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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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8DMG TIL Ulysses S. Grant’s administration was plagued with corruption and scandal due to nepotism, favoritism, and the unprecedented way he ran his cabinet resulting in Black Friday (1869) and Whiskey Ring (1875)
e0aLJ TIL despite Tobe Hooper being credited as a director for the 1982 film "Poltergeist", Steven Spielberg actually directed most of the movie. He was only credited as a producer due to the contractual clause with Universal Studios forbidding him to direct any film while working on E.T.
VMOy0 TIL John Candy had only one day to film his scenes for Home Alone; it took 23 hours. He was paid $414, less than the actor who had played the pizza deliveryman
pVdN TIL: That the Parrotfish eats dead coral, but since it has no stomach, their meals pass straight through the long intestine, exploding in a cloud of sand out the backdoor. Larger parrotfish are like sand factories, producing as much as 840 pounds of sand per year.
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