Читать книгу The Dodo Collection - Steve Stack - Страница 29

Toothpaste Tubes Made of Metal

Kids today don’t know how lucky they are. A simple push on a pump action dispenser and out spurts a minty worm of toothpaste.

Just give them a real old school tube of toothpaste, one made of metal, and let’s see how they like that.

Toothpaste tubes first started appearing towards the end of the 19th century and prevailed right up until the Second World War, when metal shortages led to experiments with a plastic/metal mix. Metal tubes weren’t finally phased out till the early 1990s.

Whatever the history, the point is that squeezing the last pea-sized bit of goo out of a metal toothpaste tube was one of the most difficult things an eight-year-old could ever be asked to do, especially if someone else has been squeezing from the middle. Woe betide the youngster who managed to split the tube while desperately squeezing, leading to tiny spurts of paste flying all over the place.

Gone, but not really missed all that much.

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