At the movies: the end of soggy popcorn?Mitchell Duffy, 16, a junior at Inglemoor High School Inglemoor High School is a public high school located in Kenmore, Washington. It is one of the largest high schools in the state of Washington and has an average of 23.4 students per teacher. in Kenmore, Wash., takes his popcorn seriously. He's invented the "Butter Blaster," a device that evenly disperses butter throughout an entire bucket of concession-stand popcorn. Duffy, who has applied for a patent, spoke to Upfront about his invention. (Q) What's the Butter Blaster made of? (A) Right now it's a stainless steel stainless steel: see steel. stainless steel Any of a family of alloy steels usually containing 10–30% chromium. The presence of chromium, together with low carbon content, gives remarkable resistance to corrosion and heat. , eighth-of-an-inch diameter tube with some holes in it and one end soldered Pronounced "sod-erd." Permanently attached by a hard metal bond. In order to replace a chip soldered to a circuit board, it requires heating the soldering joints until they melt. Contrast with socketed. shut to increase the pressure. (Q) What's your goal with it? (A) To get it into the theaters and ... get it licensed. (Q) Why is "butter-blasted" popcorn better? (A) It just tastes better. I don't like having soggy popcorn and dry popcorn in the same bucket. (Q) Do you worry that you're promoting unhealthy food unhealthy food Any food that is not regarded as being conducive to maintaining health; UFs include fats, in particular of animal origin, 'fast' foods–low in fiber and vitamins; 'junk food'–eg, potato and corn chips, pretzels, crackers–high in salt ? (A) I think popcorn is a treat, and when people go to the movies, they're not going to get celery celery, biennial plant (Apium graveolens) of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), of wide distribution in the wild state throughout the north temperate Old World and much cultivated also in America. or carrots.... The movie theaters already supply the butter, and that's basically who I'm trying to sell to. (Q) Has anything surprised you about being an inventor? (A) How easy and yet how hard it is. It's so easy to just come up with an idea, but to take that and then transform it into words on a page, and then transform that into a prototype that works, is totally different. |
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