orphanage in Kenya, he noticed that many children had the toes cut out of their shoes just so they could fit in their feet. After returning home, Lee developed an adjustable sandal that can grow with a child, increasing up to five sizes via a system of snaps. Although the shoe is only made available to nonprofits for those in need, domestic demand is increasing. If you’re a parent sick of buying seemingly endless pairs of new shoes, you’ll be glad to hear that Lee and his team are working on a commercial version.
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* You might be surprised to learn that actor David Duchovny, best known for his role in “The X-Files,” was just a dissertation away from being awarded a doctorate in English literature. * In 16th- and 17th-century Europe, it was considered fashionable to attend public dissections of human bodies. So-called anatomy days often included music, speeches and processions. Viewers could even pass around body parts for inspection, though taking the parts home was forbidden. *** Thought for the Day: “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can from a kind word alone.” -- Al Capone (c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
Ozark Outdoors O
Lifestyles & Stories...
Clark Kent
Three Generations of Springtime Harvesters Lifestyles... Stories...
Spring Fed Watercress My father, LeRoy Valentine Jones was born in Missouri in 1920. He was the son of William and Nellie Jones of Iberia, Missouri. Many folks grew up on a farm in those early days and later moved to the city for work. This isn’t really a story about my dad, but more of a fond memory about a son, daughter and grandson taking time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures taught by an awesome father that enjoyed the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Dad moved our family to Arkansas in 1971 hoping to escape the fast pace of city life and what goes with it. Wasn’t easy adjusting to the southern way of life at first but we quickly figured it out. Early morning in the hills was more of a daily vacation adventure as we followed him through the hardwoods looking for our bounty. Spring was always my favorite as dad seemed to have a built in alarm for what to gather as new life began all over. Fresh watercress was always on his list and he always knew where the best bubbling springs could be found that offered the special little plants. My sister Diane and I always had to remember our bags to bring home our tender plant cuttings for our family’s tasty salad additive that night. Making sure we soaked our natural lettuce greens to help float those little crunchy bugs away. Dad always said a few of them would really hurt you. I wasn’t totally convinced of that. Normally you want to cut the watercress before it’s white blooms begin. Cut at the waters level and not much below.
Late March and early April seemed the best time to cut watercress but it wasn’t exactly swimming weather yet. Reaching out over the water to harvest our goodies sometimes presented a challenge. Maneuvering around slippery rocks and very cold water almost always ended with someone soaked to the knees. Regardless, it remains to this day one of my most favorite memories as that tradition continues yet today. I proud of my son Jaimon, now 30 years old, he continues to gather watercress for his grandfather each spring. He has taken the lead and knows where some of the best springs are located. It brings me great pleasure to still see him excited about enjoying life’s simple treasures. Most of all I’m thankful he understands what a joy he brings to his 95 year young grandfather by doing so. I just haven’t convinced him yet that I can only use a pound or two, not a 20 lb. bag. lol Sassafras Roots Sassafras tea was another of dads early spring remedies he felt was important to partake in for thinning your blood before summer. I always loved the root beer smell of the roots. However, I remember the difficulty in gathering the roots from the ground. Dad would drive around the country roads looking along edges of woods for the medicinal plants. He always had a keen eye for it and what to look for even without the leaves on the young trees. We would suddenly stop and he would smile knowing he had scored. The choice section of the sassafras roots are found below the ground surface. I can still see the smile and excitement on dads face when he would get a long tender root coming out easily. Sometimes 2 to 3 feet long. Occasionally we would harvest a load of these medicinal roots and mail them around the country to family that weren’t able to take part in our annual ritual.
DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN READ TIDBITS EVERY WEEK ONLINE AT: www.tidbitsofnorthcentralarkansas.com Let me hear from you, kent@tidbitsofnorthcentralarkansas.com
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Tidbits® of North Central Arkansas
* On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning. Among the terms coined by Franklin are “battery,” “conductor” and “electrician.” * On June 8, 1896, President Grover Cleveland calls for an investigation into the number of “aliens,” or foreign nationals, employed in the federal government. Anti-immigrant sentiment was widespread, as immigrants were blamed for increases in crime and for driving down wages. * On June 14, 1909, folksinger Burl Ives is born in Illinois. Ives is best known for his voiceover work as Sam the Snowman in the animated Christmas special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” * On June 11, 1949, Hank Williams makes his Grand Ole Opry debut, electrifying a live audience at Ryman Auditorium that called him out for six encores. Organizers implored fans not to call him out for more so the rest of the show could go on. * On June 9, 1954, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether communism had infiltrated the U.S. armed forces. Welch’s verbal assault marked the end of McCarthy’s power during the anticommunist hysteria. * On June 13, 1971, The New York Times begins to publish parts of a top-secret Department of Defense study of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The “Pentagon Papers” indicated that the government had been lying for years about the war. * On June 12, 1987, during a speech in Berlin, President Ronald Reagan famously challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” The Berlin Wall had been erected in 1961 to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West. (c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
Weekly tips about your Pets! At Mountain Home, We proudly offer “Family Friendly ~ Pet Friendly” FREE Tidbit’s paper each week!
