Young Squirts
By LESLIE ADRIAN
Today. they are much more likely to be holding their forefinger daintily on the button of a plastic cylinder as it obediently atomises into the atmosphere a generous cloud of which no, more than 15 per cent is insecticide, the rest being the gasified propellant that is doing all the work once done by the arm muscles. And who counts the cost?
Britain now uses about 170,000,000 spray-packs a year, made by about seventy companies, four
of whom are the leaders, and containing ant. thing from contraceptives to chocolate essence. The pharmaceutical and veterinary side of aero- sol packing has grown rapidly, partly because for such treatments as asthma nasal drops, sinus medication and quite a number of other injec- tions of drugs into bodily orifices the spray is the almost perfect answer. There are technical snags. The contents either have to be chilled to keep them liquid or inserted under pressure, and the propellant (the chemical which gasifies and keeps the contents under pressure, often a refrigerant like Freon)'must be mixed with the medicine, pesticide, paint, polish or shaving cream. Suntan aerosols are virtually useless, so much of the contents being propellant liquid.
The saving fact is that the propellant, ex- pelled with the 'wanted' substance in a cloud of droplets, regasifies about half an inch from the pinhole aperture, of the spray, leaving the remainder of the droplets 'pure,' or so they tell me. This seems very important in a cure like Armstrong Laboratories' Lobolene, which roans a cloud very like cigarette smoke and when introduced into the lungs makes the smoker feel he has inhaled a cigarette. Later he cannot in- hale the real thing without displeasure. The expense argument (which I put to the managing director of Associated Aerosol Indus' tries) is countered by the plea that these spray' packs are economical in use. But one fact is incontrovertible: the gadgets have become notice- ably Cheaper than when I wrote about them here five years ago. They still cannot be called safe, however, even though instructions are clearly printed that they 'may burst, therefore do not puncture or incinerate. Avoid exposure to sun. light. Do not spray near eyes. Keep away from children.' A much-needed improvement has been made in the design of the Yardley hair-spraY pack 'Puce Setter.' The button is placed in a ono' ended trough, so that you .don't begin by spray' ing away instead of towards.
Against this, there is an increasing use of highlY inflammable butane as propellant. Some Pic- nickers taking cylinders of insecticide in their cars have suffered minor explosions by leaving aerosols in the sun on the back window ledge.
But they are great fun to use. Children love to shoot down individual flies with random squirts, using up in ten minutes a quantity of pyrethrunl and derris that should have lasted weeks. What would happen if they got their hands on a Martini aerosol (they cost about 22s. in London for the equivalent of a bottle, but how much is Freon?) or some of this new U-Spray paint hate to imagine. Is this what the makers mean by 'Keep away from children'?
A glass of champagne to offset 'fourth-daY blues' in new mums is the encouraging preserir tion of Professor J. S. Scott of Leeds UniversilY' Not on the National Health, though, I suppose, and if it were, wouldn't it be the hardest, flattest, most acid of the BOBs, those by-products of the high 'champagne art that have done so much to pull the whole popular idea of champagne drink'
ing down to the level of a gimmick. .
Each of the great houses has its chef de caves', and is proud of his skill in blending. In spite 01 mechanisation of processes like the freezing and degorgement of the sediment, the making of good champagne is still something of an art, and is fraught with all the dangers of agriculture, of vine growing and of wine making, plus the need 10 capture the character of a vintage from one generation to another.
Twelve of the great houses form the Charly Pagne Academy; twenty-six belong to the Syndi- eat de Grandes Marques. There are other liaisons that intrigue me, like Taittinger, Mumm and Perrier-Jouet sharing a helicopter to spray their vines. The first is a Syndicat member, not an Academy member like the other two. Yet the Pride of the Taittinger breed is that they use only the premiere cuvee, the first rich pressings of the Grape, and trade in their vins de faille for the premieres cuvees of other houses making BOBs. So if mum's going to get a fourth-day glass, let it be premiere cuvee, dad, and hang the expense.
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