ScffiNCE Lite 



Spring in the Air 



Sooner or laWr, scientists will get the message 



by Roger L. Welsch 



As I understand it, scientists watch for 

 natural patterns and then try to determine 

 exactly how they work and what they 

 mean. Not that scientists are the only peo- 

 ple capable of spotting bits and pieces of 

 these patterns, which are often wide- 

 spread. Take gravity, for example. Not 

 easy to miss gravity. After all, it's not as if 

 Newton invented gravity. Cave dwellers 

 had to deal with gravity. Trilobites had to 

 deal with gravity. 



Recentiy I've had to deal with springs 

 (boing-boing springs, not trickle-trickle 

 springs). Springs have suddenly and dra- 

 matically inserted themselves in my life. 

 Like the troglodyte or trilobite contemplat- 

 ing gravity, I have had the uncomfortable 

 problem, therefore, of sensing a pattern 

 without being able to pin it down. See 

 what you can do with my raw data and 

 maybe someday they'll name a syndrome 

 after you. 



It all started one morning when I was in 

 my shop working on a tractor transmis- 

 sion. I studied the technical manual in de- 

 tail; I looked at the housing, levers, gears, 

 and rods carefully and from every angle; I 

 proceeded slowly and cautiously. The 

 problem is, when it comes right down to it, 

 I don't know anything about mechanical 

 things, so in my case all of these precau- 

 tions are bottom-Une necessities. 



Whoever wrote the technical manual 

 must have taken his degree in the works of 

 Jean-Paul Sartre. Nothing was obvious, 

 even when it appeared to be obvious. My 

 suspicions were aroused by the line in the 

 manual that said, "Be careful not to lose 

 the detente spring and ball." Maybe I was 

 tipped off because the statement seemed 

 clear and straightforward. Right — don't 

 lose the detente spring and ball. Made 

 sense to me. But hey, wait a minute. In the 

 chapter on engines, the book doesn't say, 

 "Don't lose the pistons," even though pis- 

 tons are fairly important components of an 

 engine. I know that much about mechani- 

 cal things. So why go to the trouble of 



mentioning that I shouldn't lose the de- 

 tente spring and ball? For that matter, what 

 is a detente spring and baU? 



I looked at the accompanying diagram. 

 An arrow numbered 46 pointed in the gen- 

 eral direction of precisely where I was 

 working in the transmission. Number 46 

 in the Ust said "detente spring and ball." I 

 checked the book's index; nothing about 

 detente springs or balls. Gently I eased out 

 the shaft that obscured the location, inso- 

 far as 1 could tell, of the detente spring and 

 ball. So far, so good. 1 used a little mirror 

 on a flexible handle to see if I could find 

 anything resembling a spring and ball. 

 Nothing. It had to be inside something 

 else, maybe behind the shaft. I eased the 

 shaft out a little farther. Still nothing. I slid 

 the shaft another quarter of an inch. 



And then it happened. I heard an ever- 

 so-tiny ping and just out of the comer of 

 my eye sensed — I didn't actually see it, 

 only sensed it — something very small fly- 

 ing at great speed out of the transmission 

 case, straight out the open window six feet 

 to my right, and into the two-foot-high 

 grass. I didn't need the manual to tell me 

 what it was. 



I had no more flian sputtered, "Well, I'll 

 be dipped in..." when my astonishment 

 was enhanced by the roar of my daughter 

 Antonia riding by my shop window on our 

 riding mower, throwing mangled grass — 

 and presumably one detente spring and 

 one detente ball — in every direction. 



I suppose a skeptical spirit would con- 

 sider aU that a coincidence: "Big deal, you 

 lost a spring and ball, it flew out the win- 

 dow, and your daughter ran over it wifli a 

 mower. You're not going to get a law of 

 physics out of that, Welsch." Well, I'm not 

 done with die story. 



The next day I went to Kerry's grocery 

 store after picking up the mail, but to my 

 surprise, Kerry hadn't opened yet. I sat on 

 his doorstep waiting almost a quarter of an 

 hour before he finally came rushing up. 

 Here, verbatim, is what he told me: 



"Sorry I'm late, Rog. I can't believe my 

 bad luck. I borrowed a lawn sprinkler from 

 Dad yesterday. Of course he asked me if I 

 knew how to use it, and of course I told 

 him I'd have to be an idiot not to. You 

 know, it's one of the 'chuck-chuck-chuck- 

 chuck... sizzle-sizzle-sizzle' ones." Pivot- 

 ing on his right foot, his right arm ex- 

 tended, Kerry imitated a sprinkler jerking 

 step-by-step in one direction and then 

 quickly sweeping back. 



"Well," Kerry continued, "I wanted to 

 adjust it so it would cover the yard but not 

 hit the house, so 1 was prying away at this 

 little lever thing under the sprinkler head 

 and all at once, PING..." and Kerry's 

 forefinger described an arc I knew all too 

 weU. "This spring-thing flew about thirty 

 feet out into the weeds. I just came back 

 from Maurie Flembeck's place, because I 

 heard he has a metal detector. If I don't 

 find that blasted spring before tonight, my 

 dad is going to kiU me." 



Right. "Just another coincidence." Still 

 not convinced? Later that same day I was 

 talking with my brother-in-law Gary and I 

 told him what had happened to Kerry and 

 me. And he told me about the time he was 

 sitting out in a boat blind with Mick the 

 Brick(layer) waiting for some ducks to 

 come within range. Mick was showing 

 him how you have to depress a little pin 

 inside the chamber of certain shotguns be- 

 fore you can slide the bolt out, and.. . . See? 

 You've spotted the pattern too. That's 

 right: a ping, a flash of hght, and a httle 

 plunk in the water about thirty feet from 

 the boat. 



I called up Mick to see what he had to 

 say about the events Gary had described, 

 and to verify my impression of an im- 

 mutable pattern and potential law of 

 physics. Mick confirmed Gary's account, 

 but even more to the point, he told me 

 about die time in Marine boot camp when 

 the drill instructor was in the middle of a 

 lecture on how to dismantle some weapon 

 or another and said, "Whatever you do. 



60 Natural History 1/94 



