Learning | Epergne

My brother, Dale, likes to pretend he doesn't know any big words.  Whenever he hears a family member use an unfamiliar word, he asks for us to repeat it and tell him what it means. We usually end up looking up the word in the dictionary, and then he uses it in a sentence--usually a silly sentence.

There's a story he tells, about helping our father with the preparations for a backyard party. They were hosing off the lawn furniture.  My dad (an engineer) turned off the spigot at the wall of the house.  Dale was still holding the hose, but not spraying anything.  Dad called out,"Okay, Dale, depress the nozzle and release the residual!"

"I knew what he meant, but I just couldn't resist," Dale recalls. "I called out, 'but Dad! There's water in this hose!'"

Image from page 208 of "New Bedford, Massachusetts:
 its history, industries, institutions, and attractions" (1889)
From Internet Archives Book Images'
photostream on Flickr.com.
No known copyright restrictions.

Yesterday, Dale sent an email to the family about his word of the day: epergne. 

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (see citation below,) it's from the French word for saving: épargne. Epergne refers to "an often ornate tiered centerpiece consisting typically of a frame of wrought metal (as silver or gold) bearing dishes, vases, or candle holders or a combination of these." 

 "Epergne." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epergne>.

Image from page 37 of "Examples of household taste"
 (1875) From Internet Archives Book Images'
photostream on Flickr.com. No known copyright restrictions.

I don't know how Dale came across that word. Maybe I'll ask him, next time I see him.  In the meantime, I found some lovely images of epergnes on Flickr.com.

Tea sandwiches on an Epergne, from Jan's photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

The Silver Epergne on opening night,
from Leeds Museum and Galleries' photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

Searching the keyword epergne in SSJCPL's Shiny New catalog yielded no results, but if you are interested in epergnes, I recommend taking a look at these books on tableware.

Learning | Mankind's Giant Leap

I've mentioned before, that my father was an aerospace engineer who worked for the Apollo program (among others.) When I first started school, I would tell classmates that my dad was an engineer, and many  of them assumed he rode on a train all day. So I tried to explain that he designed spaceships. Then I would get questions about whether he wore magnetic boots, so he could climb up the side of a rocket to build the top. I relayed that query to my father. After he stopped laughing, he said,"No."

(Actually, I think he did not ever climb on things at work. He probably did a lot of math. I grew up drawing on the back of pages and pages of logarithms.)

Dad faced a formidable critic in his mother-in-law, my Grandma Nell.  She warned him that mankind should not be traveling in space--if they tried to send men to the moon, the spaceship might bump into an angel!

I think of my grandmother when I watch the servants in shows like Downton Abbey--especially Daisy, the cook's helper.  Nell was born in an industrial city in Scotland, at a time when many children were expected to work, instead of going to school. Nell was not fortunate enough to have educational opportunities beyond the fourth grade.  Her first job was polishing silver at a department store. (Like Daisy, she was also an excellent cook, by the way.)

She happened to be visiting us at the time of the Apollo 11 mission, when the entire country was mesmerized by the telecasts of man walking on the moon. We all gathered around our black and white TV in the den. Did I mention that she was hearing impaired? Apparently, she did not hear that there were two astronauts exploring the moon in their spacesuits.  

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deploying the U.S. Flag. From NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

Which would explain why we suddenly heard her shriek loudly that there was AN ALIEN coming up behind Neal Armstrong!  Of course, the rest of us quickly assured her that it was another astronaut, Buzz Aldrin.  The incident seems funnier now, but at the time, she was so sincerely upset, that we didn't dare laugh about it.

The first moon landing caused a sense of wonder in most of us; I remember going out in my front yard that night, looking up at the moon, and thinking, there  are humans up there! My grandmother's moment of panic also caused me to think about how much life had changed since 1901, when she was born. My generation took so many things for granted: radio, automobiles, air travel, television, refrigerators, tv dinners, and too many appliances to mention.

Plaque from First Flight Lunar Project: "You are never too young to dream." From Jack Pearce's photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved. This plaque commemorates the site in Warren, OH, where a six-year-old Neal Armstrong took his first ride on an airplane. There is a replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module at this site. For more information, visit www.firstflightwarren.org.

Learning | Engineering Word of the Day

Last month, I had a wonderful time at the Bay Area Maker Faire 2014.  Maker Faire is nicknamed "the biggest show-and-tell on earth" with good reason; wherever one may wander on the site, there will be a person excited to explain whatever you see, like upcycled furniture, or armor for small animals.

I went with my husband (an electrical engineer) and son (an Electrical Engineering major.) This was their fourth year attending, and my third. It's hard to avoid catching their enthusiasm when they spot some cool thing, like a mechanical device for calculating square roots, or some new innovation in three-dimensional printing.

My guys were busy looking at some little teeny tiny thing I didn't understand, so I wandered over to a booth with furniture that was clearly Steampunk-inspired.  I admired the display, and asked a few questions about the uses of various pieces, and how they were made. 

I was surprised when the man in the booth asked if I was an engineer.  I laughed and replied that I was surrounded by engineers, but I was not one. An engineer himself, he told me about his wife's experience working as an office assistant for a bunch of engineers. She has developed a coping mechanism: identifying an "Engineering Word of the Day."

I love the idea so much, I'm tempted to steal it. From time to time (but certainly not every day) I will share an engineering or science word with you, just for fun. You never know when it might be useful.

Here's a word I learned from my father: ullage. Sometimes called headspace, this is the unfilled portion of a container. Some space needs to be there, to allow for expansion of the liquid.

External Tank ET-138 Rolls Out at Michoud Assembly Facility from Marshall Space FlightCenter's photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved. 

My father was an aerospace engineer; at one point, his job was calculating precisely how much fuel could be loaded into the enormous external tank used for Space Shuttle launches. He had the responsibility of making sure the ullage was as small as possible.

If you regret missing Maker Faire 2014, try to save time around the third weekend in May...and watch this blog for news.