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TIL the New Zealand town of Brightwater had 5 electric street lights in 1911 powered by a hydroelectric generator which was auto-controlled by a flock of chickens. At night, the chickens would go inside their coop and their weight would close an electric circuit, turning on the street lights.

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ep6vL TIL many US companies in the late 1800s-1938 would pay their employees in company scrip, a currency issued by the employer and can only be used in company owned stores where they upcharged exorbitant amounts, keeping employees in debt, to ensure company "loyalty."
jNaOn TIL that some Inuit groups used ridicule in the form of song duels as a means of conflict resolution. Two men who had failed to resolve a conflict by other means would secretly compose derisive songs about their adversary. The whole camp gathered in a large igloo to observe the song duel.
v0Rx TIL while not strictly legal, starting in the 1690s, British husbands used to sell their wives to end bad marriages. It was usually an auction announced by newspaper ad, to which the wife was led by a rope around her neck. Often the buyer was pre-arranged & the sale was a form of symbolic separation
XEv6j TIL that the famed Allied spy Nancy Wake cycled 500 km (310 mi) in three days. She and her radio operator was ambushed and was forced to flee, leaving the radio, so she cycled to the nearest resistance radio and back in three days.
JY9mj TIL about "Burusera" or the sexualized attraction to the underwear or uniforms of young women. In Japan burusera shops used to be common and schoolgirls once openly participated in the sale of their used clothing.