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March 7, 2020

Egg² Week (day 4): Henry Garren’s Square Eggs

Day 4: Henry Garren’s Square Eggs

Dr. Henry Wilburn Garren developed his square egg(s) in 1961, at the Department of Poultry Science of North Carolina State College.

In September 1961, the promotion group got the governor to designate N. C. as the Good Egg State, and, with the help of the college scientists, had hens produce square eggs. This square egg deal got national coverage and the two goals — a personality and national recognition — were met.

American Poultry, 1962

In our two previous posts, college scientists conducted research involving eggs that happened to be rectangular. And we saw how newspapers and magazines made “square eggs” a headline of their stories.

In 1956 Dr. Garren won the “The Poultry Science Association Research Prize” ($100) for his, uh… seminal paper entitled, The Effect of Temperature and Time of Storage on the Fertilizing Capacity of Undiluted Fowl Semen.

Garren clearly had no serious, scientific interest in making “square eggs.” He was simply doing his part to assist North Carolina’s egg industry.

The “North Carolina Egg Marketing Association” correctly surmised that newspapers were goofy about “square egg” stories. And Dr. Garren knew how to produce just such a thing.

How did he do it? First he made a cube shaped “template” of calcium. Then he cracked a (regular) egg and deposited its contents into the cube-shape template. This, he inserted (back?) into the oviduct of the hen. Not so that the hen could re-lay the egg—she couldn’t have. But simply to form an authentic egg shell around the square template. As Dr. Garren explains it, “She’ll put a shell around anything.” (Read more about it, here.)

And, of course, they didn’t just make 1 of these square eggs… [Read more…]

March 3, 2020

Egg² Week (day 3): Lawrence Darrah’s Square Eggs

Day 3: Lawrence Darrah’s Square Eggs

We actually covered Darrah’s “Shell-less egg carton” once back in 2013. But we’ll revisit him now during Square Eggs of Science & Industry Week.

In some patents, we’ve noticed inventors highlight the “substantially square” aspects of their inventions. In Darrah’s patent, however, he never mentions square or rectangular eggs. Instead, he focus on the “substantially impervious” aspect of his egg re-packaging concept.

Here, as with the square eggs of Gerard Baerends, Life Magazine covered the story. And here again, the publication chose to make the story all about the squareness of the eggs.

“Eggs,” Designer Raymond Loewy once declared, “are the functionally perfect form.” He was talking about egg esthetics. But when it comes to marketing eggs, according to Professor Lawrence Darrah of the New York State College of Agriculture, their form is neither functional nor perfect. To remedy the situation he has devised a way to give eggs a handier square shape. He has done it so successfully that he thinks square eggs will become as familiar as the ovoid variety.

Science Squares the Egg, Life Magazine, April 30, 1956

Of course, Darrah’s idea of improving upon the egg, is pretty much the same idea that David Adams had in 1947. And, indeed, Adams’ 1953 patent US2660530 is among those credited with a citation in Darrah’s 1958 patent US2858224A.

And Life Magazine, was not the only publication to run with the “squareness” of the Darrah’s shell-less eggs concept… [Read more…]

March 2, 2020

Egg² Week (day 2): the square eggs of Gerard Baerends

Day 2: the square eggs of Gerard Baerends

Gerard Baerends was a Dutch biologist, who conducted a behavioral study of herring gulls in 1951.

Unlike David Adams, Baerends was not interested in “square eggs,” per se. He had made a number of differently shaped “false eggs” to use in his research.

In Baerends’ experiments, two experimenters walked into the colony, which caused the birds to leave their nests. One nest was chosen for study and two of its three eggs were removed. These eggs were replaced by two model eggs. The model eggs were not placed in the nest cup, but were placed instead on the rim of the nest. One of the experimenters then hid in a small portable tent that was set up near the chosen nest, and the other experimenter left the colony. The nest owner soon returned, and the experimenter in the tent could easily observe and record the behavior of the returning bird. Typically, the gull would enter the nest and sit on the one egg. It would then rise, look at the model eggs on the nest rim, retrieve one egg and then retrieve the other.

… The results of these experiments showed that some aspects of the stimulus were not very important for the gull. Shape, for example, had relatively little effect… round, square, oblong, and egg-shaped models were retrieved with about equal frequency.

Jerry A. Hogan The Study of Behavior: Organization Methods and Principles, 2017

Life Magazine ran a feature about Baerends’ gull study in 1955. (Most of these photos are from that issue.)

For their table of contents, Life’s “Science” editor gave the article the factually correct title, Wooden eggs test a herring gull’s instincts. By the end of the article, however, the magazine shifted its focus and it became all about the square egg…

An Irresistible Square Egg

… Professor Baerends made the wooden egg experiment this year on Terschelling Island in the North Sea. His experiments have taught him other things about herring gulls. To fool them he made eggs of different shapes and colors… and placed some of them on the edge of a nest and waited to see which the gull would drag in. Herring gulls, he found, are usually bored by plain eggs. But if the egg is speckled, the bird will try to hatch it, even when it is square (next page).

Yes. Clearly, square eggs are irresistible. To magazine editors, at least.

Baerends was a professor at the University of Groningen. And so the university’s museum now holds Baerends’ eggs in its collection.

[Read more…]

February 26, 2020

“Square Eggs” of Science & Industry Week (day 1)

If “square eggs” once captured the imaginations of left-brained creatives, the same idea has also preoccupied right-brained, scientific types.

This time, rather than list all my examples in one long post, I’m doling them out one day at a time.

We, therefore, declare this: Square Eggs of Science & Industry Week. (A.K.A.: Egg² Week.)

**Day 1: David Adams, Eggs Having Artificial Shells, (1947)**

… the rectangular shape of each egg greatly facilitates packing and packaging of eggs in quantity, with maximum utilization of all available space. Yet each egg retains its individuality and may be used the same as an ordinary egg. When its sealing tape 14 is removed, the cover section 12 may be lifted off and the egg substance in section 10 may be deposited wherever desired, such as into a mixing bowl or into a frying pain. If a boiled egg is wanted, one of my improved eggs, in sealed condition, will be deposited in boiling water and left for the required time.

Although Adams filed his patent above in 1949, he had originally tried to patent his idea in 1947. That was the year that newspapers and magazines across the U.S and Canada began publicizing his invention.

“Science Creates Square Egg; Hens Still Lay ’Em Round” says Vancouver Sun on Oct. 08, 1947

AT LAST — SQUARE EGGS! Any self-respecting hen would disown it, but the square egg has at last been invented — by man. It’s a plastic “cube” designed to hold the contents of a single egg with its shell removed.

Science Digest, 1948

[Read more…]

February 5, 2020

10 “Square Eggs” of Arts & Letters

Back in 2010, I wrote a post about “Egg-Deformers.” You know… those plastic devices designed to transform hard boiled eggs into a cube shape?

What I hadn’t fully appreciated at the time, and, indeed, has taken 10 full years to even dawn on me, was that “square eggs” have been a cultural thing for a very long time.

To wit, the following 10 examples… [Read more…]

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