I’m surrounded by little, daily mysteries. Here, for instance, is the photograph of a cooking pot.
Note the handle.
The handle is attached to the pot by what appear to be four little rivets on each side of the handle.
But when I look on the inside of the pot, there are no rivets on the other side, but only indentations.
How can this be?
How is the handle attached?
Well, I suppose someone in the world knows the answer, probably many people. But I don’t.
I have a few theories.
Maybe the pot is made of two layers of metal, and the other end of the rivet is between those two layers.
Maybe having two layers separated by a gap of air reduces the heat on the outer layer, making it less likely to severely burn the user.
Or maybe the handle isn’t attached with a rivet at all. Maybe this is a weld of some kind, joining the handle seamlessly by merging the metal into one piece.
But if this is a weld, then why the four indentations?
[show photo of pot handle again]
Why wouldn’t the handle be welded entirely to the pot, instead of only at those four places?
How, exactly, has this simple pot been made?
I’ve used it every day for years, without noticing its mysteries. . . .
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who finds yet another woman he never knew, usually available at Amazon for $4.91.