› added 11 years ago

115

TIL that around 1778, fashionable Parisian women rarely went out in potentially stormy weather without lightning rods attached to their hats–an artist sketched this hat-lightening-rod contraption (looks like a long drooping chain hanging off the hat, rather than an upright antenna).

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via reddit.com

YbGZ TIL: A scientific study demonstrated that Duct Tape “… failed reliably and often quite catastrophically,” at sealing ducts.
kJY6e TIL male genital transplant surgeons exclude the testicles because the deceased organ donor would be the biological father with regard to future pregnancies
E18yd TIL about a 4-foot, hunchbacked, Quaker dwarf named Benjamin Lay, who was a fierce anti-slavery abolitionist. Known as the "Quaker Comet," he used to troll religious elders during meetings and stage bizzare feats of anti-slavery performance art.
QJjPd TIL that keeping a wound moist rather than leaving it dry to scab, will heal it up to 50% faster.
69G0J TIL Hitler claimed he didn’t have any problem with Jews until later in life when he visited Vienna (though his childhood friends dispute this)