MOTnews 61 (24/06/2005)

BAKER'S OVEN WORKSHOP FULLY BOOKED

You have already received information about the "Save the Baker's Ovens!" project in MOTnews. In addition, you can read our handbook for the restoration, construction and use of baker's ovens at www.mot.be. However, in addition to our explanatory page on the web, the MOT will this summer be holding a hands-on workshop for those who are still hesitating about getting down to the nitty-gritty of bricks and mortar. At the workshop, people will learn, step-by-step, how to build a wood-burning oven. The registration form was only online for ten days, and to our regret (or should that be delight?), we must now already announce that there are no more vacancies for the workshop. Congratulations to all those who registered quickly, and the best of luck next time for those who will not be able to participate.

GRANDMOTHER'S RECIPES

Useful egg tips!

How often does it happen that the delicious soft-boiled egg, which you had been looking forward to so much, cracks during boiling?

Do you know why this happens?

Well, there is an air chamber in the egg. Boiling the egg makes the air expand, and sometimes the pressure in the egg becomes so great that the shell breaks.

We will give you a few tips for preventing this.

7) Prick a hole in the "blunt" end with an egg pricker (this is where the air chamber is located). This will allow the air to escape during boiling.

8) If you start boiling the egg in cold water, it heats up more slowly than if you put it directly into boiling water. If the air is heated slowly, it can escape through the shell.

9) Instead of "preventing" you can also "cure". Sprinkle a little salt in the cooking water, and if the shell then bursts it will repair itself. The egg white that escapes through the crack coagulates because of the salt and thus closes the crack.

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 tell your children this evening Do you know why traffic lights are green and orange?

The designers of traffic lights took the idea of this colour code from trains.

In an earlier edition of MOTnews (you can find all the issues at www.mot.be) we told you how trains are responsible for all our clocks telling the same time everywhere. They are also responsible for safer traffic signals!

The colours of red, orange and green had been used for a long time in the train industry to give machinists the signals they needed about approaching trains, so as to avoid collisions. The choice for red as a stop light was obvious, since red is the colour of blood, the colour that signifies danger. The two other colours were chosen after they were tested on the public. In the 1830s, experiments were carried out with the colour white instead of green as a sign for yielding right of way, and green was still the warning signal at that time. But this did not work. Too many people confused the white light for example with the light of a street lantern, and were too inclined to cross the track. >From then onward, the definitive colour choice was: red for "stop", green for "go", and orange for "caution". After the success of this system in the train industry, the people responsible for traffic management simply took over the colour codes for the traffic lights on the street. The first electric stoplight only appeared in 1914, in the USA.

In a following KIDS news, we will tell you how the people in the train industry came to know their stuff.