Fascinating Facts ~Page 2~

Inventions: The Chinese invented the speedometer. In 1027 Lu Taolung presented the Emperor Jen Chung with a cart that could measure the distances it spanned by means of a mechanism with eight wheels and two moving arms. One arm struck a drum each time a li (about a third of a mile) was covered. Another rang a bell every 10 li.

Natural Phenomena: When the volcano Krakatoa erupted in the Dutch East Indies in 1883, the sound was heard in Bangkok, 3,000 miles away. At Batavia, 100 miles away, the sky was so darkened that people had to light their lamps during the day. The fine particles ejected by the blast covered almost every part of the world, and for the next two years a thin haze of these particles could be seen in the sky each night as far away as London.

Manners & Customs: In ancient Japan public contests were held to see who in town could break wind loudest and longest. Winners were awarded many prizes and received great acclaim.

Laws: In Turkey, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death.

Music & Musicians: The famous Russian composer Alexander Borodin was a professor of chemistry at the Academy of Medicine in St. Petersburg, Russia. Borodin always referred to himself as a "musical amateur."

War & Weapons: In feudal Japan the Imperial Army had special soldiers whose only duty was to count the number of severed enemy heads after each battle.

Royalty: Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, had Jewish blood. It came to him through the bloodline of the Aragons of Spain to whom he was related.

Architecture & Construction: The world's largest dams are both in Russia. They are Inguri (988 feet high) and the Nurek (984 feet high).

Arts & Artists: Though the Italian Renaissance flourished in Rome, not a single Renaissance artist, sculptor or musician of any stature was born in that city. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, practically all architects, painters, sculptors and musicians were imported to Rome. When they had completed their projects, they almost always departed.

Names: The name "pumpernickel" was coined by Napoleon's troops during the Napoleonic Wars. His men complained that although they were often poorly fed, there was always bread for Napoleon's favorite horse, Nicoll. Thus the word "pumpernickel" was coined---pain (bread) pour (for) Nicoll.

Royalty: An elevator was installed in the palace of Versailles in 1743. Run by a series of hand-operated weights, gears, and pulleys, it was used by Louis XV to go from his own apartments to those of his mistress, Madame de Chateauroux, on the floor above him.

Automobiles: The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 7 1/2 miles per hour.

The Earth: Approximately 70 percent of the earth is covered with water. Only 1 percent of this water is drinkable.

Manners & Customs: In medieval Spain it was customary to clean the teeth with stale urine. The theory behind this strange practice was that the urine would render the teeth especially bright and keep them firmly fixed in the gums.

Mathematics & Numbers: If one started counting the moment he or she was born and continued counting without stopping until he or she reached the age of sixty five, that person still would not have counted to a billion.

People: There are a number of Americans who are related to Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome, married an American.

Religion: On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.

Music & Musician: The oldest piano still in existence was built in 1720. That piano was built by Mr. Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy in 1720.

Manufacturing: The character known as the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and the phrase "mad as a hatter" are both based on a tragic episode in manufacturing history. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, hatmakers used various chemicals in their work, among them mercury for curing felt. Mercury is a deadly poison, and the thousands of workers who handled this noxious substance developed pathological symptoms---including kidney damage, anemia, inflammation of the gums, as well as insanity---known today as "hatter's syndrome." It is estimated that at one time more than 10 percent of all the workers in hat factories ended their lives insane.

Fish: The lanternfish has a glowing spot on the front of its head that acts like a miner's lamp when the fish is swimming in dark waters. This "lamp" is so powerful that it can shed light for a distance as great as 2 feet. Experiments have shown that when confined to an aquarium, the lanternfish can project enough light to allow a person to read a book in an otherwise totally darkened room.

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