Hello, readers!
In honor of All the News that’s fit to Print Day, here’s a bit of old news:
It’s International Women Inventors Month! And on February 10, 1943, Vesta Stoudt, while working at an ordinance plant during WWII, came up with an idea of improving the way ammunition boxes were sealed to provide quicker access for use by soldiers. When plant bosses were less than impressed, she wrote to President Roosevelt and described how well she thought duck cloth would seal the seams. Contrary to the plant bosses, the president was impressed and sent the duck tape idea to the War Production Board for immediate implementation. The idea not only worked well on ammo boxes, but it also proved helpful in fixing leaks, repairing equipment, and even closing wounds on the battlefield. Ms. Stoudt received a War Worker Award from the Chicago Tribune for her idea, which wasn’t called Duct Tape until years later when it was used to repair duct work successfully.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine an application for which Duct tape wouldn’t work. For instance, you can repair a tear in your camping tent or fix a cracked and leaky garden hose. It takes the place of tweezers for splinter and tick removal and can keep you from scratching an itchy insect bite. Duct tape works as well as an ordinary lint and pet hair roller and can even keep your floors safe from scuffing during furniture rearrangement.
It’s one thing to become a living legend, but to have missed the historic moment (February 10, 1972), when minor rocker David Bowie virtually (temporarily) morphed away as Ziggy Stardust made his Earthly Debut is to forever wish you could have been among a group of about 60 young Londoners fortunate enough to witness it. One audience member quipped, “Bowie brought theater to a humble pub gig…I couldn’t blink for fear of missing something – nothing would ever be the same,”
“The Artist always has the masters in his eyes” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy February!
Streampebbles 