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| Thread ID: 34176 | 2003-06-06 04:26:00 | WFTWE #53.....Formication....No, not that! This makes you want to Fyerk.... | Billy T (70) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 150207 | 2003-06-06 04:26:00 | Two 'F' words for your delectation folks: Formication An abnormal feeling like the sensation of ants crawling on your skin. Fyerk To flick away using one's finger and thumb. That's what you feel like doing when formication strikes. Probably quite close to what you were thinking when you read the first one too.]:) Cheers Billy 8-{) :D [pre][b]That's 'F' as in 'Family', I have a reputation to maintain here. :8} |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 150208 | 2003-06-06 05:20:00 | But it's not like the sensation of touching a popular kitchen table surfacing plastic Formica. (Of course, that's called that because it is made with formic acid -- which is the irritating agent used by ants to cause that sensation :D) | Graham L (2) | ||
| 150209 | 2003-06-06 06:09:00 | LOL :^O You were joking of course Graham, weren't you? ?:| Formica is actually the latin name for ant, hence formic acid, but I don't think the manufacturers of Formica knew that. Their product is made of paper plus phenolic and melamine resins, compressed and heated and I think the name came from the "forming" process. I like the ant story better though, and the sight of a formica table top send waves of nostalgia through me. It reminds me of hot summers at the beach, sticky plastic covered chairs and collecting the day's milk from the local cowshed in a billy can. (So called because I had to carry it ;)) Cheers Billy 8-{) :D [b][pre]The billy can carrying bit is true though, they didn't deliver bottled milk to where I spent summer holidays so there wasn't any choice but to collect it straight from the farmer's shed. My kids think I'm ancient but I still don't pre-date bottled milk. :8} |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 150210 | 2003-06-06 18:44:00 | "The goods in issue are described as rigid non-cellular laminated sheets... They are composed of three main layers: the core layer which is kraft paper impregnated with a phenolic resin; the decorative layer which is paper impregnated with a melamine-formaldehyde resin; and the overlay layer which is alpha-cellulose paper impregnated with a melamine resin." From a court appeal Formica (Canada) vs The Deputy Minister of National Revenue (the Taxman). I'd always understood that the original elements of the name were "formaldehyde" and "mica". Mica is a laminated natural mineral. It always puzzled me that you could get a rock to participate in chemical synthesis, but I wasn't curious enough to question it. Learning that even the outer layer of Formica is actually made of paper is new to me. Perhaps "paper in thin layers as tho' it were mica." Whatever, "formaldehyde" is certainly the genesis of the first part of the name, nothing to do with "forming". And formaldehyde is so called because it is very closely chemically related to formic acid, which, as has been pointed out, is so called because it's the irritant in an ant's bite. Fyerk is a nice word; I must think of an occasion to use it. Argus |
argus (366) | ||
| 150211 | 2003-06-07 03:01:00 | To special order formica NZ would include whatever paper item you wanted as the top layer. I had two marine maps of the Hauraki Gulf embedded in formica that my father had made many years ago. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
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