Why do Clocks run clockwise? Read online

  At one time, however, “flotsam” and “jetsam” not only had different meanings, but carried important legal disinctions. In English common law, “flotsam” (derived from the Latin flottare, “to float”) referred specifically to the cargo or parts of a wrecked ship that float on the sea.

  “Jetsam” (also derived from Latin— jactare, “to throw”) referred to goods purposely thrown overboard in order either to 60 / DAVID FELDMAN

  lighten the ship or to keep the goods from perishing if the ship did go under.

  Although the main distinction between the two terms was the way the goods got into the water, technically, to become jetsam, the cargo had to be dragged ashore and above the high-water line. If not, the material was considered flotsam, which included all cargo found on the shore between the high-and low-water lines.

  Actually, two more terms, “lagan” and “derelict,” were also used to differentiate cargo. “Lagan” referred to any abandoned wreckage lying at the bottom of the sea; “derelict” was the abandoned ship itself.

  While insurance companies today have to pay out for flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict, the old distinctions once dictated who got the remains. Jetsam went to the owner of the boat, but flotsam went to the Crown. The personal effects of nonsurviving crewmen could become flotsam or jetsam—depending on how far the debris traveled and whether it floated.

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  Why Do Doughnuts Have Holes?

  The exact origins of doughnuts and their holes are shrouded in mystery and are a topic of such controversy that we have twice been caught in the middle of heated arguments among professional bakers on radio talk shows. So let us make one thing perfectly clear: we offer no conclusive proofs here, only consensus opinion.

  Some form of fried cake has existed in almost every culture. “Pre-historic doughnuts”—petrified fried cakes with holes—have been found among the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe. The Dutch settlers in America, though, are usually credited with popularizing fried cakes (without holes) in the United States, which they called

  “oily cakes” or olykoeks. Washington Irving, writing about colonial New York, described “a dish of balls of sweetened dough friend in hog’s fat, and called dough nuts or oly

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  koeks.” Fried cakes became so popular in New York and New England that shops sprouted up that specialized in serving them with fresh-brewed coffee. In 1673, the first store-bought fried cakes were made available by Anna Joralemon in New York. Mrs. Joralemon weighed 225 pounds and was known affectionately as “the Big Doughnut.”

  The gentleman usually credited with the “invention” of the doughnut hole was an unlikely candidate for the job—a sea captain named Hanson Gregory. Supposedly, Captain Gregory was at the helm of his ship, eating a fried cake one night, when stormy weather arose. Gregory, needing both hands to steer the ship, spontaneously rammed the cake over one of the spokes. Impressed with his creation, Gregory ordered the ship’s cook to make fried cakes with holes from then on.

  Many other legends surround the creation of the doughnut hole.

  Plymouth, Massachusetts, advances the notion that the first doughnut hole was created when, in the seventeenth century, a drunken Indian brave shot an arrow through a kitchen window, punching out a piece of dough from the center of a cake just about to be fried. Pretty lame, Plymouth.

  Regardless of the origin of the holes in doughnuts, we have learned that bakers disagree about its role in the making of a quality doughnut. Certainly, good doughnuts can be made without holes.

  Thomas A. Lehmann, director of bakery assistance at the American Institute of Baking, told us that yeast-raised doughnuts can be made quite easily without the hole and points to the bismarck, or jelly-filled doughnut, as a perfect example. Lehmann adds, though, that if bismarcks were fried on the surface, the same way as conventional yeast-raised doughnuts, the hole-less dough would tend to overex-pand, turning into a ball shape. That is why most bakers prefer submersion frying, which results in a more uniform and symmetrical finished product.

  “Cake” doughnuts, which are chemically leavened, can also be made without holes, but many experts believe that they lose their desired consistency without them. Glenn Bacheller, direc WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 63

  tor of product marketing for Dunkin’ Donuts, explains why the hole is important: “Heat does not penetrate the donut as readily [without the hole] and the interior of the donut tends to have a doughy texture. The only way to prevent this is to fry the donut longer, which results in the exterior of the donut being over fried.”

  Why Does a Newspaper Tear Smoothly Vertically and Raggedly Horizontally?

  Newsprint is made up of many wood fibers. The fibers are placed on printers in pulp form, consisting of 80 to 90 percent water—the newsprint dries while in the machine. The printing machines are designed to line up the fibers in a horizontal position to add tear strength to the sheet vertically.

  The basic purpose of lining up the fibers in one direction is simply to add stability to the sheet when the press is running. According to Ralph E. Eary, national director of production and engineering for the newspaper division of Scripps Howard, “All standard size newspapers are printed vertically on an unwound sheet of newsprint.”

  A rip in one sheet endangers the whole printing process, and at best costs money and time.

  In other words, the finished newspaper has a grain, just as a piece of meat or linen has a grain. (Even notice how hard it is to tear a bedsheet in one direction and how easy in another?) When you rip the newspaper vertically, you are tearing with the grain, or more accurately, between grains. The same principle is in effect when one consumes Twizzlers brand licorice. Individual pieces rip off easily if you tear between the slices; only Conan could rip off pieces horizontally.

