Who On Earth Invented … The Pedal Bin?!
Continuing our series on enterprising inventors of everyday things we take for granted, Sally Anne asks …
Who on Earth invented…the Pedal Bin?!
You’re carrying something to the bin, your hands are full and you don’t want to spill it. Thank goodness for the pedal bin! Read on to find out about the inventor who tried to make life easier.
Ergonomics is the science of making equipment which fits and works with the human body. This basically means making things work as easily and as conveniently as possible. Dr Lillian Gilbreth was a keen inventor who believed in finding the easiest way of getting things done. As such, she invented a range of gadgets to make jobs easier, including the pedal bin in the 1920s. Now we have to admit, pedal bins aren’t very exciting, but Lillian’s life definitely was.
Living in History
Now you know what reenactment is, from Alison’s excellent article, you may want to know a bit more about how it all works. How much work is involved in sewing the clothes, what do they eat, how do they get around? Alison’s mother Jax has written a great article about all this and more
It wasn’t an easy life, living in Tudor times. You can find that out by reading about it in a variety of places.
But I found it out by living it at Kentwell Hall.
We do reenactment. We being our entire family, from my son who was a Tudor baby aged 4 months last summer, through to my partner Tim.
The Contronym – a Word that Bends Over Backwards
I expect most of you have heard of antonyms, and even if you haven’t heard the word, you know them and use them every day. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite. For example, hot is the antonym of cold, rich is the antonym of poor.
But what happens when we have a word that doesn’t have another antonym – it is the antonym of itself?! You are probably wondering what on earth that could mean. Well, there are some words that have two meanings which are the opposite of each other. This makes the word its own antonym. Words like this are known as contronyms.
LEFT
Left and Left Behind
One very common one that we shall start with is a word that you use all the time without ever thinking about it being a contronym. This is left, which can mean “gone, departed” or “still there, remaining” . If you have gone, then you have left, but if everyone else except you has gone, then you are left!
My Multilingual Life – Written By You
‘Do you speak English?’
For British and American girls who travel to a different country, that question is often the first sentence we learn.
‘Sprechen Sie Englisch’
‘Parlez-vous Anglais’
‘habla usted Inglés’
‘Вы говорите по-английски’
‘您说英语吗’
What is it like for the estimated two thirds of the world’s population who speak at least two languages? The people who we refer to as ‘bilingual’, if they speak two languages, and sometimes as ‘multilingual’, if they speak more than two languages.
The researcher and writer David Crystal estimates that of the approximately 570 million people in the world who speak English, over 41% are bilingual in English and some other language.
Today’s contributor knows all about speaking more than one language.