PAW’S CORNER By Sam Mazzotta
Pet-Friendly Plants ---
DEAR PAW’S CORNER: There is plenty of advice out there on outdoor and indoor plants that aren’t safe for your cat or dog. What plants can they be around? -Gerry H., Mobile, Alabama DEAR GERRY: There are plenty of plants, fruits and vegetables that you can grow indoors and out, without worrying that your pet will get into them. The website dogsinthegarden.com lists hundreds of plants and flowers that are safe for dogs, and even points out a few that are useful, such as varieties of squash and cucumber. Indoors, pet-friendly houseplants include bamboo, cactus, cast-iron plant and ponytail palms. So, are there plants that you want to grow but aren’t sure if they’re safe for your pets? Do your due diligence: research whether or not a specific plant is toxic to pets, what parts of it are toxic and how severe the effects can be. Grow such plants in an area that is inaccessible to your pet. For example, if you’re growing plants indoors, do so in a separate room such as a sunroom and place them in hard-to-reach hanging baskets. Keep long fronds or branches trimmed back. Outdoors, place the plants in an area that is away from your dog’s normal roaming area, or fence them off. Monitor your pets anytime they may be around plants that aren’t safe. If they ingest part of the plant, watch carefully for signs of toxicity (vomiting, drooling, lethargy or listlessness, among other symptoms). If the plants are known to be very toxic -- such as lilies, for cats -- immediately take your pet to the veterinarian without waiting for symptoms to appear. Send your questions or tips to ask@pawscorner.com. (c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
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Fishing Report, White/Norfork River Hi Gang, Fishing continues to be very good especially at and below the confluence of the Norfork and White Rivers. Many boats are reporting good numbers and quite a few big fish. We had a 27 inch Brown caught and released right in the Norfork area and several Rainbows in the 4 to 5 pound class. The water is slowly receding a bit and is clearing. The better fishing continues to be in the clear water on the East side of the river. I fly fished up river yesterday for two hours and caught about a dozen nice Rainbows while drifting a San Juan Worm with a Caddis dropper fly. All methods are working well including bait with the usual choices of Corn, Shrimp and Worms.
Rapalas, Blue Fox Spinners and Rogues are producing some big fish for the spin fishermen. Generally speaking this has been the best Spring fishing we have had in years especially for the trophy class Browns and Rainbows. Tite-Lines Nick Kopcha 314-6095507 nkopcha@centurytel.net Rose’s Resort and Full Service Trout Dock http://www.rosestroutdock.com 870-499-5311
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (870) 421-7898 AIR POLLUTION: SMOG • Long ago people in Britain used wood as fuel. When the supply of wood ran short, they began burning coal. Some coal burns fairly cleanly, but the cheapest coal does not. It smokes a lot and loads the air with sulfur. The word “smog” was invented in 1905 by a person describing the combination of fog and coal smoke over London. London smog led to one of the deadliest dust episodes in history. • On December 5, 1952, a temperature inversion moved over London. A layer of cold air was trapped by a layer of warm air which acted like a lid. Sulfurous coal soot was trapped in the air around the city. The moisture in the air condensed around the smoke particles, forming a thick fog. Visibility dropped to a few feet. The smog stung the eyes and caused skin irritation. Cattle began dropping dead of asphyxiation. People with respiratory illnesses or cardiovascular problems became seriously sick. Those suffering from bronchitis or pneumonia who might have recovered under normal conditions died instead. By the time the inversion lifted on December 9, about 4,000 people had died from breathing the highly acidic polluted fog. • As a result of the “Black Fog,” Parliament enacted the Clean Air Act in 1956, reducing the coal-burning allowed in the city. LOS ANGELES LANDSLIDE • In L.A. in 1994 earthquakes caused landslides in the area. The landslides created clouds of dust that engulfed entire towns. A few days later, people began showing up at hospitals complaining of fever, coughing, and fatigue. Over 200 people got sick. The Centers for Disease Control investigated. Mapping the location of the victims showed that they had all been in the path of the dust clouds. They had inhaled fungus spores in immense numbers, causing them to become ill. FAST FACT • Some researchers theorize that people who experience chronic sinusitis are actually suffering from their body’s auto-immune response to fungus spores in the air. ASTHMA • One study showed that kids who live on farms suffered from less asthma than kids who live in the city. A study of Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall fell found that in wealthy West Germany, asthma was common, but in impoverished East Germany it was rare. • It has long been known that asthma is far more common in wealthy developed nations than in poverty-stricken undeveloped nations. In the U.S., the number of people who suffer from asthma has grown by 50 percent per decade since 1970. Other nations such as New Zealand, Britain, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands have also experienced asthma epidemics. In fact, military records in Finland show that the number of young men with asthma has multiplied an incredible twenty times since 1960. • Why? Researchers theorize that constant exposure to dust and dirt challenges the immune system and keeps it strong. People who live in a fairly sterile environment have immune systems that get totally freaked out when hit by a load of dust they’re unfamiliar with. The immune system then goes overboard trying to fight the “invader” which it doesn’t recognize as being ordinary dust. • Nowadays kids spend most of their time indoors in front of the TV, the video game, or the computer screen in clean indoor environments where there is limited dust. In earlier days kids spent their time outdoors where they were exposed to a wide variety of dusts. Incredibly, some allergists have had success treating asthmatics with an injection of a solution of dusts reaped from vacuum cleaner bags.
