Monday, another day in paradise.

Re: Monday, another day in paradise.

Interesting. I won't answer because I had to Google it to find out.

Hint --of sorts. Methane

Re: Monday answer

Gold beaters skin is the outer membrane from a cow�s intestine. The gut is soaked in a dilute solution of potassium hydroxide, washed, stretched, beaten flat and thin, and treated chemically to prevent putrefaction. It is then stretched tightly and cemented together, back to back, leaving the clear, smooth, veinless inside of the caecum exposed. It is VERY thin and 1000 sheets will hardly exceed 1 inch in thickness. It is used for many things including repairing real vellum and, yes, it is the �paper� used between gold leaf sheets. The key however is that prior to WWI it was the only substance then known to be light weight, did not tear, and wasn�t susceptible to static electricity and was impermeable to gas. Cows and methane hint. (Who discovers these things?) Anyway goldbeaters skin was taken from 50,000 or so cows, processed, glued together on linen or canvas sheets that were formed into a single cell-- the Hindenburg had 16 of them-- that were then filled with hydrogen gas for lighter than air ships. First were the plywood ships of Schutte and later, of course, the aluminum framed behemoths of Zeppelin. Note: Rubber was tried but, well, it�s that static electricity thing and at least one ship was lost early on. Lighter than air flight is too interesting to stop here so as Norm says it will take two episodes. Get your math hat ready for next week.