In French, one word, "cintre", covers the wire hanger in your wardrobe, the timber frame that held up every stone vault in the world while it was being built, and the plumber's trick for bending a pipe without crushing it. All three are useful.
The clothes hanger
Its history. Wooden supports for clothes have existed for a long time; a first American patent for a wire garment hook dates from 1869. The modern shape, a wire triangle with a hook, is credited to Albert Parkhouse, a Michigan worker who, the story goes, bent a wire to hang his coat on in 1903 because every coat hook was taken.
Its materials
- Steel wire, about 2 to 3 mm, often galvanised, painted or plastic-coated: the dry cleaner's hanger. One hanger gives a little over a metre of wire once straightened.
- Wood, for suits and coats, because it keeps the shape of the shoulders.
- Plastic, light and cheap, which snaps in the cold.
The wire hanger: a resource
A metre of stiff steel wire that bends by hand and keeps its shape. People who carry them make:
- a hook to hang a pot over the fire, a bag out of reach of rodents, a lamp from a tent roof;
- a grilling skewer: first burn off the paint or plastic in the flames, down to bare metal, before putting food on it;
- a drain snake to clear a trap: a hook at the end, and you pull the hair out instead of pushing it in;
- a makeshift antenna for an FM radio or a TV, plugged into the antenna socket: a straightened, raised wire picks up far better than nothing, see Building a radio receiver;
- a reinforcing splint for a finger or wrist, well padded, see Fractures, sprains and splinting;
- a "third hand" to hold two wires while soldering, or a light aimed at an engine;
- a binding to tighten a split handle, a hose, a dangling exhaust.
What it doesn't do well: fish hooks (too thick and too soft to hold a decent fish) and snares (too stiff to close). For those, fine brass or annealed steel wire is far better.
The mason's centring: how a vault is built
A stone vault or arch only stands once it's finished: until the top stone, the keystone, is in place, the stones fall inwards. During construction, they rest on a centring: a temporary timber frame cut exactly to the shape of the vault.
- The centring is raised on props, with wedges underneath.
- The stones (the voussoirs) are laid on each side, rising symmetrically.
- The keystone goes in at the top. All the stones press against each other.
- The centring is struck: the wedges are eased out, the centring drops a few centimetres, and the vault starts carrying itself.
Roman bridges, cathedrals, vaulted cellars: all were built on centrings. A well-made vault works only in compression, which is why stone bridges without mortar have stood for two thousand years. See Charges, murs et humidité — comprendre un bâtiment.
Bending a pipe: bend it without crushing it
Bending a copper or steel pipe by hand flattens it at the bend, and water no longer flows. Plumbers bend it properly:
- with a pipe bender, a grooved wheel the pipe is wrapped around;
- with a bending spring, slid inside or around the pipe, which keeps it from collapsing;
- and with nothing, using sand: plug one end, fill the pipe with dry sand packed tight, plug the other, then bend slowly around a post or a round log. The sand supports the wall. Annealed copper (heated to dull red then cooled) bends even more easily.
Theatre flies
Above a stage, the fly tower (in French, les cintres) is the upper part of the stage house, where scenery, curtains and lights are raised, hung from battens and counterweights. The stagehands who work there, the flymen, inherited their craft directly from ship rigging: sailors largely invented the job, and their knots are the knots of sailing ships. See Les nœuds qui servent.