Conkers

I have known several people who place conkers in with textiles, to
serve as odourless mothballs. (Renewing them each autumn.) Does
anyone know if they really work?

    **** Moderator's comments: I asked Mark to explain what Conkers
    are and he replied

    ...it is a British  name for the shiny inedible nut of the
    Horse Chestnut tree, i.e. any tree of the genus Aesculus,
    especially the Eurasian A. hippocastanum.

    ("Conkers" is a game for two players [typically English
    schoolboys] whereby one pierces the aforementioned nut, and
    threads it on a string, which has a knot at one end. One
    player's  nut is thus suspended, while the second player
    attempts to destroy it using his own similarly strung conker.
    This is achieved by holding the string (distal from the nut) in
    one's best hand, and the conker above and behind it at 45
    degrees above horizontal, with the string under tension. The nut
    is released and swung overarm(as if it were a sling-shot) such
    as to strike the suspended conker. This, ideally, results in
    damage to the opposing conker only. Turns are taken until one
    conker is decisively destroyed. A conker which destroys another
    is known as a "one-er". these scores are additive - i.e., if a
    conker destroys a sixer, it becomes a sevener. A sixer
    destroying a sevener would become a fourteener. Hardening the
    conker by baking  or pickeling in vinegar is severely
    disapproved of.)

Mark Clarke

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:36
                 Distributed: Sunday, October 22, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-36-009
                                  ***