It's a bit space age, a bit glamorous, a bit indoor hammock. The Bubble chair was built to swing lazily on a landing or to be suspended in a room full of books but within reach of a martini.The chair is so perfectly designed that it comes as a shock to realise that it hangs from the ceiling only by accident. In the Sixties, the designer, Eero Aarnio, wanted his chair to be transparent and couldn't find a way of making a clear pedestal so he had to hang it instead. The Finnish designer is one of the 20th century's greatest innovators. He broke from traditional designs and experimented with colour, plastic and organic curved forms. His work is now in the collections of the V&A, MoMA and Vitra Design Museum. To understand the Bubble, it is first necessary to look at the Ball. Aarnio, in the best tradition of great inventors and businessmen, wanted something, didn't have it so made it himself. "We had moved into our first home and I had started my freelance career in 1962," he says.
"We had a home but no proper big chair, so I decided to make one, but in some way a really new one. After some drawing I noticed that the shape of the chair had become so simple that it was merely a ball. I pinned the full scale drawing to the wall and 'sat' in the chair ..." He then knocked up a prototype. The idea was also to create a room within a room that would protect the user from outside noise and on a turning pedestal that would allow him, or her, to turn to or away from the room. When two young managers from Asko, a Scandinavian kitchen and laundry appliance company, visited Aarnio, they were so impressed they wanted to put his new chair into production too. "I wanted to have light inside it and so I had the idea of a transparent ball where the light comes from all directions," Aarnio adds. "The only suitable material is acrylic which is heated and blown into shape like a soap bubble, and again the name was obvious." As there was no way to make a totally clear pedestal, the chair was hung from the ceiling.
The Sanderson Hotel in London eveb has a bubble-chair in the lobby. Sadly, the proper version costs nearly £5,000 although, as with all design classics, there are lots of copies around for which you can knock a zero off the price. That’s right, we’re talking testicles. Here’s 12 fascinating facts you never knew about balls. 1. Meat and two veg The word avocado derives from the Aztec word for testicle. In the Middle Ages, men who wanted sons would sometimes have their left testicle chopped off because they thought the right testicle made male sperm, and the left made female. Testicle derives from the Latin word testis, meaning ‘witness’. In pre-biblical times men sometimes placed their hand on another man’s testicles when swearing an oath, because the testicles gave witness to a man’s virility. And, in Roman times, men placed their right hand on their balls before giving testimony in court, the reason being having testicles supposedly made them whole (as opposed to women and eunuchs who were not allowed to testify).
4. Balls to the wall The testicles make 200million sperm every day. In 16th century Europe, women weren’t allowed to sing in Roman Catholic church choirs so of course the logical thing to do instead was cut off boys’ balls before their voices broke. These boys, called castrati, were appreciated by classical composers such as Mozart and some became major celebrities. The word orchid comes from the Greek ‘orkhis’, meaning testicle, because the plant’s main roots look quite a lot like wedding tackle. MORE: 21 things you never knew about orgasms Balls can grow up to twice the size during sex. 8. Insert beaver joke here Beaver testicle moonshine or tea was used as a contraceptive by some Canadian women from the 16th to the 18th century. There are various theories on why men have external testicles – the most widely-believed being to do with the fact a cooler temperature improves sperm production. But for many other mammals, including elephants, aardvarks and anteaters, their balls are up inside their bodies, by their kidneys.
For most men, their left testicle hangs lower than the right. Being unsymmetrical means they take up less space. The Vatican museum contains a ‘sedia stercoraria’ or ‘dung chair’ – a chair with a hole in it. It is thought to have been used so officials could check the sex of the new Pope and make sure he had both balls. The largest scrotum on record belonged to 49-year-old Wesley Warren, who died from a heart attack last year. Before he had corrective surgery they were 10 stone. MORE: 10 amazing things you never knew about your penis MORE: Sex quiz: How good are you in bed? MORE: 21 things men should never do on a first date Elegant Etched Glass Tumblers Elegant Etched White Wine Glass Elegant Etched Red Wine Glass Elegant Etched Champagne Glasses Nordic Touch Serving Bowl Nordic Touch Side or Dessert Plate Nordic Touch Dinner Plate Nordic Touch Cereal Bowl Nordic Touch Oval Plate Nordic Touch Serving Dish
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