Today I found out bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper. Bubble Wrap was invented by two engineers Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes in Hawthorne, N.J. in 1957. The two were not, however, trying to make a product to be used as packaging material. Rather, they were trying to create a textured wallpaper. They started […]
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Today I found out what the company name “3M” stands for. While today 3M makes a variety of products from medical and office supplies to electronic circuitry, in 1902 they started out as a mining company, who, as it turned out, wasn’t very good at mining. Specifically, they started out with the intention of mining the necessary types of stone […]
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Today I found out that the youngest person to ever become pregnant and give birth was only 5 years old! Lina Medina was born on September 27th, 1933 in Ticrapo, Peru. At age 5, her mother, Victoria, brought her to a hospital because her stomach was increasing in size. Her parents originally thought Lina was possessed by evil spirits, but […]
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Today I found out how the lines projected on the field during a televised football game work. What is happening behind the scenes of this seemingly simple line projection is actually quite complex. Putting that yellow line across your television screen to mark a first down or a blue line to mark the line of scrimmage requires numerous technicians, 3-D […]
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Today I found out that all 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 positions of a standard Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. Anyone who is serious about solving a Rubik’s Cube uses some sort of algorithm, or sequence of steps to help them solve the puzzle. There are many different algorithms, varying in complexity and number of moves required, but those that […]
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Today I found out how a Jake Brake works (also known as “Jacobs Engine Brake” or “compression release brake”). For those who don’t know, a “Jake Brake” is what makes that machine-gun like noise that you might hear from semi-trucks when they head down long steep hills. A normal gas motor uses the air flow from the intake manifold to […]
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Today I found out there once was a man was hit on the head by a falling baby… twice! According to Time Magazine (Miscellany, Oct. 17, 1938), the year of the first event was 1937. Joseph Figlock, a local street sweeper in Detroit, Michigan, was walking down the road when a baby fell from a 4th story window. The baby […]
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Today I found out how trick candles work. There is nothing more humorous then seeing a person become woozy and light-headed at a feeble attempt to blow out candles that fight back! Candles themselves work on a fairly simple and ingenious principle. The three elements to sustain fire are concealed in one convenient package. The fuel itself is the container […]
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Today I found out how rum is made. Rum was once used as a medium of economic exchange in lieu of money. At one point in Europe, Rhode Island rum was even used as an accepted substitute for gold in economic exchanges. This drink, which first began being made as we know it today around the 17th century, quickly became […]
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Today I found out about the Rule of 72, which is a very easy way to calculate in your head how long it will take to double your money or debt based on a given fixed interest rate, assuming the interest is annually compounded. Use of the Rule of 72 is very simple. All you have to do is divide […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of DumpADay, Jon. Today I found the Slinky was originally intended to be used as a tension spring in a battleship engine horsepower meter. In 1943, Richard James, a marine engineer in a Philadelphia shipyard, was working at his desk, developing a special meter designed to monitor […]
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Today I found out Super Glue was invented by accident, twice. Super Glue, also known as cyanoacrylate, was originally discovered in 1942 by Dr. Harry Coover, who by the way died last month on March 26th, 2011. Coover was attempting to make clear plastic gun sights to be put on guns used by Allied soldiers in WWII. One particular formulation […]
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Today I found out AstroTurf was originally named “ChemGrass” before being used by the Houston Astros Major League Baseball team in the Astrodome. Contrary to popular belief, AstroTurf was not first used or invented for the Houston Astros. For instance, before being used by the Astros, it was used at such sporting venues as Moses Brown School in Rhode Island, […]
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Today I found out that some Tibetan monks can control the temperature of their skin through meditation. Specifically, they have been shown to be able to raise their skin temperature, measured from their toes and fingers, as much as 17 degrees Fahrenheit, while their core temperature stays normal. Scientists from Harvard University, lead by Herbert Benson, were first able to […]
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Today I found out the founder of FedEx once saved the company by taking its last $5,000 and turning it into $32,000 by gambling in Las Vegas. The man is Frederick W. Smith who is the founder and current CEO of FedEx. In 1971, Smith took his personal fortune of around $4 million and raised around an additional $90 million […]
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Today I found out there once was a Major League Baseball player that was traded for himself. That player was Harry Chiti. Chiti was a catcher who played in the major leagues from 1950-1962, taking two years off in that span to fight in the Korean War. The momentous event of getting traded for himself happened in 1962 when Chiti […]
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Today I found out that 165 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California is generally considered the “luckiest” building in Silicon Valley to rent as a startup company. Located near Stanford University, 165 University Avenue has seen a surprising number of highly successful startups come through its doors in very recent history. The first famous tenant was Logitech, a now world famous […]
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Today I found out that babies are able to remember melodies they hear while inside the womb for up to a year. Recent research at the University of Leicester demonstrated that babies showed a significant preference for melodies played for them frequently during the last few months they were in the womb. Preferences for a familiar melody were shown by […]
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