"J. van Baardwijk" wrote:
>
> At 08:03 24-2-02 -0500, Eileen Tan wrote:
>
> >Anyway, after looking at images.google.com, it seems that a tape gun is
> >just a roll of tape on a handle, with plastic thingies in the right places
> >applying pressure to the tape so it sticks to a surface. Nothing goes
> >pop or boom. How disappointing, yes?
>
> Very disappointing. Now I will have to revise my mental image of Julia
> "Dirty Harriet" Thompson, pointing her tape gun at a box and saying "Go
> ahead, box, make my day". :-)
I don't care for firearms, actually. :)
> BTW, we *do* have that kind of tool over here in Europe as well. But since
> we are not as gun-crazy as Americans, we simply call it a tape roller
> instead of a tape gun. (Is it not a characteristic of a gun to have a
> trigger? Where is the trigger on a tape gun?)
I'm not sure on that.
Now, I've seen a tape gun where the blade to cut the tape is retracted
most of the time, and you have to apply pressure to the tape gun just
right to get the blade to come out to cut the tape. Maybe if I had one
of those in front of me to analyze, I could describe the "trigger" for
that.
I analyzed the tape gun yesterday to try to figure out the source of the
noise that drives Sam to crying. It's the sound of the tape coming off
the roll, with interesting acoustics added by the structure of the tape
gun, including the spring in it. I think that if it weren't for the
spring, it wouldn't be such a distressing sound for him, but I find that
dispensers of box tape that *don't* include a spring as part of a system
to control tension just don't work as well for me.
Julia
