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The Toilet Yes...those tales you've heard are true. The toilet was first patented in England in 1775, invented by one Thomas Crapper, but the extraordinary automatic device called the flush toilet has been around for a long time. Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1400's designed one that worked, at least on paper, and Queen Elizabeth I reputably had one in her palace in Richmond in 1556, complete with flushing and overflow pipes, a bowl valve and a drain trap. In all versions, ancient and modern, the working principle is the same. Tripping a single lever (the handle) sets in motion a series of actions. The trip handle lifts the seal, usually a rubber flapper, allowing water to flow into the bowl. When the tank is nearly empty, the flap falls back in place over the water outlet. A floating ball falls with the water level, opening the water supply inlet valve just as the outlet is being closed. Water flows through the bowl refill tube into the overflow pipe to replenish the trap sealing water. As the water level in the tank nears the top of the overflow pipe, the float closes the inlet valve, completing the cycle. From the oldest of gadgets in the bathroom, let's turn to one of the newest, the toothpaste pump. Sick and tired of toothpaste squeezed all over your sink and faucets? Does your spouse never ever roll down the tube and continually squeezes it in the middle? Then the toothpaste pump is for you! When you press the button it pushes an internal, grooved rod down the tube. Near the bottom of the rod is a piston, supported by little metal flanges called "dogs", which seat themselves in the grooves on the rod. As the rod moves down, the dogs slide out of the groove they're in and click into the one above it. When you release the button, the spring brings the rod back up carrying the piston with it, now seated one notch higher. This pushes one-notch's-worth of toothpaste out of the nozzle. A measured amount of toothpaste every time and no more goo on the sink. Refrigerators Over 90 percent of all North American homes with electricity have refrigerators. It seems to be the one appliance that North Americans can just not do without. The machine's popularity as a food preserver is a relatively recent phenomenon, considering that the principles were known as early as 1748. A liquid absorbs heat from its surroundings when it evaporates into a gas; a gas release... ... alone are sold every day in North America. Ink feeds by gravity through five veins in a nose cone, usually made of brass, to a tungsten carbide ball. During the writing process, the ball rotates, picking up a continuous ink supply through the nose cone and transferring it to the writing paper. The ball is a perfect sphere, which must fit precisely into the extremely smooth nose cone socket so that it will rotate freely yet be held tightly in place so that there is an even ink flow. Although it sounds deceptively simple, perhaps the most amazing thing about ball-point pens is the ink. Why doesn't it just run out the end? Why doesn't it dry up in the plastic cartridge? Bic describes the ink as "exclusive, fast-drying, yet free flowing". The formula is, of course, secret. In the 19th century, writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed a fear that perhaps we all feel to some extent, that "things are in the saddle and ride Mankind". But with the help of good household reference books, friendly reference librarians, and helpful manufacturers only too willing to help consumers understand their products, we can at least get a rein on the technology in our homes.