A light bulb attaches to a fitting in one of two ways. It either screws in on a threaded base, or it pushes in against a spring and twists a…
Maya Linton
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1960 a television was hundreds of components wired point to point by hand, by rows of women at benches, into a chassis that slid out of a…
Look at the cap of a cheap ballpoint pen. There is a small hole in the top of it.
Most people assume it is a moulding artefact, or something to…
Every tyre on every car has a built-in gauge telling you when it is worn out, and almost nobody uses it, largely because almost nobody knows it is there.
It…
Open the fridge and a light comes on. Open the freezer and, on a great many appliances, nothing happens.
The usual explanations are that the cold would break the bulb,…
A tennis ball is a hollow pressurised rubber sphere covered in a layer of fuzzy felt, and the felt is not decoration or grip.
It is the single most consequential…