 | ||||||
| ||||||
Useless Facts 7
In the year 1900, for a women to be a telephone operator she had to be between the ages of 17 and 26 and not be married.
An etiquette writer of the 1840's advised, "Ladies may wipe their lips on the tablecloth, but not blow their noses on it."
What is black gold? Black gold is another name for petroleum. When you consider the COST of petroleum now, the term makes sense
Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962..
There is evidence of glass being made by Neolithic man about 10,000 B.C., and in Egypt about 1500 B.C. to be used as jewelry.
The name "Crayola" is a combination of the French word for chalk ("craie") and "ola" from the "oleanginous," which means "oily."
The flag of the U.K. is properly known as the Union Flag. It is only called the Union Jack when flown from the jack mast of a ship.
At its center, the Sun has a density of over a hundred times that of water, and a temperature of 10-20 million degrees Celsius.
Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command go hang yourself.
Barbie was invented by Ruth Handler, who got the idea after watching her daughter play with baby dolls imagining them in grown up roles.
Sound travels through water much faster than air. Around 4 times as fast. Through steel, it can travel roughly 15 times faster than air.
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII.
If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded
to reveal a map for escape.
Play-Doh was introduced in 1956 by Hasbro Inc. The only color available was an off white, and it came in one size which a one and a half pound can.
The first bricks were made by the people of Jericho, in 8000 B.C. A town of 2,000 people, Jericho was one of the oldest known towns in existence.
Before bath tissue was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.
At the turn of the century, most lightbulbs were handblown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day's pay for the average U.S. worker.
The movies, The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985) both share the record of receiving the most Oscar nominations (11) and no Oscar wins.
How many bathrooms are in the White House? The White House currently has 35 bathrooms! When it was first built, of course, it had none. Indoors, anyway.
In the film, 'Titanic' when Jack walks through the French doors for dinner with Rose and her family, a camera man's reflection can be seen on the glass.
The cartoon character Popeye was actually based on a real person named Frank "Rocky" Fiegel who was a tough guy who was quite similar to Popeye physically.
BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandages first appeared on the market in 1921. However, the little red string that is used to open the package was not added until 1940.
The first commercial vacuum cleaner was so large it was mounted on a wagon. People threw parties in their homes so guests could watch the new device do its job.
What is a black dwarf? Kudos to you if you knew we were talking about astronomy and not fairy tales! A black dwarf is a very small star that emits no detectable light.
The system of democracy was introduced 2 500 years ago in Athens, Greece. The oldest existing governing body operates in Althing in Iceland. It was established in 930 AD.
The core of a upward lightning stroke is only a few inches across but can carry a current of 100,000 amperes, enough to run nearly 8,000 electric toasters at the same time.
The average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tons..
Where does the term "pulp fiction" come from? "Pulp fiction" was so named because of the cheap, pulpy paper on which detective magazines were published in the 1920s and 1930s.
Five out of six people never keep diaries of any sort. Only six percent say they keep a daily diary, and many of these people are just Franklin Day Planner types, not real diarists.
Automobiles are not ferocious.... it is man who is to be feared.
~ Robbins B. Stoeckel
