stickmaker | JOHT 81: Arbitrary Standards (Reply)

The Joy of High Tech

Rodford Edmiston

Being the occasionally interesting ramblings of a major-league technophile.

Please note that while I am an engineer (BSCE) and do my research, I am not a professional in this field. Do not take anything here as gospel; check the facts I give. If you find a mistake, please let me know about it.

Cultural Holdovers

There are many aspects of culture which can be traced to a technical innovation or limitation. This effect actually goes back tens of thousands of years. (Think of all the sayings which depend on the physical characteristic of some material, such as "clear as glass" or "like a lead bell.") More modern examples, of course, are better documented, and many such cultural impacts are still in effect and quite widespread centuries or millennia later. This exercise will therefore be limited to a very few relatively recent examples. Of course, some associations are a product of misunderstanding, or even outright fraud. Others are simply unclear.

Why is butcher paper brown? According to a popular myth, because for a while some of it was made from mummy wrappings. (Note: Take the following with a large grain of salt... and maybe a bite of steak.)

This comes from an interesting blend of myth and fact. In the middle of the Nineteenth Century several parts of the world were experiencing a paper shortage. This included the United States, where newspapers were a huge business. Most paper at the time was made from processed rags. Newly produced cotton or linen could be made available for the production of paper, but that was expensive, and had to vie with cloth production for clothing and other uses. Most paper was therefore made from rags. (There's a term which is a cultural holdover. In modern parlance, the percentage of rag content in paper is a measure of quality.) However, linen ages well and there was a huge reservoir of ancient linen just being tossed away.

The ancient Egyptians made a _lot_ of mummies. By some estimates there were _half a billion_ humans turned into mummies over those four thousand plus years the practice was widespread in northern Africa, plus more of various animals. There were so many, in fact, that they were actually a problem in some areas. The vast majority had been low-born people, and barely worth the effort of unwrapping to see what treasures they might have. Additionally, many thousands of mummies had been looted in antiquity, and often the wrappings were just tossed aside as worthless. (This calls to mind the bit from Sam Clemens, who in _The Innocents Abroad_ commented on the perceived plentitude of mummies by having a locomotive engineer cry out "Damn these plebeians, they don’t burn worth a cent — pass out a King!") As noted, in addition to all those former people, many animals were also mummified, from cats to bulls. So, there was a huge resource for paper making in the fine linen used in mummy wrappings.

As the story is told, a famously thrifty paper mill owner decided to use mummy wrappings to make high-quality paper. However, no matter what he did, the linen wouldn't bleach white, remaining brown. He was forced to market the resulting product as cheap paper, fit only for a butcher to use in wrapping meat. Eventually the wrappings caused a cholera outbreak and the practice stopped. Yet to this day the tradition of butchers using brown paper survives.

Okay, cholera bacteria are unlikely to survive even the ointments and unguents the wrappings were impregnated with, much less remain viable for thousands of years. The paper mill most often identified with the practice of using mummy wrappings did have a cholera outbreak, but those were happening all over the "civilized" world at that time, largely due to sewage systems not keeping up with increasing urban populations and to a lack of understanding at that time of how diseases actually spread. Period newspaper accounts reported the use of mummy wrappings to make brown paper, but study reveals them to most likely be satire; darkly humorous commentaries on the stinginess of the factory owner. (A stinginess which in many examples continues today.)

That huge amounts of rags - including mummy linens - were imported from Egypt during that period for the purpose of making paper has been widely verified. Also verified is that mummy wrappings tended to be difficult to bleach white. Some newspapers actually bragged that they had switched to paper made (in what percentage is not stated) from mummy linens. Since these surviving publications are rare and valuable historic documents and the paper in them likely a blend of old and new rags, tests to verify this will most likely never be performed.

So, while there is no health reason for not using the linen from mummy wrappings to make paper, if this happened the scraps of mummy cloth were probably just tossed in as another source of rag, and were a minor component. As to why butcher paper is brown, most of it is actually white or ruddy. Not brown. The general type of paper is more generally known as kraft paper, and has a wide range of uses. Butcher paper is essentially kraft paper treated to make it food safe, stronger and resistant to moisture. Either type of paper can come in a wide variety of colors. There is, of course, dark brown paper, but that is more likely to be used to wrap household items for moving or storage than to wrap meat for transport home.

