DISCOVERY CHANNEL LIES
As many of you know, I make pottery. I also make custom tile for walls, kitchens, floors, wherever you need a durable, attractive, waterproof surface. Not a big money maker for me (yet) but it's fun and something I'm proud of.
Today I watched "How It's Made" on the Discovery Channel and they featured a segment on wall tile. I thought, "Wow I'm in for a treat today!"
But no. The narrator misused terms and did very little to explain the process in general. It seemed there was more of a focus on how conveyor belts work than on how tiles are made, what they are made from, or how they obtain the properties which make them tile. I tried to complain but gave up after thirty minutes of googling for a direct channel to the producers of the show. Instead I settled on a general online complaint for sent to the Discovery Channel. Here is what I said, limited to 1500 words as I was:
I watched the episode of "How It's Made" featuring wall tile. I was excited to see a large scale factory in motion since I am a small producer of custom tile and pottery. I was dismayed, however, to hear the narrator use incorrect terms to describe the processes! First was the use of the word "bake" regarding the firing process which chemically alters the clay/chemical mix into a irreversibly hardened state. I can overlook that as a necessary tool to help the veiwer relate to what is happening. At least the process was later defined as, "firing, as they call it."
The next problem deals with the term "paint" to describe the finish. It is not a paint, it is chemically nothing like paint. It is a mixture of ground glass and other chemicals called a glaze. The narrator goes to the trouble of describing the process of mixing and grading and forming the chemical mixture which makes up the tile, but then doesn't bother to tell the veiwer that the final coat is made of similar materials?
Thirdly, the tiles are "placed in WOODEN racks" before being loaded into the kiln. If they were wooden, they would become a pile of ashes at 1970 degrees and do very little to hold the tiles in place!! The racks are also ceramic.
The main reason I am concerned is that I watch "How It's Made" quite frequently and love to "learn" about things I know very little about. But now I wonder if I'm being misled or even lied to outright. How would I know any better unless I did my own research?
Today I watched "How It's Made" on the Discovery Channel and they featured a segment on wall tile. I thought, "Wow I'm in for a treat today!"
But no. The narrator misused terms and did very little to explain the process in general. It seemed there was more of a focus on how conveyor belts work than on how tiles are made, what they are made from, or how they obtain the properties which make them tile. I tried to complain but gave up after thirty minutes of googling for a direct channel to the producers of the show. Instead I settled on a general online complaint for sent to the Discovery Channel. Here is what I said, limited to 1500 words as I was:
I watched the episode of "How It's Made" featuring wall tile. I was excited to see a large scale factory in motion since I am a small producer of custom tile and pottery. I was dismayed, however, to hear the narrator use incorrect terms to describe the processes! First was the use of the word "bake" regarding the firing process which chemically alters the clay/chemical mix into a irreversibly hardened state. I can overlook that as a necessary tool to help the veiwer relate to what is happening. At least the process was later defined as, "firing, as they call it."
The next problem deals with the term "paint" to describe the finish. It is not a paint, it is chemically nothing like paint. It is a mixture of ground glass and other chemicals called a glaze. The narrator goes to the trouble of describing the process of mixing and grading and forming the chemical mixture which makes up the tile, but then doesn't bother to tell the veiwer that the final coat is made of similar materials?
Thirdly, the tiles are "placed in WOODEN racks" before being loaded into the kiln. If they were wooden, they would become a pile of ashes at 1970 degrees and do very little to hold the tiles in place!! The racks are also ceramic.
The main reason I am concerned is that I watch "How It's Made" quite frequently and love to "learn" about things I know very little about. But now I wonder if I'm being misled or even lied to outright. How would I know any better unless I did my own research?