Foam

In Schuylkill Township, the sludge stinks and the residents are peevish. The operators of the Valley Forge Sewer Authority, on the sending end of the sludge stench and the receiving end of the citizen peevishness, think they have a solution. Foam. As an experiment, they sprayed a fluffy gray lather, originally developed for landfills and hazardous-waste sites, over the reeking sludge pit. Presto, the putrid pile was neutralized with an odor-encapsulating latex skin. Although the jury is still out, the folks who run the sewer authority think they might have a winner.

Foam floated in portions of the Wissahickon Creek yesterday, after a high-protein solution was released Wednesday from Merck's West Point facility into the Upper Gwynedd sewage treatment system. Merck & Co. Inc. spokeswoman Connie Wickersham said yesterday that the solution was "not toxic or hazardous in any way, but it does foam easily. " Field staffers from the state Department of Environmental Protection surveyed the stream yesterday and saw no dead fish or other aquatic organisms, said spokesman Dennis Harney.

The continuing saga of Peter Forsberg's right skate boot, nicknamed "footpa" by some, appears to have taken a positive turn. Harry Bricker, the Flyers' assistant equipment manager, seems to have found the right foam insert and is sending a sample right boot to the skate's manufacturer, Bauer, to mass-produce it for Forsberg. "We just found some foam and added it to the skate . . . and then we took some things out of the back of the skate boot," Bricker said. "We opened up the back of the skate and added this foam to hold his ankle in there.

John the bartender was this lunatic who used to work at an old Center City tavern down on 15th Street. The bar was a grand oval, and at happy hour he worked it alone, like a one-man show on Broadway. You couldn't take your eyes off the guy, the way he performed. He'd stack his glasses in symmetrical rows, compulsively fidgeting if one seemed out of line. When he made change, he'd slam it backhanded to the bar, as if he were a matador putting the finishing touches on some poor Brahma bull.

Question: We would like to insulate our copper water piping to and from our gas furnace. My husband would like to use fiberglass insulation, since he can wrap it around the piping and make it fit. He is unable to find foam that will easily fit over the pipes. But he seems to remember hearing that there is some sort of problem with using fiberglass on copper. Answer: I assume that these copper pipes carry hot water to baseboards or radiators through cold spaces, and that you are trying to prevent heat loss.

W E DON'T pay much attention to bubbles in our beer, unless they're foaming over the coffee table. When it comes to beer pleasure, though, bubbles are right up there with color, aroma, flavor, body and buzz. So, with the help of West Chester University chemistry professor Roger Barth, Ph.D., author of The Chemistry of Beer (Owl's Nest Publishing); Marty Nachel, whose second edition of Beer for Dummies (Wiley) was just released; and the draft beer gurus at Anheuser-Busch, here are 16 things to know about foam.

Afflicted with a brain condition called hydrocephalus, 2-year-old Datya Aston is prone to bumping into furniture and walls in her Norristown home. But a protective foam helmet called ProtectaCap is offering a new sense of freedom to children like her and to their worried parents. "It's perfect," said Valerie Aston, Datya's mother. Datya "has poor neck muscles, and, with the heavier helmet we tried, she couldn't hold her head up straight. " Janice Carrington, of Worcester, Montgomery County, began experimenting with and designing such caps a decade ago, and began selling them in the late 1980s.

It was 8:30 yesterday morning. Randy King and Brenda Andis were doing what a lot of devoted race fans do at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at that time of day. They had staked out a choice spot to watch the race cars be rolled out for the final practice session for Sunday's Indianapolis 500. They also had cracked open their first cold beers of the day. Randy already had his Coors Light in a foam Harley-Davidson beer holder. Brenda had hers in a foam holder shaped like a shark's mouth.

Every night, after the trucks have finished hauling about 1,500 tons of solid waste into the Monroeville Landfill near Pittsburgh, a bubbly foam creeps over the trash. And in Lynn, Mass., a similar latherlike substance has been appearing on the surface of an 80,000-square-foot sludge landfill operated by the local water and sewage utility. The froth oozing over the two sites is not a byproduct of some critical- mass reaction deep in the landfill trash and the pond sludge. A sort of environmental mousse, it is put there on purpose, spread to clamp a lid on the unruly elements in and on the assorted wastes.

College roommates Scott Cooper and Jon Hamilton loved playing sports at the Jersey Shore during summer vacations, but they always had a problem: Their equipment just wasn't suitable for the beach. The foam footballs they used got soggy in the surf and fell apart, and their leather baseball gloves couldn't handle salt water. These days, 12 years after the roomates' graduation from the University of Richmond, their two-year-old company, CoopSport, markets solutions to those problems.

