› added 7 years ago

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TIL the Waters & Sons firm in 1868 developed a process for making boats out of paper. At the peak of their popularity, they built simple single-person boats to a 45-foot "pleasure barge," which could comfortably seat 23 people. In 1875 they became the "largest boat factory in the United States."

VM0m TIL: Steven Seagal was choked unconscious on a movie set by “Judo” Gene LeBelle, and Seagal shit himself.
Y79lA TIL about the spintria, or spintriae in plural, a Roman-era token with a numeral on one side and on the other side, the image of a couple having sex. Each numbered coin had a different sex position. Historians don’t know what spintriae were for but have suggested they were used as brothel passes.
R5mp6 TIL that a man awaiting a heart transplant survived 100 days on an artificial heart, placed in his chest just like a real one. The invention was created by a father-and-son plumbing duo and originally used normal materials from local hardware stores.
DeGD TIL Carl Sagan was denied tenure at Harvard University and was unable to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences because his role as a ‘popularizer’ of science had caused other scientists to dislike him, claiming he wasn’t a 'pure’ scientist.
gMvJL TIL all the clowns do actually get in the car, there's no illusion to it. They just gut the car so it's an empty shell with a motor and controls, beef up the springs so it doesn't ride too low, and then send in the clowns.