The early audio recording period is known as the acoustical era. Because the energy of sound was directly used to imprint the initial recording material, with no electronic amplification. Additionally, the energy to reproduce the sound came from the physical movement of the storage medium. The mechanical energy imparted to the needle by the changes in the medium's surface as it moved past the needle was conducted to a diaphragm to produce the sound vibrations, without benefit of electronic amplification. These purely mechanical records therefore needed to spin quickly to provide the necessary energy. Just not too quickly. The fidelity of such a process depends on how well the variations in groove depth or width can excite the needle. Playing too quickly means the needle skips. Too slowly and the playback is too quiet. The playing time of a phonograph record depends on the available groove length divided by the needle's speed along the groove. Total groove length in turn depends on how closely the grooves are spaced and the record diameter. From about 1898 well into the Nineteen Fifties the ideal speed for music was considered to be around 78 RPM. By 1908 most entertainment recordings played back at 78 - 80 RPM. Edison Diamond Disc Records always ran at 80 RPM. The standard of 78.26 RPM for electrically motorized turntables was adopted by the industry in 1925. This speed was suitable for most existing records, and was easily achieved using a standard 3600-RPM motor and 46-tooth gear. (Any competent engineer will tell you, if a standard exists - even one which is not intended for your specific use and may therefore be arbitrary - use it. Unless you have a good reason not to. In this case, the standard came from existing motors and mechanical parts.)

All this together meant that at the beginning of the 20th century the first flat discs played for about two minutes, the same as earlier cylinder records. Because of this most popular recordings were limited to that duration. Soon the larger 10-inch 78 RPM discs played for about three minutes per side. The 12-inch disc, introduced by Victor in 1903, increased the playing time to between three and four minutes. That proved to be about the largest practical size for consumer use. It later was also used for the Pioneer LaserDisc video recordings, largely so they could be made on the same machines used for audio records (more on this later). As for the music play length, even today, popular music is often limited to between three and four minutes, long after technology has moved beyond the format which caused that restriction.

Interestingly, the common usage of playback speed (such as "seventy-eight") to distinguish between types of discs didn't become widespread until until after WWII. Before that they were generally just called "records" regardless of speed.

Early records were made from various materials. Each formulation vied for a balance between cost, how closely the grooves could be placed, ease of manufacture, fidelity and durability. Shellack-based compounds were popular from around 1895 until the requirements of WWII caused a general switch to vinyl. After that vinyl became the standard for nearly all records. The shellack-based records were actually composite structures. They were typically composed of about one-third shellac and two-thirds mineral filler (which was usually finely pulverized slate or limestone) with cotton fibers to add tensile strength. Carbon black was added for color and a very small amount of lubricant was usually included to ease release from the presses on which the records were made. Vinyl records - as with the later LaserDiscs and CDs on more modern vinyl presses - could be produced on the same machines. The biggest problems with shellack records were weight and brittleness. Vinyl pretty much eliminated those.

Once technology moved to electronic amplification records could be slowed. However, the 78 RPM standard held for a long time even after this. This was partly because that meant the platters could still be played in areas with no electricity, but largely due to industrial and social inertia. The LP (Long Play) or extended play format eventually settled on the standard of 33 1/3rd revolutions per minute. This allowed greater fidelity and storage density, since they had electronic amplification of the mechanical signal.

The use of both vinyl and the 33 1/3rd RPM format were pioneered in 1931 by RCA, in 30cm discs with 10 minutes of sound per side. There were other long-play formats introduced during the same period. However, due largely to the Great Depression these records were soon discontinued. Both vinyl and the extended play format would return later, on larger records. (There is conflicting information that Bell Labs developed the 33 1/3rd RPM and 16" format before this because it allowed a simple gearing change for turntables which worked with film projectors and matched one record side to run the same length as one reel of film. Yet another source claimed it was introduced by Columbia in 1948. Having more than one company declare that "We invented it first!" is not uncommon. Apparently one claim is for motion picture application, another for consumer application, and the last is for the adoption of Microgroove technology, which led to the actual Long Play or LP format.)

