gaskets + rings

Hint: it's the yellow one

Yesterday I replaced the gasket on my toilet flush valve.  It’s included in the photo above along with various other gaskets and rings.  What is it about the Euclidean geometry of a circle that makes it so irresistible?  It’s no wonder the shape is often connected with the divine.  

Even the word is nice to say.  Circle.  Unlike “gasket” which doesn’t really roll off the tongue.   At least there’s a word for a gasket though (and a pretty old one at that), unlike the ring that comes off the cap of a plastic bottle.  Here is a whole nifty video about the names of the parts of bottle (mostly nifty, the music is a little grating…) that skips right over that particular element.

Some internet digging turns up the following candidates: tamper-evident band, tamper-proof ring, tamper-evident skirt, screw cap skirt, and pilfer-proof ring.  None of these is really a proper name, although they leave no doubt about the less than noble purpose of the thing.  On the rare occasions when I buy a plastic bottle, I pull off the rings hoping to find a use for them that will keep them out of the landfill and from being so, well, useless. Unlike the new gasket in my toilet, which is doing it’s small part to fight the drought.