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TIL the world's first electric synthesizer (1897) was a 200 ton beast that used 4 steam generators to provide the 671 kilowatts of power it needed, and its signal was piped down phone wires to subscribers at homes and businesses

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0dE8M TIL a witness in a Scottish court who had answered "aye" to confirm he was the person summoned was told by the Sheriff that he must answer either "yes" or "no". His name was read again and he was asked to confirm it, he answered "aye" again, and was imprisoned for 90 minutes for contempt of court.
v5lx TIL Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to mining magnate Meyer Guggenheim, dressed in his finest suit, had a glass of brandy and smoked a cigar as the Titanic sank. “Tell [my wife] I played the game out straight to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim was a coward.”
6EAN7 TIL that Canada has a government-sanctioned cartel to control global maple syrup prices and supply, and has been called "the OPEC of the maple syrup world" by The Economist. A barrel of syrup is worth 10-18 times the value of U.S. crude oil.
yQjMa TIL A 4 year old boy fell and scraped his knee at the beach. Couple of weeks later a black bump started growing on his knee. When squeezed, a live snail emerged from the bump. The boy adopted the snail and named it "Turbo" after his favorite cartoon character.
69Pym TIL the Westinghouse Electric Corporation built the first industrial Van de Graaff generator. It was called the Atom Smasher, and looked like a light bulb. It was instrumental in the development of practical nuclear science.