Dege 6, The teratd, Gridy,, Qecember 21, 1977

TERRACE/KITIM AT

daily herald

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GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland
EDITOR - Greg Middleton

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CONSUMER
COMMENT

Now that toy stores and departments have turned
into brightly decorated toylands and department store
Santas are open for business, Christmas shoppers are
starting to make their selections for the children on
their gift lists. But nowadays, this is not always as
easy a task as it might seem, for the Canadian toy
industry is huge, with more than 15,000 different toys
already on the market and more and more being in-
troduced every year. So with such a choice con-
fronting us, and realizing the importance of toys to a
child's healthy development, how da we choose a toy
that is suitable and safe for a particular child? And
how do we ensure that we are getting good value for
the money that we spend on toys?

The Canadian Toy Testing Council has some
suggestions. The Council is a non-profit organization,
that use-tests toys with children, and reports their
findings each year in the Toy Report, with the purpose
of acquainting consumers with good toys that are
available on the Canadian market, and encouraging
manufacturers by reporting test results to them, along
with constructive comments. ;

. Here is what they suggest you to keep in mind when
buying toys:

1) Consider the child's age and ability, and provide
toys that will assist in development, but not be so
complicated as to frustrate.

2) Consider durability and ruggedness. Will the toy
stand up to normal use and possible abuse?
Remember that while older children are more skilled
at handling smailer, more fragile things, toys for
younger children must be especially sturdy.
Washability, too, is an important feature, since young
children tend to put most objects they handle into their
mouth.

3) A child’s imagination should be stimulated by
toys. Mabiple toy endiwed with a child's imagination
can be.a.very.versatilesplaything that a child can
make fit into any number of situations, and may find
amusing for hours. But a highly sophisticated or
complex toy that a child just winds up or inserts
batteries, making it perform on its own, puts
developing skills and imaginations out of use, and
offers little contribution to a child’s growth,

4) A toy's design should be appealing and realistic,
for it is from toys that children learn much about
colour and about how things fit together, and develop
an appreciation of artistic harmony.

5) Toys should function properly. Children expect
toys to work as they're supposed to, and if a toy is
supposed to make a noise or fit together in some way,
then the child may become frustrated if it doesn’t.
Poor design, improper materials used, poor in-
structions, or insufficient parts and materials are
some reasons why toys may not function as they

should, and turn the object into more of an ornament

than a plaything.

6) Consider a toy’s ‘play value’. This means not
only the hours of play that children derive from a toy,
but’ also the extent to which it adds to their total
growth. More play value can be achieved if new toys
are related in function to toys already owned,since
they can supplement each other, and thus be used ina
variety of ways. For example, small cars and trucks
can be used by the imaginative child in conjunction
with building blocks, or trains, or in sand play.

7) It is extremely important that the toys given a
child are safe toys. Examine all toys for possible
faults that may cause injury. Remember that infants
like to put small objects into their mouths and may
ingest or choke on small typs or toys which have small
separable components. Care should be taken that
certain classes of toys that are suitable for older
children should be kept away from younger children it
it would expose them to undue risk.

8) Shop around for toys. Remember that since
retailers set their own prices, prices vary from store
tostore. Also, check on the store's return policy before
you buy. Does it provide refund, replacement or
repair? A little pre-purchase homework can often
save time and money later.

To obtain a copy of “The Toy Report’, send $2.50
plus postage to: The Canadian Toy Testing Council,
Box 6014, Station J, Ottawa, Ont. K2A 1T1

HERAART

ajit

“I'm really proud of you! This time tomorrow, you'll
have been on your diet a whole waek.”

mystery

of |

inventiveness

This is the thirteenth of a weekly, Hfteen-part
general interest, non credit, educational serles on
technology and change, called Connections, offered by
the Open Learning Institute.

Each week, an article will appear in this paper. On
Sunday, at 8 p.m. on Channel 9 (Cable TV), you can
watch the PBS television series, Connections, part of
this multi-media: continuing education program. As
well, you can purchase a Viewer's Guide from the
Open Learning Institute. . Se

In this article, historian Lynn White Jr., emeritus
professor at the University of California, Loa Angeles
examines the creative process behind technological
inventions. ,

. By LYNN WHITE, JR. .

