MOTnews 19 (22/06/2001)

DID YOU KNOW...?

Each to his own egg?

You collect chicken's eggs, goose eggs and in some places ostrich eggs in order to be able to eat the egg. But in the Brabant and Limburg Kempen (Campine), people used to collect ant's eggs. The sale of ant's eggs as bird feed, to the Antwerp Zoo, among other places, represented an additional income for the people of the Kempen until the late 1940s. At the beginning of the summer (May-June) they would set off to look for ant's eggs, sometimes roaming as far as the Ardennes. So how did they go about collecting the ant's eggs? Close by an ant hill they would make a few shallow pits, into which a cloth was placed. A few pine needles and twigs were scattered over every cloth. Then the nest was damaged, whereupon the ants escaped with their eggs. A path leading from the ants' nest to the pits had been cleared beforehand, and the ants followed this trail in order to deposit their eggs under the little twigs. Whilst the ants were returning to their nest, the "hunters" were able to collect their booty and put it into a bag. This procedure could be repeated several times until enough ant's eggs had been collected.

TRUE or FALSE

The sails of a windmill can turn in both directions, according to the direction in which the wind is blowing. You'll find the answer in the next MOT NEWS.

ANSWER to "TRUE or FALSE" in MOT NEWS no. 18 (25/05/2001)

Before the advent of cars and lorries, people used a horse and cart to transport loads. People made faster progress with a horse and cart than they did on foot.

FALSE

Using a horse did not necessarily mean that you travelled faster than you did on foot. A horse could usually only advance at a walk, particularly if it was harnessed to a wagon or cart. Irrespective of whether the horse or the person advanced at walking pace, the speed remained the same, so no benefit was derived from the use of horses in that respect. The advantage of the horse was of course that the load that it pulled no longer had to be carried by people, and that larger loads could also be transported. In some exceptional cases, when a complete route was mapped out during which the tired horse could be replaced by a fresh one at regular intervals, it was obviously possible to increase the speed appreciably. However, in the past this only happened in the case of special messenger services.

SAY WHAT? In this MOT-NEWS item we try to explain proverbs and sayings that have their roots in our technical history. Similar proverbs are found in different languages, but each language has it's own typical sayings. Therefore we do not translate this item in English.

KIDS NEWS. Something to do with your children this evening In the last KIDS NEWS, we explained how you could make a simple compass with a magnetised needle, a piece of cork and a little bowl of water. You had to fix the needle onto the cork in such a way that the whole thing could float on the water. However, did you know that the needle can also float on the water surface without the cork? This little trick does call for a bit of dexterity, since the needle has to be placed on the surface of the water very carefully and horizontally. You can lay the needle on the prongs of a fork and then slowly immerse this or - and this is even simpler - put the needle on a little cigarette paper on the water. The little piece of paper will sink as soon as it has absorbed enough water and the needle will then simply continue floating. When it is completely dry, the metal of the needle only becomes damp with great difficulty, which means that the needle does not sink immediately, even though metal has a higher density than water.