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Yesteryear

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

August 3, 2004

           Have you heard of the Fisher space pen? Maybe not directly, but these are the astronaut pens that write in zero gravity. There was public outrage when it was discovered NASA was paying $130 for special pens, so Fisher (Paul is his name) invented this one for $6 in 1965. He even sold them to the Soviets, who had been using grease pencils. Here is a link to a Brit video of the manufacturing process, a video that careful avoids saying how utterly American this device is.
           These pens are still for sale, but the prices are also in orbit. Prices have risen ten times since, so these pens likely see for close to $60. I'm the other side of the street, that it is what you write, not the pen that counts. I use the cheapest pens possible, which is good considering how many I lose. Per week.
           The next time you are at Office Bunker, look at the mechanical pencil section. Those 9mm leads were once used in space on the theory a thicker lead was harder to break. But broken pencils and space ship gear don't get along. Actually, a regular ballpoint would work in space because the ink flows due to capillary action and gravity. If you write in space, you have no gravity, but if you write upside down on Earth, the gravity works against the capillary action. Don't say you never learned anything here.
           Julie, the single mother from work, is still in California. Holidays. She's kind of the head of payroll, a position gained by job-training, not schoolwork. Here is a photo of the Platte River in Nebraska. Ah, you say, but where is the water? For the third year in a row, there isn't any.