How the minds of inventors work is a puzzling
problem. Why people invent what they do, when they
do, rermains a mystery. -

Indeed, there may be no such single thing as “‘the
innovative process.” A study of a number of different
inventions shows that a variety of factors enters into
technological creativity, Most inventions, however,
result from systematic attempts to solve specific
problems. .

Take the horseshoe, The world should be full of
monuments to the unknown genius who first nailed
iron shoes to the feet of a horse.

For nearly 3,000 years after its domestication, the
horse was used in warfare and sport, but only for
fairly light hauling — for example, of chariots, One
difficulty arose because the yoke-harness was tran-
sferred from oxen, to which it was well adapted, to
horses, on which it was very inefficient for reasons of
anatomy.

At last, about A.D. 800, a new harness, consisting of
a rigid horse collar connected to the wagon by traces,
appeared in Europe, perhaps having come from
Central Asia. Without adding cost, it increased the
pulling capacity of a team of horses by four or five

mes,

But another problem had to be solved before the néw
harness could become really effective. In moist
regions like northern Europe, the hoofs of horses are
much more fragile than those of oxen. They break
easily and wear down quickly with hard usage.

Our inventor, doubtless a blacksmith who lived in
northern Europe during the late ninth century, was
probably familiar with the iron sandals that ancient
veterinarians wired to broken hoofs to help their

healing. But he also knew that these often worked":

loose and chafed the horse's feet. a

~ Hehadasudden, breakthrough idea: toreduce wear.

and breakage, he would “nail” iron shoes to the haofs!
It was a bold, even foolhardy, notion. Horses were
valuable, and tolame one deliberately would certainly

have been a crime in his society. But he hammered on —

those shoes and they worked.

About A.D. 900 nailed horseshoes began to spread
swiftly on the plains from the Atlantic into central
Siberia. The importance of horses in the medieval and
early modern development of agriculture, transport,
and early industrialization is indicated by the fact that
even today, when horses are used mainly for sport, the
standard measure for the work-capacity of any engine
—electrical, internal combustion, or other —is called
“horse-power.”

Our debt to that anonymous blacksmith is immense.
Clearly, he had thought his problem through before-he
‘drove those nails. .
THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

There are times, however, when too miuch
awareness of past experience can handicap inventors.
The development of the internal combustion engine —
which evolved from the cannon — offers an-example.

The formula for gunpowder reached Europe from
China by 1260, But in both East and West, gunpowder
was used not in guns but simply in rockets, “Roman”
candles and firecrackers, although often for military
endg. The cannon was invented in Europe, more than
half a century later. It appears at Florence in 1326,
and we have a picture of one in England in 1327, The
first known Chinese cannon is dated 1332; the idea was
probably taken to China by an Italian merchant, for
many of them were trading there at that time.

The cannon {s a one-cylinder internal combustion
engine, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first
engineer to glimpse its non-military potential: he tried
to Eubstitute a piston for the ball, but failed. Several
inventors in the 17th and 18th centuries followed
Leonardo's intuition, but without success. The trauble
was that all of them were too keenly aware of-the
cannon as the source of their ideas, so they kept trying
to use gunpowder as their fuel.

Not until the 19th century did engineers conclude
that powder was too clumsy to run a continuously
operating engine. They then turned for their power to
the lighter distillates of petroleum — like kerosene or

asoline — that first had been produced by medieval

yzantine and Islamic alchemists for chemical
warfare. .

In inventing, knowing too much may be as great an
obstacle as knowing too little because it may hinder
spontaneity.

THE CRANKSHAFT

Concern for human safety has often been a motive

for invention —-asin the case of the crankshaft.

Many of our internal combustion engines today:

depend on crankshafts for conversion’ and tran-
Emission of motion. Indeed, modern machine design is
‘inconceivable without the crankshaft. It was Invented
shortly before 1335 by Guido da Vigevano, a fantous
medic who was then in Paris as personal physician to
the queen of France.

