A 'paltry' matter

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

I asked a few of my urban friends what the story is with chooks and roosters. You guessed it, few adults knew much more about it than our young enquirer.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), November 20, 2001

Answers

Scary, isn't it?

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), November 20, 2001.

The further from the countryside we become in our upbringing the worse it's going to get. I run into so many of these people, even many raised in the country, that it no longer surprises or even much apalls me.

={(Oak)-

-- Live Oak (live-oak@atlantic.net), November 21, 2001.


On the other hand John how is copper wire made?

-- Ed (smikula@bellsouth.net), November 21, 2001.

Hmmmmm Ed! good question. I imagine copper wire is made by a drawing process, maybe through a die? Copper and copper wire has been around for a few thousand years so maybe early artisans just beat and stretched it as best they could.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), November 21, 2001.

When I first read the TJ post about the chickens, I was reminded of how little my husband knows about plants and animals, he has asked me stuff that any one with a basic knowledge of science should be able to figure out. A twist on it that he is a high school graduate with good grades (he could have had a scholarship) and I dropped out, (mostly due to boredom and stress).

I saw a clip on wire manufacturing on tv, (I think it was on Mr.Rogers Neiborhood) it started out a coil of flat stock then it was run through smaller and smaller sized rollers and drawing tubes that squeezed and pulled the wire out, I can't remember if it was heated along the way or not. It was a cool machine.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), November 21, 2001.



When you work copper like that to make wire, you have to anneal it along the way to soften it back up again, or else it will get too brittle and break. From someone who has made wire, and raised a number of species of birds.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), November 21, 2001.

Ancient wire was 'beaten ' into shape & sometimes poured into molds, the 'draw' method is pretty modern. I saw a lovely old industrial draw plate being used as a stepping stone!!! Taking a metal working class at the time we only had small 3 x 7 jewlery draw plates. The fellow was happy to find out what it was but was gonna leave this fine tool in the dirt, would not sell it either....+ouch+ I am glad to hear it is not just mississippi that was uneducated on basic biology. :O LOL!

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), November 21, 2001.

Nice description of a very old process but making copper wire that way would bankrupt any manufacturer now a days and relegate copper wire to the households of the the reasonably rich as it was when the methods you mention were employed. See simple every day item you don't know where it comes from or how its made. most people no longer have a need for animal husbandry as most people have no need for an indepth knowledge of the workings of a specific manufacturing plant. While I really enjoy fresh produce and the relative ease that it may be grown, livestock and poultry in my lifestyle is a major pain it's easier to get what I need from the egg lady and be able to spend weeks a year at the ocean. But on the otherhand it was fun bustin up the muscovey ducks doin it to watch them run around with their thing dragging on the ground, and having pissin matches in back of the chicken coup when I was a kid.

-- Ed (smikula@bellsouth.net), November 21, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