Thai Barbecues Diving Masks & Fins Bassoons
The word barbecue seems to originate in haiti where indigenous people developed a method of cooking meat outdoors over a wooden structure long before columbus arrived. Nobody knows exactly when humans started grilling. But it's safe to assume that we've been cooking outdoors longer than indoors. In thailand, many homes and restaurants have a popular kind of barbecue. It's a small portable charcoal burner. This new, more efficient design has become increasingly popular both in thailand and abroad. Workers start by adding the raw materials to a mixer, beginning with clay. They add a fiber derived from ground-up rice husks. This fiber reinforces the clay, giving it added strength and helping to prevent the finished product from cracking at high temperatures. The correct mixture is two parts clay to one part husk. Once the mixer thoroughly blends the materials, it extrudes the resulting compound in a thick ribbon, ready for the next phase of production. A worker rolls the clay in a small quantity of a third material also derived from rice. This is rice husk ash. And adding it to the clay helps prevent mold growth. A craftsman places the clay inside a specially shaped mold, which sits on a potter's wheel. As the wheel turns the mold, the craftsman works with a metal arm and handheld tools to spread and shape the clay. He then removes the fully formed clay pot. Having marked out three locations on the rim of the pot, a craftsman now adds some husk ask to a handheld mold to prevent sticking. He then packs the mold with clay before pressing it into the pot's rim and inner surface. He smoothes the clay around them, integrating them into the pot. These three elements will form raised supports for cooking pots, woks and kettles. At this stage, the pot has air dried enough to safely remove it from the mold. The craftsman now uses a handheld tool to define and finish the edges of the rim and supports. He then uses a metal, rectangular template to mark and cut out a small vent for air intake at the base of the pot. An artisan prepares a small disk of clay for a different stage of production. He uses a cylindrical metal tool to cut a series of 62 holes in the disk, creating a honeycomb pattern that will allow the passage of air. He uses a small beveled wooden tool to help smooth the edges of the holes. When the pots are fully formed, workers transfer them to the walk-in oven. Once there are a total of 500 pots and honeycombs inside, it's time to fire up the oven. The pots spend 8 hours in the oven at nearly 2,200 degrees fahrenheit. The firing process gives the gray clay a reddish tinge. To assemble the barbecues, a worker starts by creating a layer of rice husk between the clay pot and the zinc bucket. This insulates the metal from the barbecue's heat. He cuts out the rectangular vent that will allow air to flow into the bottom of the barbecue and help fuel the fire. He adds soil to the gap between the pot and the bucket to further insulate the exterior metal from the interior heat. The craftsman now seals all the gaps in the barbecue with mortar in order to keep the husk and soil firmly in place. The honeycomb disk fits perfectly into the bottom of the pot. It will hold charcoal up above the vent hole, allowing air to flow up through it, fueling the fire, while permitting ash to fall down into the cavity below. A worker carefully mortars the disk in place. This barbecue is a low-tech but highly effective outdoor stove, useful whenever it's too hot to cook inside. If you're scuba diving, free diving or snorkeling, you need a mask to maintain a layer of air between your eyes and the water. Without that barrier, your eyes can't focus under water. Fins are another diving must-have to let you push away more water when you kick and give you stronger propulsion. Diving fins consist of a foot pocket and a blade. The blade has side arms running down its length. These strengthen the blade and amplify the forward thrust a kicking foot generates. The parts are made of thermoplastic. To make the fin blade, the manufacturers mix clear thermoplastic granules with a specific portion of color dye granules and drop them into the feed tank of an injection molding machine. The factory uses certain types of thermoplastic when making fins with a stiff blade and other types when making more flexible models. The machine heats the granules until they melt then injects the liquefied thermoplastic into a blade-shaped mold. The plastic quickly cools and solidifies. Then the mold opens. And extractors eject the blade. A robot grasps the blade with suction and removes it from the mold. As the robot lifts the blade out of the machine, the mold closes again to receive another injection to make the next blade. The robot deposits the blade onto a conveyer belt which transports it through a cold-air tunnel. This cools the thermoplastic enough to enable the upcoming component materials to properly adhere to the blade. The next robot picks up the cooled blade and moves it to another injection molding machine, which performs a process known as over printing, molding on additional parts until the fin is completed. The robot first removes the previous completed fin fresh out of the over printing injection mold. This machine melted down granules of thermoplastic rubber, a more flexible material, and simultaneously injection molded the side arms and the foot pocket onto the blade. Once the robot pulls off this completed fin, it loads the new blade into the mold. As the mold closes for the next injection, the robot deposits the finished fin into a conveyer belt. The over printing process also applied the manufacturer's name and some decorative elements. By changing the molds on the injection machines and using different types and colors of thermoplastic materials, the factory produces a wide range of fin models. A diving mask is made up of a flexible silicone facial skirt attached to a rigid frame with lenses. The skirt, which this injection molding machine produces from liquid silicone, seals the frame to the face, preventing water infiltration. While thermoplastic must be melted before injection, then cooled to a solid state, silicone must be injected combined with a hardening agent then heated to a solid state. The frame is made the same way as the fins but using a more rigid type of thermoplastic. A worker begins assembling the mask by threading a silicone head strap through the frame's buckles. They attach the silicone skirt, first pressing the nose portion into the bridge of the frame. Then the worker connects the eye area. The frame is designed to enable the silicone skirt to slot right in. Next, the lenses, which are made of tempered glass. While they're highly resistant, they don't withstand frontal impact. So the diver shouldn't plunge into the water face first. The final step is to clip in rigid thermoplastic lens retainers and clamp each one securely to the lens and frame. The mask is now ready for a final inspection to make sure no water will seep in when you wear it. Just like fins, there's a wide range of diving mask models