January 2026

14 of us were entertained by stories about the science behind an everyday object costing less than £5.

Davina traced the history of furniture polish, designed to seal wooden surfaces on furniture so that stains and water spills can be removed easily. Polish was originally applied using a piece of cloth, but has now been superseded by sprays such as Pledge.

Janet looked at the thimble, which is a small pitted metal cup worn on the finger that protects it from being pricked or poked by a needle while sewing. Some of the earliest thimbles were made by the Egyptians. They have found other uses throughout the ages, such as a measure for drink, love tokens and keeping Victorian pupils under control (by tapping on their heads!)

David (Colyer) described the design and operation of the corkscrew, specifically the worm screw. The worm screw can be traced back to Napoleonic times, when it was used to clean out recently fired rifles and cannons. Early corkscrews were pushed into the cork and then pulled out. Later, a rack and pinion mechanism with arms was added, which allowed the cork to be removed from the bottle with less effort.

David (Johnson) chose a tube of toothpaste as the £5 everyday object. Tooth powders were used over 7,000 years ago by the Egyptians, and contained powdered ashes of ox hooves, pumice and egg shells. Tooth cleaning mixtures evolved over the years and clinically proven fluoride-containing toothpastes arrived in the 1950s. David discussed the properties of the 14 ingredients used in his toothpaste and what each contributes to the product.