The Borromean Rings are just plain cool. The three rings cannot be taken apart, even though no two of them are connected.
They've been around many centuries, but their name came from the Borromeo family of Italy, who used the rings in its family crest.
Much later, the rings were used as a logo by Ballentine Ale, which happened to be my dad's beer of choice. The enigmatic rings
were just the sort of thing that my dad would like to explain to me, thus my early introduction to the rings. Though we didn't have a physical example,
it was plain from the depiction that those rings were not coming apart. I don't quite remember why I felt compelled to construct a set of Borromean
Rings - must have been the engineer in me.
I first made them out of paper, which necessarily required cutting and taping one of the rings back together for assembly, of course. In the later years of my career as a mathematics teacher, I introduced my high school students to the rings in all of the classes which I taught. Soon, I hit upon the Borromean Rings as a convenient hands-on extra credit projet for my students. I would specify an inner and outer diameter for the paper rings, require three different colors of construction paper, and mention that neatness could add to their points. The kicker was that the students had to lace the rings properly - that is, in Borromean style. If nothing else, the assignment was a great source of amusement to me when I would see how many painfully wrong ways the kids could attach the rings. I would give double extra credit if they properly constructed the five Olympic Rings.
My preferred way to construct the rings is from wire, soldered into loops. It's easy and fun to do. If the wire is about nine inches in length, the rings can serve as a cute bracelet/puzzle. The wire length may have to vary depending on the width of the wearer's hand. At first, I liked to use 14 gauge house wire - the type that is inside of Romex - the standard colors being black, white, and green. Now, I use bell wire which comes in all sorts of colors and is much more flexible, and lighter in weight. When my sons were young, I taught both Nick and Nate how to solder. Through the years, they would help me make sets of the rings for various teachers and friends of theirs. The rings are fun to wear, and fun to demonstrate. Frequently, when I show and explain the rings to others, they will want their own set of rings. Yes, the rings do make a nice funky gift. Currently, I make bracelets for lots of people, and I would be happy to make a set for you. Just pick three colors! The first set is free! If you would like to watch me make your set, it takes less than ten minutes. Just ask.
These are the colors of wire I have available for bracelets, listed in the order of the electrical color code:
black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white. And pink, too.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
This is a sample of the bracelets that I fashion using 24 gauge solid bell wire and solder. I actually wear this one most of the time. |
The yellow ring is simply sitting on top of the red one; the red ring is sitting on top of the blue, while the blue is resting on top of the yellow ring. No pair of these rings is connected, but just try to take them apart! |
These rings are eliptical so we have the red ring outside of the blue outside of the yellow outside of the red. |
Rectangular in shape - no two linked - cannot be separated. |
The Olympic Rings with their lame interlocking arrangement! |
Now this is my Borromean bracelet of the Olympic Rings. There are actually three sets of Borromean Rings contained in this arrangement. Red over green over black over red. Black over yellow over green over black. Blue over black over yellow over blue. No two of the five connected. Classy! |
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Here's a bumper sticker that is destined to be a collector's item. It resided for decades on a bulletin board in the breakfast nook of our kitchen - a constant reminder of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy which occurred on the twenty-second of November in 1963. In those days my mother was the manager of the Detroit office of Democratic Congressman Lucien Nedzi. Shortly before November, the office had received a sample of the bumper sticker that had been proposed for use in the coming year's election. Mom snapped it up. |
When the company making my favorite calendars went out of business, I started making my own calendars in the same style as the ones I used to purchase. The calendars that I liked were printed on heavy 8½x11 card stock in landscape orientation. There were no pictures or any nonsense - just large squares with plenty of room for writing in appointments and such. Now I am using Microsoft EXCEL to create my own calendars. It is easy to customize them and include special birthdays and such. To see an example, print the calendar for March 2009, which features my birthday. (The calendar looks different printed than it does on the computer screen.) After I print my calendars, I three-hole punch the twelve pages, and hang two or three months at a time from two pins on my bulletin board. At the end of each year, I put the calendar in a loose-leaf binder. The old calendars serve as a convenient reference. I was able to use them to look up the dates for many of the stories that appear in this website.
If you would like a set of calendars for yourself, send me an e-mail. Include a list (within reason) of birthdays and anniversaries you would like to have appear on your calendars, and two colors to be used for the lines. I will send you an e-mail with an EXCEL attachment for each month that you can then print on heavy (at least 100-pound) card stock, or, if you prefer, I will print them and mail them to you - the small fee to be negotiated.