› added 3 months ago

15

TIL that in the 1860s, Napoleon III backed the “Pantelegraph", an early fax machine invented by Giovanni Caselli in 1855 - over 20 years before the telephone. It sent handwriting over telegraph lines; 25 words took 108 seconds. It was frequently used to verify signatures in banking.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

a8dgo TIL the Hip Hop group 95 South released a song called "Whoot, There It Is" a month before Tag Team released their song "Whoomp! There It Is"
4k6Qa TIL, to study honesty, researchers called people at random and asked them to flip a coin, promising them €10 if they flipped tails. Fewer than half the subjects reported flipping tails, suggesting that almost no one lied.
wLjGW TIL Jamie Farr, the actor who played Section-8 hopeful cross-dresser Corporal Klinger in MASH, was costumed using hand-me-downs from the the 20th Century Fox wardrobe department, including garments originally worn by Betty Grable and Ginger Rogers.
rREgd TIL Ireland's Gaelic royal families were not all wiped out by the English. Many were exiled to contiental Europe were they intermarried with royals in countries such as France and Spain. Many of their descendants became leaders in their new homes including French President Patrice de MacMahon
MebkA TIL John Franzese was a mob boss who was taped by an informant discussing the ideal method of disposing of a body. He recommended taking 30 minutes to an hour to dismember the body in a kiddie pool, dry the parts in a microwave and finally mulch them in a commercial grade garbage disposal.