designed to see through different types of underwater exploration. The bassoon was developed in france in the 17th century. It was a bass woodwind instrument like no other before it. It extended the range downward by a whole tone. This was a woodwind instrument that could hold its own against the bass strings. You could hear the difference. In the bassoon, the pipe is doubled up into a tight u for an instrument that has the necessary length to produce the low notes but is not unwieldy. To make a bassoon, they use bosnian maple. It's a dense wood stable enough to prevent vibrations. A cutting tool takes off the corners of the wood block as it begins to shape it into the end part of the bassoon, the bell joint. Using a reaming tool, they drill a cone-shaped air column into the bell joint. The next automated cutting tool trims the circumference and forms a rim on the end. From a rough piece of wood to a contoured pipe, this bell joint has taken shape. At another station, a bassoon technician drills angled finger holes into the wing or tenor joint. Then he files the ends of metal tubes to shape them to an angle that matches that of the finger holes. The technician also files down the outside of the tubes and carves grooves into them. He applications epoxy glue to the grooves and installs the tubes in the finger holes. The glue seals the tubes to the finger holes. The technician checks for light around the tube installations. That would indicate an improper seal. The next member of the team stains the bell joint to enhance the wood grain. She applies the same finish to every part of the bassoon. There are four joints that can be disassembled to fit into a carrying case. She also brushes a special lacquer over the stain. This lacquer is believed to effect the instrument's tone, giving it a round resonance. After a light sanding, the parts are buffed to restore the shine. The other craftsman now drills tone holes into the long joint. He drills a groove for the musician to slide his or her finger down to the c key. He relies on this metal template to correctly place the tone holes and the holes for the key posts. Over to the next station, a technician drills threads into the key holes. He injects oil into the holes throughout the drilling process. This provides lubrication to the drill to prevent splintering of the wood. He clamps a key post in a special gripping tool to hold it firmly as he files it to the correct length. The technician screws the key post into the threaded hole. Once it's installed, he removes the gripping tool. Using a long drill aimed laterally, he carves holes into the sides of the key posts. The technician installs a key by fitting a hinge tube into the holes in the post. He confirms that the pad cup on the end covers the tone hole completely. Satisfied with the positioning, he unpins the key and solders the hinge tube to it. When the solder solidifies, he files down the bulge. Silver plating gives it a uniform finish. A technician then glues the back of a piece of cork sized to fit the rim of the bassoon's long joint. He wraps the cork around the rim. And he files it to make the seam disappear. He then sands it smooth. Cork provides a flexible link between the instrument joints. It will tolerate the expansion and contraction of the wood due to temperature changes. A computer-controlled laser etches product information onto the instrument's wing and boot joints. The technician equips the end of the bell joint with a decorative plastic ring. It's an alternative to ivory, which is in short supply. Stay tuned for more as they prepare this bassoon for a life of performance. The bassoon is often called the clown of the orchestra because of its ability to produce impish and almost comical sounds. It also deepens the symphonic sound with its rich, mellow tones. It may be the clown, but the bassoon makes a serious contribution to the orchestral ensemble. A bassoon craftsman glues a silver-plated collar to the end of the bell joint that attaches to the long joint. The collar reinforces the wood. And it also gives this end of the bell joint a finished look. He uses a block of wood to absorb the impact of the blows as he hammers the glued collar snugly in the recess in the bell joint. Production now moves back to the bassoon's keys, as another craftsman polishes the silver to a mirror finish. Each bassoon has between 38 and 46 keys, depending on the model. Finishing these keys is the most intense part of the bassoon-making process. The technician glues padding to the key cups, spatulas and levers. The padding will muffle the clicks of the keys so they don't rise above the music. They use different materials, depending on the length of the keys. Longer keys make more noise. So they receive thick cork padding. The technician files the edges of the pads to make them flush to the key parts. The shorter keys receive the thinner rubber pads. Again, filing gets rid of the extra material around the edges. On the spatula of this medium-length key, the technician installs a felt pad. Felt is thicker than rubber but thinner than cork. As you can see, applying pads to the bassoon's keys is a real science. With that job done, he moves onto the next step, attaching the rubber rollers that enable the musician to play faster. The technician inserts screws in the hollow of the rollers to secure them to the keys. And he screws them tightly in place. He then fastens flat springs to some keys so they'll spring back once played. The next technician melts wax into the key caps that will close the tone holes of the bassoon. And while the wax is still molten, she inserts a felt and cardboard pad covered with goat leather. She secures the key to the long joint. The wax has hardened a bit by now. So she heats it up again using a torch. This softens it so she can manipulate the pad so it sits perfectly in the cup. The technician props up the end of the key with a piece of cork. And this stops the key from moving until the wax solidifies. They install the boot joint keys the same way. Inside the boot joint are two parallel pipes made of hard rubber. The bassoon technician places a seal on the end of the joint. He installs a silver-plated u-shape tube over it. And this creates a turning point for air. He caps it to prevent air from escaping. The technician attaches a hand rest to the boot joint. He fastens a long clip to the instrument for the bassoon strap. It's adjustable for different shoulder positions. The steel bocal or crook connects the reed to the bassoon. All the parts should now fit together perfectly. The technician attaches the four joints. He inserts the wing joints into one of the boot's joint holes. He installs the long joint in the other. He locks the wing and long joints together with a little mechanism. The technician then connects the bell joint to the long joint. He places the bocal in its socket atop the wing joint. He then checks the bocal's vent key to confirm that it opens and closes correctly. And now a professional musician tests the bassoon and tunes it. With his okay, the bassoon leaves the factory ready to join the orchestra.