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Tidbits® of North Central Arkansas
Thank a Teacher With a Painted Vase Before marriage and kids, I was a teacher in Africa. I lived in a village in the lush rain forest of the northern Ubangi region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many years have passed, so it came as a complete surprise that, while attending a conference in California, I should meet a man I recognized as my former student, Luyada. As I introduced myself to him in French, my husband, who was standing alongside me, commented, “I’m sure he doesn’t know who you are.” I translated my husband’s comments to Luyada. With a big smile on his face he exclaimed: “Madame, you never forget a teacher. A teacher is a brick who builds who you are today.” I couldn’t help but feel honored. “I’m a brick!” I repeated over and over to myself. As the school year winds down, think of the individuals who have been bricks in your child’s life. Show your appreciation with a few spring flowers arranged in a personalized vase crafted from a recycled mayonnaise or pasta-sauce jar. Remove the labels, scrub the jars sparkling clean, then grab acrylic paints or non-toxic permanent paint pens, ribbon, wire, beads or anything that catches your attention in your craft box, and you’re ready to go! Join your child in making several beautiful vases in no time flat. When complete, fill with flowers, branches and greens such as hosta leaves and herbs for fragrance from your garden, or purchase a bouquet at your grocery store or nearby florist. Here are some ideas for transforming plain glass jars into works of art: * Compose a jingle or rhyme about the person receiving the bouquet and write it on the jar with paint pens. Tie ribbon around the rim and thread a few small beads near the ends of the ribbon to dangle on the jar. * Use acrylic paints to paint designs or images of your teachers’ favorite things. * Find a tall, narrow jar such as an oliveoil jar for a sleek and contemporary arrangement. Simply write a thank-you greeting directly on the bottle with paint pens, and then finish it off with copper wire twisted around the neck of the bottle several times. Arrange a curly willow branch and two or three flowers in the modern vase. *** Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www. donnasday.com and link to the NEW Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.” (c) 2015 Donna Erickson Distributed by King Features Synd.
1. Name the solo artist who had a solo hit with “Sunshine.” 2. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is the signature song of which duo? 3. Which country artist released “He’ll Have to Go” in 1959? 4. Where did the lyrics come from for “Turn, Turn, Turn”? 5. Name the song that contains this lyric: “Well I learned how to love, Even learned how to lie, So you think I could learn, How to tell you goodbye.” Answers 1. Jonathan Edwards, in 1971. Despite having only the one hit, Edwards has been busy all these years collaborating with other artists, opening shows, doing session work and touring. 2. Simon and Garfunkel, in 1970. The song won five Grammys. 3. Jim Reeves. The song stayed at No. 11 for a whopping 14 weeks. 4. The Bible -- Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes. 5. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Neil Diamond (1977) and Barbra Streisand (1978). A radio station program director spliced together the two solo versions as a present for his wife, whom he had just divorced, and played it on the air. The media response was such that the record company brought Streisand and Diamond back to the studio to record a duet. (c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (870) 421-7898 Noteworthy Inventions
QUIZ: VACUUM INVENTORS • In 1907 Murray Spangler was trying to make a living as an inventor. To make ends meet, he worked nights as a janitor in a department store in Canton, Ohio. Spangler’s asthma acted up every time he cleaned the store’s rugs with a broom because he was allergic to the dust. He had seen suction sweepers but they were awkward and often ineffective. He knew there had to be a better way. • Using a tin soap box, an electric fan, a rotating brush, a pillow case, and a broom handle, he put together a contraption. He showed it to his cousin, Susan. She used it in her home and raved about it to her husband, who everyone called Boss. • Boss owned a leather goods manufacturing shop but he was so interested in the invention that he bought Spangler’s patent, hired him as a partner, and soon had six employees making suction sweepers in the corner of his shop. • Boss placed an ad in the “Saturday Evening Post” giving ten days free use of a Suction Sweeper to anyone who wrote with a request. Rather than simply mailing them a sweeper, he sent the customers to local stores that had agreed to become dealers. In short order he had a nationwide network of dealers as well as teams of salesmen who went door-to-door demonstrating