The 45 RPM record was brought on the market in 1948 - by RCA - on vinyl or polystyrene. The speed was chosen due to patent licenses. The size, again, was to create up to four and a half minutes of music or voice.

Over and over, the manufacturers focused on a format to produce a length of playback which was already familiar to consumers from decades of previous formats. Yes, extended play records were used for longer compositions, including entire symphonies. However, radio airplay and records for popular music continued to force artists to fit an old - and largely obsolete - format. Hence the plaintive Billy Joel lyric "If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit. So they cut it down to 3:05."

The topic of recording formats is quite complicated, and enormously varied. The history of audio recording is quite fascinating, and full of interesting ideas which didn't pan out for some reason. For example, the first commercial magnetic audio recording machine appears to have been produced in pre-WWII Germany. This used thin strips of stainless steel wound on huge reels which turned very quickly. An accident waiting to happen.

Materials science and technology often drive innovation. Tin was the aluminum of the Nineteenth Century. However, the elemental metal and its alloys were used for thousands of years before this. Among other historic applications it is a component of bronze. The pure metal can take a high polish and is resistant to corrosion. Compounds with tin have a very wide variety of use. While the metal itself is non-toxic, some tin compounds are deadly poisons. Tin is easy to refine, and the pure metal is ductile, easily formed in many ways. In fact, its main flaw is that it does not deal well with extreme (in terrestrial environmental terms) cold, slowly turning to powder in Arctic conditions, a process which is called "tin pest." Supposedly, this hampered Napoleon's invasion of Russia, when his army's new tin uniform buttons began to deteriorate. However, this transformation is prevented by small amounts of antimony, bismuth, copper, lead, silver, or gold, something long known. These are actually normally present in commercial grades of tin, so only very pure tin is actually affected by this.

Why were those buttons made of pure tin? (If they were...) Tin is easily stamped into intricate shapes, resistant to corrosion and not very expensive. These characteristics lent themselves well to the growing use of multiple industrial processes.

One of the more interesting modern uses of tin is in glass manufacture. In this process, glass is floated across a pool of molten tin to product smooth, plate glass, in what is known as the Pilkington Process. Molten tin's melting point, surface tension, lack of reaction with glass (and at most reacting to the tank materials just to form a thin layer of plating) and low toxicity make tin ideal for this.

The first known use of tinplating for food containers was in 1812, in London, England. Tin bonds well with several container materials, including iron and steel. It is nontoxic and resistant to corrosion. All this makes it very useful in food preservation. Since its the tin people see on the can, around the world they call such coated metal containers "tins" or "tin cans" even though the large majority of material in the can is steel. Similarly, tin-plated steel whistles are often called "tin whistles." Copper cooking or serving vessels - pots, pans, plates, goblets, etc. - are sometimes tinplated, since copper exposed to acidic food may form toxic compounds. Today, steel or even aluminum cans with polymer coatings and no tin at all may still be called "tins." This term is sometimes even used for entirely polymer containers.

Tin's ductility led in the late 19th century to the production of tin foil. Aluminum foil was introduced in 1926, but did not widely replace tin foil until after World War II. However, due to both being thin sheets of shiny material some people continue even today to refer to the new product by the name of the old one. Tin foil is stiffer than aluminum foil. It also tends to give some foods a slight tin taste. Both characteristics helped aluminum foil to replace tin foil.

Because of its corrosion resistance, availability, low cost, low toxicity, and malleability, tin foil was even used as a filling for tooth cavities prior to the 20th Century.

Harking back to a preceding part of this document, the first audio recordings were made on tin foil wrapped around backing cylinders.

There are many more examples of how technology affects culture, and _vice versa_. This short exploration of the topic barely scratches the surface. What examples can you think of?