What's the name of this?? Plastic toy finger net, pulls tight when...
December 11, 2017 9:47 PM Subscribe
...you try to pull it off your finger. So it's a plastic tubular net thingy, that you can put on your finger, but then when you pull to get it off it kind of closes tightly around your finger (because of the way it's woven, I think). Can give a bit of a panicky feeling and it's a surprising effect.
In my country 3 decades ago it was called Chinese... something, but that could just be some old racial reference to something. I haven't heard about the little toy for more than 20 years.
What is the name? I can't remember and want to use it as a analogy in a paper. I've been googling and trying different words etc. Thanks for thinking with me!!
In my country 3 decades ago it was called Chinese... something, but that could just be some old racial reference to something. I haven't heard about the little toy for more than 20 years.
What is the name? I can't remember and want to use it as a analogy in a paper. I've been googling and trying different words etc. Thanks for thinking with me!!
We called it Chinese handcuffs in the CA Bay Area in the 90s.
posted by samthemander at 9:50 PM on December 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by samthemander at 9:50 PM on December 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Ha, you're all so fast, great!! Thanks people!
posted by Mariemma at 9:55 PM on December 11, 2017
posted by Mariemma at 9:55 PM on December 11, 2017
In my childhood it was made of paper, not plastic
posted by metahawk at 9:58 PM on December 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by metahawk at 9:58 PM on December 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
A practical application of this is this heavy duty cable grip, used to pull a heavy cable through a conduit.
posted by H21 at 9:17 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by H21 at 9:17 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Glad someone posted the Star Trek reference, so I didn't have to!
We called them "Chinese Pinky Prisons."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:02 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
We called them "Chinese Pinky Prisons."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:02 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
The other place this principle gets used these days is in splicing the new Ultra-High Molecular Weight cords/ropes, like Dyneema and Amsteel.
These cords do not hold a knot, but they can be spliced one line inside the other so that when load is applied they extend and the outer one locks down on the inner one. Hammockers and campers stole a method from arborists where they first splice a closed loop in one end of a long piece of Amsteel line, then put an adjustable loop at the other end, to make a suspension line called a Whoopie Sling. here's a video explaining it and here's a blog post with a labelled diagram.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:09 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
These cords do not hold a knot, but they can be spliced one line inside the other so that when load is applied they extend and the outer one locks down on the inner one. Hammockers and campers stole a method from arborists where they first splice a closed loop in one end of a long piece of Amsteel line, then put an adjustable loop at the other end, to make a suspension line called a Whoopie Sling. here's a video explaining it and here's a blog post with a labelled diagram.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:09 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
We called them monkey traps.
posted by Otterone at 5:55 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Otterone at 5:55 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Paper rabies at 9:48 PM on December 11, 2017 [1 favorite]