First, please go back to Friday's post and then take the poll to the right. Time's almost up!
My Supersize Me post inspired a reader to share a story.
He wrote about when he took a Mechanical Engineering class, many years ago. We'll just say his college days go back a few years but probably not as far as mine (class of 1891). It was in a day when an engineering class was male-dominated, and often male-exclusive. The professor was trying to explain design tolerances.
This is the lecture, as he remembers it:
I will assume you gentlemen can visualize a ladies brassiere, a device to provide support for the cantilevered portion of a woman's body. It is held in place mainly by the elasticity of the rubber in the horizontal section. One edge has a series of metal hooks spaced along the edge. The opposite end has corresponding columns of metal loops into which the hooks mate. There are three or four columns of loops. Each column is spaced about one inch further from the row of loops along the edge.
When the brassiere is new and the elastic is fresh and firm, the design is for the lady to hook into the loops closest to the edge. As the brassiere ages and the rubber loses it's elasticity the lady [ahem] will move the connection to next inward column of loops until the innermost column of loops can no longer obtain the needed tension for support. At that time the brassiere is worn out and should be replaced. If properly designed, and used as designed the entire brassiere should be ready for replacement at that time.
Worn out brassieres? One of the paradoxes of the closet is, clothes get worn out without ever getting worn out. :)
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