The paper clip is one of the few objects in daily use that is genuinely anonymous. The shape everybody pictures - the double oval of bent wire - is called…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The tin can was patented in 1810. The first practical can opener appeared in the late 1850s. For most of fifty years, people bought food sealed in metal…
Anybody over a certain age remembers the ring pull coming away in their hand - a small aluminium ring with a sharp tongue attached, which had to be put somewhere,…
Everybody who has ever assembled furniture has had a cross-head screwdriver ride up and out of the screw, chewing the head on the way. It is one of the most…
The Shiny and Dull Sides of Kitchen Foil Are an Accident of Manufacturing and It Makes No Difference
There is a confident person in every kitchen who knows which way round the foil goes. Shiny side in to reflect the heat back, or shiny side out to keep…
Pull the hook on the end of a tape measure and it moves. Push it and it moves back. The rivets that hold it on sit in slots rather than…