Including scenes of utter toolery; a thing that isn’t rocket science; a brief history of can openers; a matter of some urgency; and when immobilising ambulances is just radical larks, baby.
Including scenes of utter toolery; a thing that isn’t rocket science; a brief history of can openers; a matter of some urgency; and when immobilising ambulances is just radical larks, baby.
That brief history of can openers: It just shows how far we have fallen in ordinary technology. Just try finding a can opener that actually works flawlessly anymore, whether manual or electric. So much plastic that flexes and breaks. Cutters that are dull, or too soft to stay sharp. Lots of flashy designs and fashion, and no functionality. Those fellows in the 1800s had it all figured out long ago, and then we lost our common sense and farmed manufacturing out to China. An American or Canadian manufacturer would go broke if they built such cheap stuff; people just wouldn’t buy any more of their stuff. But we keep buying foreign junk that repeatedly disappoints.
I bought a new Swing-A-Way opener from Amazon. It was based on a 1960s design. Wall-mounted, large hand crank. Those old openers worked every time, for decades. This one was a clone built in China and skipped, leaving uncut sections so you had to go around and around until it was all cut. I took the cutter wheel off it. It was too small. I took some W1 drill steel and machined a new wheel 1/8″ larger in diameter and heat-treated it. Put it on, and it’s been working without fail for four years.
But not everyone has a lathe and other stuff and skills to do that. Those used to be common, too, in the ’50s and ’60s.
Can openers are alien technology. They come from the constellation Canopus.