Foiled a gain
★ FORMER hell-raising rocker Bruce Dickinson takes tinfoil on tour to help black out his windows so he can get a good night’s sleep, as we reported yesterday.
The Iron Maiden star, 65, uses the covering with gaffer tape after a show so no light gets in.
★ But how much do you know about the everyday stuff? Here JAMES MOORE gets on a roll with 15 fascinating facts…
1 The original foil was made from tin and once used for tooth fillings as well as the first recordings on phonograph cylinders by inventor Thomas Edison in the 19th century.
2 Aluminium has been used instead since the early 20th century as it isn’t as rigid and doesn’t give food a metallic taste.
3 It was first manufactured at a rolling plant in Switzerland in the early 1900s and used to wrap Toblerone chocolate bars from 1911. Other food makers soon took up the idea.
4 During D-Day, Allied aircraft dropped aluminium foil, code-named Window, to fool German radar into thinking that a large naval force was heading for Calais, not Normandy.
5 The kitchen rolls we know today appeared after the conflict thanks to the fact that it’s an effective barrier, keeping out air, light, moisture and germs.
6 Each UK household uses on average 144m of foil a year – a total of 15,000 tonnes.
7 Household foil is about 0.01mm thick. The rolling process produces a shiny and a matt side to each roll, but which side you use makes little difference to its performance.
8 You can increase the warmth in a room by placing tinfoil behind radiators, because it helps reflect the heat inwards. You can get special foil for this. It could save you a bit of cash on bills.
9 Foil could be useful in a heatwave too. Spreading it on windows that receive direct sunlight can reflect the sun and heat away from your home.
10 People have also used foil to protect their bank and credit cards or car keys from hacking.
11 There are plenty of other tips for using tinfoil. For instance, folding it up several times and then cutting it will help to sharpen up a pair of scissors.
12 You can shine your silver with tinfoil by using it to line a sink then filling it with hot water, salt, baking soda and vinegar.
13 Experts say covering the stalk ends of bananas with foil slows down the ripening process. It can also be used to battle frizzy hair.
14 Does your tinfoil sometimes get knotted up? Celeb chef Robbie Bell says there’s an easy hack to solve the common problem: “Take a little bit off, rub it on the part where it’s overlapped or not working properly. It’ll all come away and then just unroll the tin foil as if it was brand new.”
15 The term “tinfoil hat” is used for potty conspiracy theorists. Some think wearing the headgear can help protect them from things like electromagnetic fields and mind control.