When I was a kid, we could buy a putt-putt boat made out of tin in the 5&10. A product of Japan. One of them cost like 10 cents. Expensive back then. Spider-man #1 costs 12 cents. But those putt-putt boats came with a flat candle dish that you had to light underneath the boiler that you had to fill with a half teaspoon of water to make it work. You had to do it right. The candle would heat the water and produce steam. ...after a while... The steam was (ingeniously) directed beneath the waterline and propelled the toy. It was cool. We went through a dozen of them before we lost interest. My uncle pulled one of them out of the pond after we brothers and cousins (5 of us between the ages of 6 and 10) found something more interesting to do. He was impressed with the basic engineering.
Years later, while sitting around his kitchen table drinking the 40th beer of the night, my uncle told us the secret of the Japanese success. He took apart one of those putt-putt boats and saw the tin inside. It was hand cut from Maxwell House and Folger's Coffee cans and bent into shape with tabs and slots to create a functional (toy) steam engine. Japan bought our junk and sold us toys.
Of course, my uncle waited all those years to tell us. "You'll never be as good as the Japanese".
...? ...Grrrr. Why do you say that?
I salute my uncle (RIP). He was right all along. He fought (unwillingly) in WW2. I remember him yelling, "SLAVE? SLAVE? They made me work on their B-17 engines for pennies a day. I don't want to hear about any nigger slaves. I was one! Fuck those niggers."
When I was a kid, we could buy a putt-putt boat made out of tin in the 5&10. A product of Japan. One of them cost like 10 cents. Expensive back then. Spider-man #1 costs 12 cents. But those putt-putt boats came with a flat candle dish that you had to light underneath the boiler that you had to fill with a half teaspoon of water to make it work. You had to do it right. The candle would heat the water and produce steam. ...after a while... The steam was (ingeniously) directed beneath the waterline and propelled the toy. It was cool. We went through a dozen of them before we lost interest. My uncle pulled one of them out of the pond after we brothers and cousins (5 of us between the ages of 6 and 10) found something more interesting to do. He was impressed with the basic engineering.
Years later, while sitting around his kitchen table drinking the 40th beer of the night, my uncle told us the secret of the Japanese success. He took apart one of those putt-putt boats and saw the tin inside. It was hand cut from Maxwell House and Folger's Coffee cans and bent into shape with tabs and slots to create a functional (toy) steam engine. Japan bought our junk and sold us toys.
Of course, my uncle waited all those years to tell us. *"You'll never be as good as the Japanese"*.
...? ...Grrrr. Why do you say that?
I salute my uncle (RIP). He was right all along. He fought (unwillingly) in WW2. I remember him yelling, "SLAVE? SLAVE? They made me work on their B-17 engines for pennies a day. I don't want to hear about any nigger slaves. I was one! Fuck those niggers."
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