  Submitted by L. Stone, of Mamaroneck, New York. Thanks also to: Julia Berger, of Richmond, Virginia, and Virginia E. Griffin, of Salinas, California.

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  Why Are The Netherlands also Called Holland and the Low Countries? And Why Are Its People Called Dutch?

  Our pet theory was that the official name of the country was “the Netherlands,” but that “Holland” was used to make it easier for mapmakers to fit the name within the confined borders. Actually, the official name of the country is Nederland, the name native inhabitants call it—“Netherlands” is simply the closet English equivalent.

  The word “nether” means below the earth’s surface. The low and marshy lands near the mouth of the estuary of the Rhine River are responsible for the name, “the Low Countries.” The German name

  “Niederlande” and the French name “les Pays-Bas” are exact transla-tions.

  By why “Holland”? Holland was the name of a province, not the whole country. In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, it was by far the most important province commercially, and Hollanders displayed more devotion to their province than to the nation as a whole. Holland eventually became so dominant that, much in the same way that the Soviet Union is mislabeled “Russia,”

  Holland came to represent all of the Netherlands.

  Further confusing the issue is the term “Dutch,” used to describe the citizens of the Netherlands. “Dutch” is actually older than “the Netherlands.” Until the sixteenth century, inhabitants of the Netherlands called themselves Diets (which means “the people”). This word, pronounced “deets,” was corrupted in English as “Dutch.” The British continued to use the medieval name long after Netherlanders stopped using it themselves.

  Americans tend to use the word “Dutch” not only to describe Netherlanders, but also Germans. Thus, while the Holland Dutch from Michigan are true descendants of Netherlanders, the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German.

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  (The “Dutch” in Pennsylvania Dutch almost certainly stems from a corruption of the German name for their country, Deutschland.) Accordin
g to the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce: “To stop this confusing multiplicity of names the Netherlands Government has tried to use the words ‘The Netherlands’ as the name for the country and ‘Netherlander’ as the name for an inhabitant of the Netherlands.

  It is easy to decree such a thing, but it takes much time to suppress a time-honoured word used in foreign countries.”

  Netherlanders have to deal with confusion not only about the name of their country, but about the name of their capital. Amster-dam is the official capital, but the seat of government is at The Hague. The official name of The Hague is ’s-Gravenhage, “the count’s hedge,” except nobody calls the city’s-Gravenhage, preferring the colloquial Den Haag (the hedge).

  For such a small country, the Netherlands has its share of identity problems.

  Submitted by Daniel Marcus, of Watertown, Massachusetts.

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  What Are Those Twitches and Jerks That Occasionally Wake Us Just as We Are Falling Asleep?

  It has probably happened to you. You are nestled snugly under the covers. You aren’t quite asleep but you’re not quite awake. Just as your brain waves start to slow, and as you fantasize about owning that Mercedes Benz convertible, you are jolted awake by an unac-countable spasm, usually in a leg.

  You have been a victim of what is called a “hypnic jerk,” a phenomenon explained in David Bodanis’s marvelous The Body Book: They occur when nerve fibers leading to the leg, in a bundle nearly as thick as a pencil, suddenly fire in unison. Each tiny nerve in the bundle produces a harsh tightening of a tiny portion of muscle fiber that is linked to it down in the leg, and when they all fire together the leg twitches as a whole.

  Sleep specialists haven’t pinned down what causes hypnic jerks or why they occur only at the onset of sleep. Although some people experience them more often than others, their appearance is unpredictable, unlike myoclonic jerks, spasms that occur at regular intervals during deep sleep.

  Submitted by Cathy C. Bodell, of Fullerton, California. Thanks also to: Daniel A. Placko, Jr., of Chicago, Illinois.

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  Why Are There Twenty-one Guns in a

  Twenty-one-Gun Salute?

  The original intention of gun salutes was probably to assure the royalty or nation being honored that they were physically secure—that the weapons that were meant to pay tribute could also be used to kill. Before any recorded history of formal gun salutes, many cultures were known to discharge ordnance indiscriminately at festivals and holidays. Some good old-fashioned noise, be it fire-works in China or cheering at football games, has always been an accompaniment to joyous rituals.

  Twenty-one-gun salutes have existed since at least the sixteenth century (the final scene from Hamlet mentions one), but the number of guns fired evolved gradually and inconsistently from country to country. The English were the first to codify the practice. According to a study conducted in 1890 by C. H. Davis, 68 / DAVID FELDMAN

  a commander and chief intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, the earliest English regulation, formulated in 1688, prescribed that the birthdays and coronations of royalty should be solemnized “by the Fleet, Squadrons, and every single ship of war, by the discharge of such number of their great guns,” but allowed that the number of guns used should be decided upon by the chief officer. By 1730, the British Naval Regulations were amended so that the number of guns discharged was still at the discretion of the chief officer, but was not to exceed twenty-one for each ship.

  The notion of twenty-one as the highest gun salute undoubtedly stems from this royal origin. Salutes were always in odd numbers in the British military, with lower-ranking officers receiving, say, a five-gun salute and each increasing rank offered two more guns. The 1730 regulation was probably a response to rampant inflation in gun salutes; the Navy wanted to assure that no one received more guns than the royalty. In 1808, twenty-one guns was mandated as the only proper salute for royalty.

