2013-04-08 Mon

SUFE

And it was, last weekend, Hey! For the annual Bloordale Rummage Sale, helping to set up and test most of the electrical and mechanical appliances for the appliances tables, and helping sell stuff the next day.

At the end of my shift I went off-duty and purchased a shredder for $2 (it needs the knives cleaned of some stray junk, is all), a Hammond World Atlas - executive edition in excellent condition for $1 (I objected to the price and finally got away with $5 by handing over the bank note and not waiting for the change), and a 3-mug thermos flask for $2.

Thermos flasks were a prominent part of my teenage years. My parents wouldn't get in the car without at least one thermos of tea, and the trip between Perth and Geraldton, 6 hours in those days, was interrupted by a tea-break during the driver swap over at two-hour intervals.

Nowadays the stress seems to be on individual insulated mugs, and it seems like a loss.

I pre-heated the thermos with hot tap water, then filled it with black coffee at 6:30 last night, and brought it home.

Ninety minutes later the coffee was too hot to sip. At 9:00 this morning, fourteen hours later, the coffee was still piping hot; I could drink it by sips.

Of course I dismantle it to check it out.

A broken flask would still have given me a superb, large-volume handled funnel for the kitchen.

But the flask is intact. I used a toothbrush and a dab of detergent to clean the upper rubber sealer ring, removing a few years beverage stains.

I have re-assembled the flask, wadding some dry shredded paper around the flask to increase the insulation. (Well, I wanted to use the paper shredder ...).

It seems to me that I could drive Toronto to new York and enjoy a piping hot home-made soup on arrival.

Many aspects of use will reduce the effectiveness of the flask:

Adding cold milk and sugar when loading the flask lowers the initial temperature.

Taking drinks en route lowers the temperature, because it allows heat to escape and introduces cooler air (OK, not a big loss, but a loss nonetheless).

I'd be for taking some powdered milk and sugar in a couple of empty (well-rinsed) pill bottles and adding the solids as required.