A couple with three children waited in line at San Francisco's Pier 41 to purchase tickets for a boat trip to Alcatraz. Others watched with varying degrees of sympathy and irritation as the young children fidgeted, whined, and punched one another. The frazzled parents reprimanded them to no avail.
Finally they reached the ticket window. "Five tickets, please," the father said. "Two round trip, three one way."
Stainless steelIn 1820, as the steel industry was making huge technological advances, chemists tried to create a rust-proof, or stainless steel. A French metallurgist observed that when carbon steel was combined with an alloy like chrome, it did yield a rust-resistant metal. A century would pass before two British scientists continued his work and, in 1913, Europe was introduced to stainless steel. Its smooth, hard surface doesn't trap dirt, bacteria or molds - and today, stainless steel is used in everything from silverware and jewelry to spacecraft. |
