› added 8 years ago

104

TIL that Gatling gun salesmen would go to Civil War battlefields in order to demonstrate their products in actual combat.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

MvbW TIL that whales are so big, they can take up to 100 years of creatures consuming them to decompose
lb1K TIL that prescription bottles are typically orange or light brown because those colors prevent ultraviolet light from degrading the potentially photosensitive contents through photochemical reactions, while still letting enough visible light through for the contents to be easily visible
4kpW6 TIL Albrecht Unsöld studied the star Tau Scorpii and discovered its surface temperature of 32,730 K, creating the first detailed analysis of a star other than the Sun. During the Nazi period, Unsöld stayed in Germany and was drafted as a meteorologist
b6pZ7 TIL The sliding door dates back to atleast the 1st century CE with archeological evidence found in Pompeii.
l40a TIL: 3 US Presidents died from drinking water contaminated with sewage