› added 10 years ago

68

TIL: You’ve never actually seen “steam”, only mist condensing off the invisible gas.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

woyNM TIL that the film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, was the first feature film to be entirely color corrected by digital means.
b9vRa TIL that the reason men don't button the second button on their suit is because of an old king who was too fat to button it.
VMXYk TIL during the Great Famine, the Ottoman Sultan "Abdulmejid I" couldn't donate more than £1,000, in order not to embarrass Queen Victoria's £2,000 donation. Wanting to donate more, he sent up to 3 ships filled with wheat and Indian Corn as a "hushed-up" gesture, not wanting to upset the Queen.
wowyo TIL early 20th century pregnancy tests involved a lengthy and costly process where the urine sample would be injected into five mice per woman. The mice would then be dissected to find out if they were ovulating. These results would be obtained in a week.
Wkv74 TIL of the "Tumi" scalpel, believed to be the oldest surgical instrument to exist (8000 BC). It was used for trepanation, the art of drilling a hole into the skull. By opening the skull, tribes believed that it would allow the demons that caused headaches, melancholy or epilepsy to escape the body.