Useless Information

[NISZILA]

Thought it might be cool to share useless information. So, if you have any facts or quotes that are absolutely useless, but interesting none the less... add them here. (yes, I am bored at work and the IT guy is probably going to send me a nasty email for being on SAU, but oh well )

Here's my list. Lets see what you guys can come up with

The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis Worlds Fair by Ernest Hamwi in 1904. His waffle booth was next to an ice cream vendor who ran short of dishes. Hamwi rolled a waffle to hold ice cream and the cone was born.

One of the first opinions of cars... "The horse is here to stay, the automobile is only a fad." President of Michigan Savings Bank ; 1903

The first match was accidentally discovered in 1826 when John Walker scraped a stick with chemicals on the end against a stone floor.

Kleenex tissues were originally designed to be a gas mask filter? It was developed at the beginning of World War I to replace cotton, which was then in short supply as a surgical dressing.

The Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson Sr., chairman of IBM ; 1943

When IBM conducted a market study of Chester Carlson's invention in 1959, the company concluded that it would take only 5000 units of his new product to saturate the market? IBM therefore declined to be part of the new product introduction. Too bad for IBM. Carlson's invention was the xerography process, and his new product was the beginning of the Xerox Corporation. It is estimated that every day, worldwide, 3,000,000,000 copies are made!!

The first commercial microwave oven was nearly 6 feet tall and weighed in at 750 pounds.

"There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States." T. Craven, FCC Commissioner ; 1961

The Band-Aid Bandage was invented by a Johnson & Johnson employee whose wife had cut herself? Earl Dickson's wife was rather accident prone, so he set out to develop a bandage that she could apply without help. He placed a small piece of gauze in the center of a small piece of surgical tape, and what we know today as the Band Aid bandage was born!

To encourage use of his new invention, the shopping cart, market owner Sylvan Goldman hired fake shoppers to push the carts around his store in Oklahoma City? Seems his customers were reluctant to give up their hand-carried baskets.

"It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth), may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone. " Mark Twain ; Christmas greetings, 1890

"Radio has no future." son of rajab Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist ; 1897

In 1608, Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lipperhey filed the first patent for a working telescope. The patent was denied.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers ; 1927

William F. Semple, a dentist, was awarded the first US Patent on chewing gum in 1869. His recipe contained powdered chalk.

When G.G. Hubbard learned of his future son-in-law's invention, he called it "only a toy." His daughter was engaged to a young man named Alexander Graham Bell. (for those that don't know... he invented the telephone)

"The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it...knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient." Dr. Alfred Velpeau, French surgeon ; 1839

"Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible." Simon Newcomb, astronomer ; Said in 1902, less than two years before the first flight at Kitty Hawk

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." Carl Sagan

The Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!

"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." Sir William Preece, chief engineer, British Post Office ; 1878

"The automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced." Scientific American ; Jan. 2 edition, 1909

"Man will not fly for 50 years." Wilbur Wright ; 1901 (recognise the name... the Wright brothers ring a bell lol)

3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.

A workman who left the soap mixing machine on too long was responsible for making Ivory Soap. He was so embarrassed by his mistake that he threw the mess in a stream. Imagine his dismay when the evidence of his error floated to the surface! Result: Ivory soap, the soap that floats.

"The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people." Karl Marx

"What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte ; When told of the Robert Fulton steamboat

The inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.

"If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice." George Gobel

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is a patented inventor - she created a diaper equipped with a premoistened baby wipe.

Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist, was searching for something to relieve his father's arthritis. In doing so, he "rediscovered" acetylsalicylic acid and in 1900, patented a stable process for developing it. Hence, we have aspirin.

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize winner in physics

[ossie_21]

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

All the chemicals in a human body combined are worth about 6.25 euro (if sold separately).

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.

The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in WWII killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo

It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Pearls melt in vinegar.

There is no solid proof of who built the Taj Mahal.

[adoraa]

An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

Oh i so have to see this!

[Marco-R34GTT]

An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

So do I... Apparently...

[fire_angel]

An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

How do you get an ant intoxicated?

[NA_Goodness]

Give it alcohol...