Camels And Needles

THIS WAS A TALK FOR A FAMILY SERVICE, GIVEN IN THREE PARTS.

PART 1: A glass ship in a glass bottle

Perhaps you have a jug at home that’s made of Pyrex. [EXAMPLE.] This kind of jug can withstand high temperatures. You can put it in the oven and you can put it in the freezer. That’s because it’s made of borosilicate glass.

At school I expect you do science experiments. In chemistry, you probably use flasks and test tubes. You heat them up, so they have to withstand high temperatures. They’re also usually made of borosilicate glass.

If you do A Level chemistry, you’ll probably do what’s called fractional distillation. You’ll use something called a fractionating column. A fractionating column looks like this. [PICTURE.] You can see that it’s a complicated piece of glassware. Have any of you used fractionating columns at school?

After the Second World War there was a lot of demand for laboratory glassware. Various companies in the north of England, especially around Sunderland, made it, using borosilicate glass. But later, the demand for this kind of glassware went down.

In those companies, some of the glassblowers sometimes made glass ships in glass bottles just for fun. When demand for scientific glassware went down, they set up companies to make glass ships in bottles [2 PICTURES]. There was a lot of demand for those! The first company to make glass ships in glass bottles was called Mayflower Glass. That was in about 1979. There was also a company making glass ships in bottles not far from us, in Lymington. They made very high-quality glass ships in bottles which were sold in Harrods.

But in 2005, Mayflower Glass decided to move its production to China, and it shut down its factory in Sunderland [PICTURE]. Now, no company in England is making glass ships in bottles, and knowledge of how to do it is dying out.

You can also get wooden ships in bottles. It’s no secret how they get these ships into the bottles. The masts fold down and then the masts are pulled up after the ship is in the bottle [PICTURE]. But that won’t work for the glass ships. These masts won’t fold!

These glass ships in bottles are sometimes called ‘IMPOSSIBLE BOTTLES’ because it seems impossible for the ship to be put inside the bottle. Sometimes people would ask the glassmakers how they put the ships into the bottles. And the glassmakers used to say, ‘We can tell you the answer, but then you can’t leave the building!’

Would you like to look at some glass ships in glass bottles? [EXAMPLES.] How do you think the glassmakers got the ships into the glass bottles? Have you got any ideas?

Jesus once told a story in which he talked about a very LARGE animal – a camel – fitting through a very SMALL hole – the eye of a needle. That sounds just as impossible as getting a glass ship into a glass bottle, doesn’t it?! We’ll look at what Jesus meant later in the service.

PART 2: Success!

There’s a magazine called Time. It’s probably the world’s most famous news magazine. Usually, Time puts a picture of someone famous on its cover.

Do you recognize the man on the cover of this issue? It says, ‘Citizen Musk.’ Who’s he? He’s Elon Musk. What is he famous for? He’s the richest person in the world, among other things.

This issue shows Donald Trump. What is he famous for? He’s the president of the United States of America. Most people consider the USA to be the most powerful country in the world.

Do you recognize the woman on the cover of this issue? I’ve covered her name so you can’t see it. It’s someone called Sabrina Carpenter. Have you heard of Sabrina Carpenter? What is she famous for? She’s a leading pop artist. Last year, she went 21 weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart and one of her albums sold more than a million copies.

Let’s have some questions for the grownups.

This cover has a picture of a man leaving and a woman entering. Can you guess who they are? [Joe Biden leaving and Kamala Harris entering.]

This cover has a picture of a man. It says next to him, ‘Bibi at war.’ Who is he?

This cover has a picture of someone called Nicola Coughlan. Who is she? She an Irish actress.

Time doesn’t ALWAYS have pictures of people. For example, there was an issue recently with a picture of a robot. Digit is the first robot which looks like a human which is working in a factory. But Time often has pictures of people.

Why do you suppose Time puts pictures of people on its covers? It doesn’t matter if the people are good or not. In the past, Time had Hitler and Stalin on its covers. It’s all about INFLUENCE. That’s what Time says. Time puts people on its covers who we’re listening to. Important people. People who affect things, change things.