Guido was interested in reducing casualties among
soldiers pushing siege towers toward enemy walls. If
the men could move a tower from inside it rather than
from the outside, they would be better protected from
enemy fire. So he drew two diagrams of rolling
towers, each equipped with a double or compound
crank in the center of each of its two axles, He was so
pleased with this notion that he also sketched a sub-
marine propelled by paddle-wheels turned from inside
-by man-operated crankshafts.

PART

interested. They developed Guido’s device for the
theatrical machinery of the great pageants of the
court at Paris, In the 15th century, crankshafts
became part of the accepted engineering repertory of
Europe.
THE PARACHUTE

There is one early instance when we can almost look
into the inventor's mind at the moment when he
produced an invention of much significance for our
own century: the parachute.

In London there is the sketchbook of an anonymous

engineer, probably of Siena in Tuscany, that dates .

from the late 1470s and early 1480s. At one point, he
seems to be worrying about a friend imprisoned in a
tower. Is there any way for the captive to jump and
still survive? We see a drawing of a man dropping
from a considerable height, his fall braked by two
large, fluttering cloth streamers attached to his belt.
In his mouth is a sponge to protect his jaws from the
shock of landing. He looks terrified — and should be.

The next pages of the manuscript are filled with
military engines and the like. But our engineer.
sketcher is worried. about that man jumping. The
streamers won't decelerate his fall enough. Something’
more effective is needed. So, after 21 pages, our
jumper reappears. The sponge is now strapped around
his haad so that if he cries out in fright he will not lose
it. The streamers have been replaced by a conical
parachute, the world’s first.

A very few years later, Leonardo da Vinci sketched
a pyramids] parachute, About 1615 a Hungarian
bishop published a book on new engineering devices
that contained the first printed picture of a parachute.
Thereafter every European engineer knew the
theoretical possibility of parachutes; but there were
no actual situations in which one was needed.

Only after the Montgolfier brothers of France

"started ballooning in 1783 did the parachute find a,

anction — to allow descent from_a gas-filled balloon,

Gop > ae

—_— Fay J
The first human jump with one was made that same
year. Our anonymous Sienese engineer had created
the idea of a device that remained dormant, although
known, for 300 years before it was used.

In our own ilme, in every major army, parachute
troops are the spearhead of swift infantry attack, and
without parachutes the manned exploration of space
might well have proved infeasible.

In pure science, great discovery, especially if it has
technological overtones, occasionally comes by ac-
eldent or happy chance to researchers. Famous
examples are Hans Christian Qersted’s observation in
1919 of the relation between magnetism and elec-
tricity, William H. Perkin’s discovery of aniline dyes
in 1856, and Alexander Fleming's of penicillin in 1928.

In engineering, such luck is curiously rare, In-
yentors seem to have to work for everything they
invent.

For them, fairy godmothers are in short supply.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LYNN WHITE, JR. is University Professor of
History, Emeritus, at the University of California, Los.
Angeles, where he joined the faculty in 1958. He had
previously served as President of Mills College from
1943 te 4958 and taught at Stanford University. He ts
the author of several books, including ‘“Meidleval
Technology and Social Change’ and “Medieval
Religion and Technology,’ and since 1970 has been
editor of “Viator: Medieval and Renaissance
Studies.”

Engineers in the French royal service were clearly °

OTTAWA OFFBEAT

BY RICHARD JACKSON

Ottawa,- You wouldn't believe it-you couldn’t-- if
you hadn't heard it happen with your own ears, and to
confirm your hearing, walched il taking place before

r very eyes. ;
in only 8 fw months--the election was just last May-
«those ‘ once big, bold Conservatives have been
swallowed whole and alive by that ongoing voracious
Liberai public service Establishment.

And little, if anything, has changed, except that with
so many new borads and comzissions and other job-
making agencies in the works, the whole overblown
apparatus has only grown bigger and more pervasive.

Remember how it was all going to be $0 different.

Net better--for the Tories couldn’t really promise
that, only hope for the best-but different.

Promises, promises.
Turning cut to be so much double-tatk and double-
ink

Remember how apolectic Sinclair Stevens and John
Crosbie would get about the Liberal policy advisers,
those faceless but enormously influential shadowy
Presences at the elbows of the Cabinet?

