Covered Bowl

17 May, 2005 in art pottery by admin

Covered Bowl

A Small History of Bowling Balls

Every man needs to practice some kind of sport in order to detach from daily activities and worries. Some prefer physical sports like soccer or football, or games that stimulate the intellect like chess. There are also other sports that can be practiced indoors with minimum requirements as far as physical abilities go. Among them we can name pool and bowling.

Let’s talk about bowling. Even though it may seem like a relatively new sport, this kind of activity has been going on for more than seven thousand years. It can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, where those guys used stone for their bowling balls.

Before the 20th century, in the US, bowling balls were manufactured from wood, oak in particular. In the beginning of the 20th century though, hard rubber was introduced as the new material used for manufacturing bowling balls, and this remained the same for over 60 years.

The next step in the manufacturing process came in the 1970s, when some people started to experiment with the hardness of plastic bowling balls. The developer of this project is known to be Don McCune, who was working at the time for Chuck Hamilton. The later developed a way to soften the balls with solvents, which resulted in a softer cover and higher scoring.

Because of this, USBC went as far as barring some softer bowling balls. It also represented one of the main reasons why USBC introduced some balance regulations for balls, in order to prevent the advantage of some players which could either make the ball hook more of roll earlier.

The beginning of the 1980s marked the introduction of polyurethane as the main material used for manufacturing bowling balls. Ebonite was the one to develop the technology, but the rights were sold to AMF, because the developers did not believe players would pay the high price demanded by the technology. It proved to be a big mistake.

AMF started to produce this kind of balls because they got a better grip on the polyurethane finishes that were used on the lanes manufactured from natural wood. This caused a major change and proved to be a turning point for the entire game of bowling.

In the 1990s the regulations regarding the densities of the balls were changed. Instead of a uniform sphere surrounded by a coating, perfectly centered inside the ball, other methods for manufacturing were now being developed.

No matter what kind of ball a player uses to knock down the pins, transporting the ball from your home to the bowling alley presented some problems. Because of this, bowling bags were introduced to make the task easier. The companies that manufacture the balls have started to produce bowling bags also.

For players that are interested in bowling bags and balls, the internet is the best place to start. One of the websites that offers great prices on bowling bags, balls and any kind of bowling accessory is mgbowling.com. Check out the site and see for yourself.

About the Author

The path of the bowling balls has suffered a lot of changes with the passing of time. New developments in technology have also marked new beginnings in the sport. All that is left to do is grab your bowling bags, head down to the alley and enjoy all that progress with some of your friends.

I have a microwavealbe bowl with cover for popping corn, how do I use it?

popping popcorn with a microwaveable bowl and cover, what do I need to do? add oil? Nothing? How long do I microwave the kernals?

3/4 cup popcorn
1/4 cup canola oil
Butter, to taste
Salt, to taste

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, add canola oil and as much butter as you can stand (I like it buttery OK!!!) in the mixing bowl. Add popping corn.

Rest a paper plate on top of bowl (it is fine if it is resting in the bowl on the corn, it will rise up with the popping and keep kernels from going everywhere). NOTE: put the plate right side-up or upside-down depending on how it is resting in/on the bowl. The idea is to avoid dripping oil steam in your microwave if you can, but it is not that big a deal either way.

The tricky bit is how long to nuke it. I set it for about 10 minutes and listen for the popping to slow. If you go too long then you get some burning, especially if you use butter. When I am feeling really fussy I pop with as little oil as possible (it actually takes very little or even none, that’s right NONE) and add butter after. There is no point to have butter-less popcorn, IMHO. Salt to taste.

Caution, as the bowl will get and stay very hot. Use a potholder and tray, or balance the hot bowl on top of your fluffy comforter and soak in the heat while you watch DVDs.

Also take a look here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Microwave-Popcorn:-Home-made,-cheap-and-easy/

Covered bowl project