W E DON'T pay much attention to bubbles in our beer, unless they're foaming over the coffee table. When it comes to beer pleasure, though, bubbles are right up there with color, aroma, flavor, body and buzz. So, with the help of West Chester University chemistry professor Roger Barth, Ph.D., author of The Chemistry of Beer (Owl's Nest Publishing); Marty Nachel, whose second edition of Beer for Dummies (Wiley) was just released; and the draft beer gurus at Anheuser-Busch, here are 16 things to know about foam.

Question: What causes my urine to have a lot of foam? Is it serious? Answer: Have you ever had lemon meringue pie? Those tall peaks of frothy white that make up meringue are made from two simple ingredients: sugar and egg whites. When whipped, egg whites will at first foam, and then stiffen into white peaks with continued beating. That's a result of the unique properties of the albumin protein of egg whites. It's normal to have a trace of protein in standing urine, which foams like meringue as the urine mixes with the water in the toilet.

The word innovation gets tossed around a lot as the thing that will propel the United States forward. I'd dare say most people would interpret that to mean developing alternative energy sources or inventing lifesaving medical treatments. But John Cowles sees innovation as crucial to his company, which turns polyurethane foam into all sorts of products. Six weeks into his tenure as chief executive officer of Upper Providence-based FXI , Cowles explained how the company was exploring the use of foam in construction products, health care, and other areas beyond its major markets - bedding and autos.

Most dog mats designed for travel are thin roll-up pads that provide meager cushioning for your precious animal companion. Bowsers' Fold-n-Go bed provides three cushy inches of foam padding. Composed of three connected panels that fold neatly against each other for storage in the car trunk, the bed comes in three stylish colors - cayenne, caramel or espresso. The Fold-n-Go measures 24-by-12-by-9-inches when closed, but opens to a luxurious 36-inch - ideal for Fido to stretch out in the back seat or on the cold, hard floor.

Trillions of dollars in lost stock-market wealth, hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures and a soaring jobless rate: For most Americans, the Great Recession hasn't been pleasant. But it may be the best thing that happened to Foamex Innovations Inc. - one of the Philadelphia region's most dysfunctional large corporations. The product of a debt-fueled roll-up of medium- and small-sized foam manufacturers for cars and furniture in the 1980s and 1990s, Foamex was buried in almost $1 billion in debt before filing for bankruptcy protection this decade, not once, but twice.

Question: We would like to insulate our copper water piping to and from our gas furnace. My husband would like to use fiberglass insulation, since he can wrap it around the piping and make it fit. He is unable to find foam that will easily fit over the pipes. But he seems to remember hearing that there is some sort of problem with using fiberglass on copper. Answer: I assume that these copper pipes carry hot water to baseboards or radiators through cold spaces, and that you are trying to prevent heat loss.

Question: We have a flower bed that seems to be infested with some species of bees - either yellow jackets or hornets that have burrowed into the soil. Whenever we attempt to water the flowers or weed, out they come. What can be done? Answer: According to Ohio State University, Eastern yellow jackets build their nests underground, and your flower bed seems to be a perfect spot for some to forage for food. Yellow jackets are beneficial to agriculture and flower gardening because they consume insects that could harm plants.

Jim Crater is a man who recycles fishing line. He's got his household trash down to eight pounds. A year . And despite the fact that for two decades he has run what is surely the region's most quixotic and varied recycling enterprise, here's a little secret about the master recycler: He doesn't think it should be happening. "The lesson isn't to recycle more," he says amid his hivelike realm, a two-acre property strewn with the detritus of a consumptive culture.

The Trogner brothers built their dream over a decade, one beer recipe at a time. It was a gamble, but today their microbrewery teems with towering stainless-steel vessels that churn and hum five days a week to create a select line of craft beers. "We're not on the world-domination path," said John Trogner, 36, who with his brother, Chris, launched the Harrisburg-area Troegs Brewing Co. in 1997. But they do want to thrive. Now the Trogners, like many in Pennsylvania's community of 67 beer brewers, believe they could get slammed by what is termed a "beer reform" measure winding through the legislature.

I'VE BEEN hiding a horrible secret for the past few months. OK, it's been more than a few months. It's been at least a year. What's the secret, you ask? Well, the truth is . . . we've been living with raggedy furniture. Like millions of families with little boys, we've tried desperately to conceal our shame beneath chenille throws and strategically placed pillows. This past week, it finally came to a head. It all began two-and-a- half years ago, when Little Solomon started walking, and testosterone took over.