  Although the United States, in its infancy, adopted gun salutes, there were no specific regulations governing the practice. Until 1841, the U.S. Navy fired one gun for each state in the Union. As our nation grew, and what with the price of ammunition, we prudently decided to limit our salutes to twenty-one guns. This change was codified in 1865 and has remained the practice ever since. The establishment of a maximum standard was not arbitrary or capricious.

  Gun salutes were a form of international diplomacy, and any devi-ation from the norm had possible ramifications. Commander Davis stressed the importance of conforming to international practice:

  “According to the present regulations and long established custom, a vessel of war, on her arrival in a foreign port, salutes the flag of the nation to which that port belongs, after having ascertained that the salute will be returned, with 21 guns. The salute is immediately returned gun for gun. This rule is universal and invariable in all countries in the world.”

  Davis believed that if the United States had continued its WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 69

  practice of discharging one gun for each state, it could have had serious consequences. He feared that other countries would assume that by exceeding twenty-one guns, we were trumpeting our own power and superiority.

  A last objection to the one gun/one state idea was that gun salutes have always involved an odd number. Even numbers have traditionally been fired in mourning and at funerals. While modern communications equipment has largely obviated the need to use gun salutes as a symbol of peace and goodwill, the twenty-one-gun salute is alive and well as a ritual to express celebration and honor. Although we can’t pinpoint exactly why the British first arrived at twenty-one (some speculate that the combination of three multiplied by seven might have been adopted for mystical or religious reasons), we clearly owe our custom to the British military’s desire to salute royalty with the utmost hoopla.

  Submitted by Debra Kalkwarf, of Columbus, Indiana. Thanks also to: Douglas Watkins, Jr., of Hayward, California.

  Why Do Women Tend to Have Higher Voices Than Men? Why Do Short People Tend to Have Higher Voices Than Tall People?

  Daniel Boone, a University of Arizona professor and expert on vocal mechanisms, provides the answer: “Fundamental frequency or voice pitch level is directly related to the length and thickness of the individual’s vocal folds [or vocal cords].” The average man’s vocal-fold length is approximately eighteen millimeters; the average woman’s is ten millimeters.

  The tall person of either gender is likely to have longer vocal cords than a shorter person of the same sex.

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  Washington, D.C. Streets Are Named

  Alphabetically. Why Is There No “J” Street?

  We posed this Imponderable to Nelson Rimensnyder, historian of the House of Representatives Committee on the District of Columbia.

  Although Rimensnyder stated that there was no definitive answer, he did offer two main theories:

  1. J, as written during the eighteenth century, was often confused with other letters of the alphabet, particularly I.

  2. Pierre L’Enfant and other founders of Washington, D.C., were political, professional, and personal enemies of John Jay and therefore snubbed him when naming the streets in 1791.

  Rimensnyder adds that there is a two-mile-long “Jay” Street in the Deanwood section of northeast Washington. Although this street presumably honors our first Supreme Court Chief Justice, its naming didn’t upset Pierre L’Enfant in the slightest: “Jay” Street wasn’t adopted until after 1900.

  Submitted by M. Babe Penalver, of Bronx, New York.

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  What Happens to the Tread That Wears Off Tires?

  The tread wears gradually off our tires. After a few years of heavy mileage, it eventually becomes bare. But we don’t see bits of tread on the road (except from premature blowouts, of course). Highways are not discolored with blackened tread bits. Does tire tread disappear along with our socks?
r />   The automobile industry, the tire industry, and some independent pollution experts have long been concerned about what may seem to be a trivial problem. Two specialists in the chemistry department of the Ford Motor Company have estimated that 600,000 metric tons of tire tread are worn off American vehicles every year. The possibility was more than remote that all of this material might remain in the air, in suspendable particles, which could be dangerous to humans. So they sought a way to measure what happens to the disappearing tread.

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  Tests to determine the presence of tire tread were held in three different sites, all of which presented some problems. First, indoor tests were designed to simulate driving wear on a tire. Unfortunately, without ambient weather conditions, worn rubber simply tended to stick to the simulated road surface. Scientists knew this wasn’t what happened under real conditions, for the second type of tests, on real highways, indicated that virtually no rubber stayed on the road, due to wind, rain, and movement of surrounding traffic. Additionally, surface areas around highways were sometimes cleaned by maintenance crews, hindering efforts to measure long-term accumulation of tire tread. The third type of test, in tunnels, might be thought to show the maximum possible buildup of tire tread, except that road surfaces in tunnels tend to wear tires less than surface streets, and the lack of natural wind and rain in the tunnel made any extrapola-tion difficult.

  Still, the combined results of these experiments did provide quite a lot of information about exactly what happens to tire tread.

  Whereas the most common substance in exhaust fumes is dangerous lead, the most plentiful tire debris is in the form of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), the most common rubber hydrocarbon in treads. Most of the tread debris is not in the form of gas, but rather in microscopic particles that are heavy enough to fall to the ground.