The 2009 San Diego Fair Page Two

Did You Know? - The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world. Others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest, perhaps 19th century postage stamps, milk bottle labels from Sussex, or Mongolian harnesses and tack.

The items collectors collect may be antique, or simply collectible. Antiques are collectible items at least 100 years old; collectibles are less than antique, and may even be new. Collectors and dealers may use the word vintage to describe older collectibles. Most collectibles are man-made commercial items, but some private collectors collect natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells.

Collecting is a practice with a very old cultural history. The Egyptian Ptolome?s dinasty collected books from all over the known world at the Library of Alexandria. The Medici family, at Renaissance Florence, was the first effort to collect art as private patronage, this way artists could be free for the first time from the money given by the Church and Kings; this citizenship tradition continues today with the work of private art collectors.

Did You Know? - The first stapler was believed to be handmade in the 18th century in France for King Louis XV. Each staple was inscribed with the insignia of the royal court, as required. The growing uses of paper in the 19th century created a demand for an efficient paper fastener. On August 7, 1866, the Novelty Paper Fastener was patented by the Patent Novelty Mfg Co. It allowed a single staple to be loaded and was used to mainly bind papers or books, but also carpet, furniture or boxes. Staples for the fastener were manufactured by the P.N. Mfg Co. in several sizes.
McGill stapler

In 1866, Joan Barbour was awarded U.S. patent no. 56,587 for a small, bendable brass paper fastener which was the precursor to the modern staple. In 1867, he received U.S. patent no. 67,665 for a press to insert the fastener into paper. He showed his invention at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and continued to work on these and other various paper fasteners through the 1880s. In 1868 a patent was also taken out for a stapler in England by C.H. Gould. On February 18, 1879, patent n? 212,316 was given for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press. This device weighed over two and a half pounds and was able to load a single 1/2 inch wide wire staple at a time and drive it through several sheets of paper.

In the early 1900s, several devices were developed and patented that punched and folded papers to attach them to each other without a metallic clip. One early example is the Clipless Stand Machine (made in North Berwick), which was sold from 1909 into the 1920s. It cut a tongue in the paper that was folded back and tucked in to hold the papers together. Bump's New Model Paper Fastener used a similar cutting and weaving technology.ch and Kings; this citizenhip tradition continues today with the work of private art collectors.

Did You Know? - Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947?a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on January 25, 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on December 14, 1948 as U.S. Patent 2455992.

Inspired by radar displays, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.

Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for a new entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous industry collapse in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become an $22 billion industry, which rivals the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world.

Did You Know? - Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was not made until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing fabric.

Did You Know? - Some operators prefer the term observation wheel to Ferris wheel and large Ferris wheels are sometimes marketed as observation wheels, to differentiate them from smaller Ferris wheels; however, the two are actually the same and any distinction between the two names is at the discretion of the wheel operator. Ironically, many of the wheels whose owners reject the term Ferris wheel, actually have more in common with the original Chicago Ferris wheel of 1893, particularly in terms of being an iconic landmark for a city or event.  We could see most of the fair from this great wheel in the sky.

Did You Know? - A double-decker bus is a bus that has two levels. While double-decker long-distance coaches are in widespread use around the world, double-decker city buses are less common.

Double-deckers have become a symbolic image of the country in particular the use of the red double decker buses in London. A particularly iconic example was the Routemaster bus, which had been a staple of the public transport network in London for nearly half a century following its introduction in 1956. Because of cited difficulties accommodating disabled passengers, the last remaining examples in use finally retired in 2005, although Transport for London has established two "heritage routes", which will continue using Routemaster.

Did You Know? - A gemstone or gem (also called a precious or semi-precious stone) is a piece of attractive mineral, which?when cut and polished?is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However certain rocks, (such as lapis-lazuli) and organic materials (such as amber or jet) are not minerals, but are still used for jewelry, and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their lustre or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone.

Did You Know? - A lapidary (the word means "concerned with stones") is an artisan who forms stone, mineral, gemstones, and other suitably durable materials (amber, shell, jet, pearl, copal, coral, horn and bone, glass and other synthetics) into decorative items (e.g. cameos, cabochons, and faceted designs). Diamond cutters are generally not referred to as lapidaries, due to the specialized techniques which are required to work diamond.