Gregory Aharonian reported in the February 27 issue of his PATNEWS newsletter an interesting article in the Feedback section of the February 28 issue of New Scientist. It describes how JVC’s engineers decided to soak birch wood in sake “to make it pliant enough to use as a loudspeaker cone.” According to its inventor, Satoshi Imamura: (14N)
One night I left the laboratory after another day of failed attempts to mould the wood and went to a restaurant. We were eating dried squid and I wondered why something dry was so chewy. The waiter told me that some kinds of dried squid are soaked in sake. So I went back to the lab and put some of the cone wood in sake. When I came back next day I knew I had found the answer. (14O)
Low-focus thought at its best. (14P)