› added 4 years ago

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TIL of the Pelton Wheel, a more efficient water wheel, 1st used during the California Gold Rush. The wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water shooting into a split concave bucket, as opposed to water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel.

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R7bgl TIL a coconut crab can grow up to 1m in length, actually cracks open coconuts with its claws, and can't swim.
1JWd TIL inn WW2 the Nazis had a wooden airfield in Northern France, the British knew about it. Being British they let them build it and then dropped a wooden bomb on it!
9Y08Q TIL that there are farmers who schedule planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops based on moon phases
wpnE TIL Scientists have no clue how a species of seals found in Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea originated, as these are landlocked waters hundreds of miles away from the closest ocean.
XELv6 TIL of SR-71 Blackbird test pilot Bill Weaver, who survived a free fall from space after his plane disintegrated around him doing Mach 3.2