sharpen blunt razor blades left under it, the staff refused to believe him. Only after their chief scientist tried it him
self and found that it worked was Drbal's "invention" registered, Patent No. 91304.
That was in 1959, but the idea was as old as the pyramids of Egypt.
Drbal got his idea of a Frenchman named Bovis who, on a visit to the Great Pyramid, found that small desert animals
which had wandered into the pharaoh's chamber and died, had not decayed. Bovis wondered if it had been the
pyramids themselves which had somehow preserved bodies so well, rather than the mummification methods of the
ancient Egyptians.
Bovis experimented with a scaled down model of the pyramid, placing inside it a number of highly perishable foods.
They were preserved far beyond their usual span, and he came to the conclusion that this must have something to
do the pyramid's actual shape.
Hearing of Bovis's experiments, Drbal wondered if the same principles might apply to corrosion in metals. Apparently
they did, for out of his own tests was born Patent No. 91304.
Today there is a flourishing factory in Czechoslovakia, where razor blades are scarce, turning out plastic-foam models
of pyramid ps for sharpening Bkades.
Why did they work and how they work, no one knows. A razor-blade edge is made of a fine layer of crystals-- so fine
it is believed that the mere pressure of moonlight can rub them off and blunt the blade- and it could be that the
pyramid shape somehow focuses or concentrates energy to them.
To test Drbal's sharpener, make a cardboard pyramid , the four sides should be15.7 to 14.94, whatever units of
measurement are used.
Fix the sides together with adhesive tape so the height is 10 units, place the pyramid so that the base lines face
magnectic north-south and east-west, make a stand 3.33 units high and place it in the centre of the pyramid.
The sharp edges of a double-edged razor blade should face east-west when placed on stand.
Keep the device away fro electrical equipment.
The pyramid should also preserve eggs, but only for a short period.
Readers Digest 1975
