Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Number 8 wire -

It is said of New Zealanders, give them some number 8 wire and some baling twine, and they can fix anything!

The conversion of New Zealand bush into farms created the need for a lot of fences. The preferred wire was known as No 8 gauge, but it was also put to other uses such as a replacement handle of a bucket.

No 8 wire represents "Kiwi ingenuity." a quality that was born out of isolation and lack of infrastructure in New Zealand's early history. It was simply a matter of "making do" or going without. Kiwis came up with some absolute ingenious creations.

A very good example in recent times for Kiwi ingenuity came from a person by the name of John Britten. He decided to build a motor bike in his backyard shed from scratch. Britten not only developed an entirely new fabrication system using space age kevlar and carbon fibre, but designed the complete engine, making the patterns for casting himself.

In the Daytona Battle of the Twins, the Britten team completely blitzed the opposition. Rider Andrew Stroud's kilometre long wheel stands left the crowd awestruck as he passed the cream of Italian and Japanese factory machines. Britten has become an icon for kiwi ingenuity

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