Also . . . What did people use for plastic before plastics were around?

Celluloid (1871) is recognized as the first modern plastic. It was
invented to replace ivory on piano keys and in billiard balls.
Celluloid is composed of cellulose nitrate and camphor. This flexible
plastic is what made the invention of motion pictures possible.

Bakelite (1909)[TM} was the first plastic to stay rigid when
reheated. The inventor was Leo Baekeland from Belgium. When you
dropped an old radio or appliance made of this stuff on the floor,
it would shatter.

Cellophane (1912) was invented as a clear sheet wrapper for food.

Phenolic (1924) was a thermosetting resin. When an old radio or
appliance burned out, this is what usually caused that pungent
odor. (Young people raised on solid state equipment are not aware
that old tube electronics with high voltage power frequently burned
out!)

My first introduction to modern injection molded plastic was in
American Flyer trains. Plastic of the late 40s was not robust and
could sag when it got too warm. If you used too strong a cleaning
solution it would melt! Some of the trains actually had a sag in
the top coming out of the mold.

During WWII, all my toys were made out of wood. The few plastics
around were not popular and metal was scarce because of scrap metal
drives for the war effort. (My mother had to wash out cans and
crush them flat for the war effort recycling.)

What about before plastics?

People used horns, bone, sea shells, mica, tusks, horses hooves,
plaster, wood, leather and tortoise shell for such items as combs, buttons, and implement handles, etc.

Hooves could be sliced off in sheets and then die punched out for
items like buttons.

It is the shortened form of “All Hallow Even” or All Saints’ Eve.

It can also be spelled Hallowe’en.

Hallowmas is literally All Saints Mass – it stands for All Saints
Day on November 1st.

Hallow comes from the AS: halgian, from halig or holy.

The AS: halga, or saint, survives in Hallowmas, Hallowe’en and
All Hallows.

What are the origins of . . . . ?

Music
Symphony
Orchestra
Opera
Aria
Canon
Piano

See the bonus - a cappella!

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Music – from the Greek: mousike, any art of the Muses, especially
music.

Symphony – Greek: symphonia from syn+phone voice, sound.

Orchestra - Greek: orchestra – a place for a chorus to dance, from
orcheisthai to dance.

Opera – the plural of the Latin word Opus, work.

Aria – Literally, it means (atmospheric) air in Italian

Canon – From the Greek kanon (5th meaning), a musical piece of two or
more voices that repeats the same melody, not necesssarily in the
same pitch. (kanon originally meant rule, standard, model, or ruler)

Piano is short for pianoforte and it means soft – loud. (Italian)

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Bonus – What does a cappella really mean? Where did it come from?

Today it means singing without instrument accompaniment.

But, it really means …… "In the chapel style"

The word chapel (French: Chapelle) comes from the word cloak, which was cappella. The sacred cloak (cappella) of St. Martin of Tours was kept in a recess in the main church, which became known as the chapel (side
note: chaplain actually means "guardian of the cloak"). Thus, the
cloak gave rise to the word for this anteroom in a church or "the
chapel". When people sang services in the small chapel it was
unlikely they would bring any instruments into the small room [let
alone an organ]! Thus singing "in the chapel style" was called a
cappella. (another side note: our word for cape and cap comes from
the root word.)

The Easter parade is associated with people walking on the
main avenue of town, showing off their new clothes. This modern
tradition has faded in recent years, but was at a peak back in
the 1890s.

There are many theories on the origin of this tradition. None can
be proven with certainty. Here are some of the more popular
explanations . .

In Medieval times there was a ball game connected with a dance in
which even bishops and abbots took part. The dance was performed in
the churches to the strains of the "Victimae paschali". This game
of ball was also a favorite Easter sport in England in which the
municipal corporation took part in a parade.

Another theory is that the Easter Parade started out as plays which
were performed with silent scenes, with actors posing on a wagon –
similar to our modern parade floats.

A more likely explanation relates to the fact that newly converted
Christians were baptized on Easter. After the church ceremony they
would march around the village plaza in their new white clothes,
which were symbols of their baptism. Here the converts would greet
the citizens of the town on Easter morning.

The story goes something like this . . .

Douglas Engelbart and some of his associates at the Stamford Research
Institute invented the mouse in the 1960s. It was large and crude and
was made out of wood . . . but it was a mouse, and it got its name
about that time. The device was demoed at the 1968 Fall Joint
Computer Conference in Menlo Park and San Francisco. This unit was
complicated to use. Douglas Engelbart’s device used two wheels to
move a potentiometer.

Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center [Xerox PARC]
refined the mouse in the 1970s. Their version cost $400 and a
required interface device cost $300. However, this device was much
easier to use. The Xerox unit used a ball bearing, two rollers and
some electrical brushes. [BTW Xerox people also had worked on an
optical mouse at that time, which only now has hit the mass market.]

Steve Jobs saw the mouse at Xerox PARC in 1979, during the
demonstration of various computer technologies. He gave the job of
developing the Apple mouse to an independent design house started by
two graduate students from Stanford University. Their company was
called Hovey-Kelley Design of Palo Alto. All they had to do was make
it more than 10 times cheaper that the Xerox unit! No small task.
Their first feasibility demonstration unit used a Ban Roll-on ball
and a butter dish! The rest is history . . .