Well, with one exception-- a new deputy in Finance--
they’re still there. ;

Not merely tolerated because they might be difficult
ta purge. :

But treasured.

Regarded as simply peachy keen. ‘

Few things used to drive those once short-fused
*fories as crackers as the Liberal language program.

Oh sure, they supported the philosophy of two of-
ficial alnguages--what else could they do with Quebec
controlling 75 parliamentary seats and those Acadian

‘votes in New Brunswick and French support in
Northern and Eastern Ontario there for the bidding-
but they didn't like the way the Liberals were handling
it.

All wrong, said the Tories.

Especially those bilingual. bonuses, with 47,500
supposedly bilingual public servants drawing an
annual extra $900.

Turned out that a few thousand of them were
unilingual--spoke English only--bul they were in of-
ficially designated bilingual jobs, so they got the $800
regardless. ©

It was costing an annual $38 million,

The whole madcap exercise was scheduled to
continue into 1983 when the Liberal government last
year braced itself and said enaugh was enough and the
giveaway was over.

French public servants in Montreal threatened to
speak French only, and so the Liberals weakened and
extended the dying program to the endof the year.

Dying?

Of all unlikely people, the Tories have given .it
another $63 million transfusion of your tax money, ,
declaring it alive and well and accepted as party
policy. .

They're ‘‘discussing the situation’ with the public
service unions ‘to see how they feel,”” and hope for
some compromise by which the cost could be reduced,
but the principal preserved.

With an election facing them next are the Liberals
likely to drive a hard bargain?

You guessed it.

Meanwhile--and here the Tories used to howl--aging
public servants are continuing at government
language school,

Among the distinguished students was Rod Clack,

g high-salaried Assistant General Manager or, the

National Capital Commission, who was sent to school
in May--after the Tories had won--and jow just months
and $11,500 in tuition later is being loaned to the
Australian public service,

But this is where you came in years ago and nothing ©

seems to have changed.

LETTERS TO
_ THE EDITOR:

Dear Sir: Doug Romano for providing
The Children’s Christmas the beautiful Christmas
was a super success wilh 150 music, Caledonia’s com-
children and about 20 munity recreation 12 class
parents enjoying Free generously provided man-
Christmas festivities at the power for the mammoth
Arena's Banquet Room. event. Most of all though, we
Children gleefully made would like to thank Dear old
Gecorations for the tree and Santa for talking with all
some to take home for their those children!
own trees. ; . It’s support Irom people
We sould like to thank and groups like this that help
Skeena Mali and Laurie make Recreation better for
Mallet, ‘the mall manager,’ us allin Terrace. This will be
for making sure Santa at- an annual event from now
tended and for the Candy on, along with the October
Canes, Also Sight and Sound §= Pumpkin Party.
for providing an organ and = Mary-Margaret Smith-Sneed

sides of the same debased
socialist coin; a coin which |
refuse to accept,
Reference to female
writers is nothing but a red-
herring, MS. Asante. A
writer's sex is totally
Irrelevant. [ am concerned

Dear ‘Sir: .

This is “in reply to Ms,-
Asante's letter of Deé. 11th.

T write letters and columns
for the following reasons:

Personal satisfaction.

To develop interest in
diverse subjects and en-

courage though and With ideas, only. In_ this
discussion. connection, Miss Rand is the
; world's foremoat

To sell newspapers, philosepher,

To present a certain point
of view; the. philosophy of
freedom and Individualism.

To counter the present
flood = of = ‘collectivist
propaganda,

To have my words and
thoughts understood,

Obviously 1am being read.
Almost dally I am made
aware of both praise and
condemnation for my work.
Welcome to the club, Ms.
Asante! !

Ms. Asante thinks that I
speak for the extreme right.
Not so. Right and lteft,
politically, are simply two

And please Ms. Asante, da
not equate Christ and
Christlanky with proteat and
socialism. I may not be a
very devout Christian, but
shudder at such sacrilege.

It was good of you to write,
even if you couldn't think of
anything nice to say. I any
case, my objectives are
being fulfilled. Keep
reading.

A Merry Christmas to you
and your kind, Ms. Asante;
and may the New Year bring
Understanding,

Yours truly
Thomas Atrill