Among the many creatures being done in by all this junk are corals, tortoises, and elephants-in particular, the elephants of Sri Lanka. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of floating debris that stretches across six hundred thousand square miles between California and Hawaii, is thought to contain some 1.8 trillion plastic shards. It litters the beaches of Svalbard and the shores of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, in the Indian Ocean, most of which are uninhabited.
It has been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, thirty-six thousand feet below sea level. In the form of empty water bottles, used shopping bags, and tattered snack packages, plastic waste turns up pretty much everywhere today. What was a problem of scarcity is now a problem of superabundance. Annual global production of plastic currently runs to more than eight hundred billion pounds. Bakelite was followed by polyvinyl chloride, which was, in turn, followed by polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, polyester, polypropylene, Styrofoam, Plexiglas, Mylar, Teflon, polyethylene terephthalate (familiarly known as PET)-the list goes on and on. Hyatt’s invention, often described as the world’s first commercially produced plastic, was followed a few decades later by Bakelite. Celluloid, one of the Hyatts’ advertising pamphlets promised, would “give the elephant, the tortoise, and the coral insect a respite in their native haunts.” These, too, were running out, owing to slaughter and plunder. They touted the new material as a substitute not just for ivory but also for tortoiseshell and jewelry-grade coral. From celluloid billiard balls, the pair branched out into celluloid dentures, combs, brush handles, piano keys, and knickknacks. It’s not clear that the Hyatt brothers ever collected from Phelan, but the invention proved to be its own reward.
A saloon owner in Colorado reported to Hyatt that, when this happened, “instantly every man in the room pulled a gun.” Two celluloid balls knocking together with sufficient force could set off a small explosion. Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton, is highly flammable. Hyatt’s brother and business partner dubbed the substance “celluloid.” The resulting balls were more popular with players, although, as Hyatt conceded, they, too, had their drawbacks. He found that a certain type of nitrocellulose, when heated with camphor, yielded a shiny, tough material that could be molded into practically any shape. Next, Hyatt experimented with nitrocellulose, a material made by combining cotton or wood pulp with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids. In 1865, he patented a ball with a wooden core encased in ivory dust and shellac. He and a partner offered a ten-thousand-dollar reward to anyone who could come up with an ivory substitute.Ī young printer from Albany, John Wesley Hyatt, learned about the offer and set to tinkering. Owing in good part to his efforts, the game had grown so popular that tusks from Ceylon-and, indeed, elephants more generally-were becoming scarce. Phelan, who owned a billiard hall and co-owned a billiard-table-manufacturing business, also wrote books about billiards and was a champion billiards player. At the time, the balls were made of ivory, preferably obtained from elephants from Ceylon-now Sri Lanka-whose tusks were thought to possess just the right density. Having chosen the size of guttering, draw up a list of the various bits and pieces you need.In 1863, when much of the United States was anguishing over the Civil War, an entrepreneur named Michael Phelan was fretting about billiard balls.He circled the house, looking in, and saw nothing but the bits and pieces of ordinary living.Storing the furniture and the bits and pieces we didn't need immediately was a bit more difficult.There are all sorts of bits and pieces in this box.making a mosaic out of bits and pieces of tiles.Why teach in bits and pieces a subject which is a whole?.Not a single one had listened to it or even heard bits and pieces on the news.
The bits of information range from play dates with friends to the sometimes frightening bits and pieces of domestic violence.For the next two decades he made a sort of living finding bits and pieces of editing and translation work.My eyes adjusted, and things became edges, corners, bits and pieces of what they were.Do any of these bits and bobs belong to you?.→ bit Examples from the Corpus bits and pieces From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English bits and pieces bits and pieces ( also bits and bobs British English ) THING informal any small things of various kinds Let me get all my bits and pieces together.
0 kommentar(er)