the product, ensuring that the vacuum cleaners soon became a standard household item. • The vacuum company, named after Boss’s last name, is one of the top vacuum manufacturers in the world today. What company is it? Answer below. FACT • The average carpet will harbor anywhere between three tablespoons and three cups of dust and dirt per square yard. IT’S A FACT • In the early days of vacuum cleaners, Hoover salesmen were required to make 15 sales calls each week. In 1922, there were 748 salesmen making a total of 549,780 sales calls that year. 31% of people pitched bought the product. CLEANING UP • Melville and Anna Bissell owned a crockery and china shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the late 1800s. Melville had allergies and Anna did her best to keep their store dust-free. But there was a lot of sawdust in the shop and it clung to the carpets on the floor. In frustration, Anna asked Melville if he couldn’t come up with an invention to keep their carpets cleaner. • In 1876, Melville Bissell patented the Bissell Carpet Sweeper. Although there were already carpet sweepers on the market, Bissell’s model was light and easy to use, it worked on uneven floors, and it picked up dirt without creating a cloud of dust. Bissell Carpet Sweepers proved to be so popular that by 1883 Melville and Anna had given up their crockery shop and gone into the carpet sweeper business full time. • When Melville died in 1889, Anna took over the business until her death in 1934 at the age of 87. Anna Bissell was one of America’s first female CEOs. The Bissell Company is still run by family members. Their carpet sweepers are most commonly found in places like restaurants where crumbs regularly need to be swept without disturbing diners. IT’S A FACT • One kind of early day vacuum cleaner was powered by bellows that were connected to a rocking chair. The man would read the evening newspaper, smoking his pipe and rocking, while the wife did the vacuuming.
Answer: Hoover.
BIBLE TRIVIA ANSWERS:
1) New; 2) Simeon; 3) Ecclesiastes; 4) Rainbow; 5) A snare; 6) Pharaoh
1. Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and David Ortiz. 2. Miguel Olivo, with 19 in 2011. 3. Cleveland’s Otto Graham. 4. It was 1974. 5. Detroit’s Flash Hollett, in the 1944-45 season. 6. Twenty-three consecutive seasons. 7. It was 2003.
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Tidbits® of North Central Arkansas
Cutting Boards ---
Q: I have three cutting boards that have been in my family for a number of years. They are identified as being made in Yugoslavia. -- Robin, Northumberland, Pennsylvania A: The pictures you sent of your cutting boards indicate to me that they are probably from the 1950s or ‘60s. The design seems to be handcrafted. I would suspect they would sell in a shop or at an antique mall for about $15 or $20 each. Kitchen items have become popular with collectors and prices have increased in recent years. For example, mixing bowls, cooking utensils and even pie birds have doubled in price during the past decade. A good general reference is “300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles” by Linda Campbell Franklin (Krause Books, $29.95). This telephone directory-size guide has updated prices for such items as nutmeg graters, eggbeaters, muffin pans, sifters, tea kettles and woodenwares. It is comprehensive and accurately reflects the current marketplace. *** Q: I have a bell made by Fenton and would like to find out more about it. -- Judith, Southside, West Virginia A: Since your bell was made by Fenton, I highly recommend “Warman’s Fenton Glass” by Mark F. Moran and published by Krause Books. This reference book has a section about bells made by the company. A second source is the American Bell Association, one of the better groups for collectors. Annual dues are $35, and it includes a subscription to its excellent bi-monthly magazine, “The Bell Tower.” For more information, contact the ABA at 26 Hunting Lodge Drive, Miami Springs, FL 33166. *** Q: My dad was stationed in Japan during the 1960s, and when he returned to the United States he brought my mom a set of Nippon china. Although it is a beautiful set, I can’t imagine ever using it. -- Sarah, Grand Junction, Colorado A: Perhaps it’s time to contact the International Nippon Collectors’ Club to see if there is any interest. Contact is www.nipponcollectorsclub.com, and 301-748-2427. *** Q: I have inherited a Singer Sewing Machine with a serial number of G-0999067. When was it made? -- Lynn, Mason City, Iowa A: Your sewing machine was manufactured in 1924. Write to Larry Cox in care of KFWS, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to questionsforcox@aol.com. Due to the large volume of mail he receives, Mr. Cox cannot personally answer all reader questions, nor does he do appraisals. Do not send any materials requiring return mail. (c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
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