The Book Of General Ignorance Part 16

The boots designed for, and named after, the Duke of Wellington in 1817 were made of leather. The first rubber boots didn't appear until 1851, the year before the Duke died.

Rubber was a disastrous failure for clothing when first tried because it either melted all over you in hot weather or set as hard as granite in winter. The breakthrough came in 1839 when Charles Goodyear heated rubber mixed with sulphur and accidentally spilt some on the family stove.

Goodyear's story is inspiring and tragic by turns. He struggled in desperate poverty all his life six of his twelve children died of malnutrition but rubber was his obsession and he never gave up trying to improve the qualities of what he called 'vegetable leather'.

The process he had inadvertently discovered solved the rubber problem by giving it a stable consistency. In his excitement Goodyear shared his samples with Thomas Hanc.o.c.k and Charles Macintosh, who became successful British rubber merchants.

After a.n.a.lysing them, they were able to reproduce the process and patented it in 1843, calling it 'vulcanisation' after the Roman G.o.d of fire. Goodyear sued, unsuccessfully, and not for the first time was forced to spend time in a debtor's prison or his 'hotel' as he liked to call it.

He died, still deep in debt, although widely acclaimed for his vision and perseverance. He once wrote: 'Life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents. I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits. A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps.'

Forty years after he died, his immortality was a.s.sured when the founders of the Goodyear Rubber Company, now the world's largest, named their business in his honour. Their turnover in 2005 was $19.7 billion.

What Edison invention do English speakers use every day?

The word 'h.e.l.lo'.

The first written use of h.e.l.lo spelt with an 'e' is in a letter of Edison's in August 1877 suggesting that the best way of starting a conversation by telephone was to say 'h.e.l.lo' because it 'can be heard ten to twenty feet away'.

Edison discovered this while testing Alexander Graham Bell's prototype telephone. Bell himself preferred the rather nautical 'Ahoy, hoy!'

Edison used to shout 'h.e.l.lo!' into telephone receivers at Menlo Park Labs while he was working on improvements to Bell's design. His habit spread to the rest of his co-workers and then to telephone exchanges until it became common usage. Before 'h.e.l.lo' was used, telephone operators used to say, 'Are you there?' or 'Who are you?' or 'Are you ready to talk?'

Once 'h.e.l.lo' became standard the operators were called 'h.e.l.lo girls'.

'Hullo' was used at the time purely to express surprise. Charles d.i.c.kens used the word in this way in Oliver Twist Oliver Twist (1839) when the Artful Dodger first notices Oliver with a 'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?' (1839) when the Artful Dodger first notices Oliver with a 'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?'

'Halloo' was used to call hounds and ferrymen and was also a favourite word of Edison's. When he first discovered how to record sound (18 July 1877) the word he shouted into the machine (the strip phonograph) was 'Halloo': 'I tried the experiment, first on a strip of telegraph paper, and found that the point made an alphabet. I shouted the word "Halloo! Halloo!" into the mouthpiece, ran the paper back over the steel point and heard a faint "Halloo! Halloo!" in return! I determined to make a machine that would work accurately, and gave my a.s.sistants instructions, telling them what I had discovered.'

The earliest recorded use of delegate badges saying 'h.e.l.lo, my name is...' was at the first telephone operators' convention in Niagara Falls in 1880.

STEPHEN He invented 'h.e.l.lo'. H-E-double L-O. The word had existed before as 'hullo', H-U-double L-O, which never meant a greeting. It just meant an expression of surprise. [picks up his pen] 'Hullo, what have we got here? Hullo, what's this?' We still use it in that sense. He invented 'h.e.l.lo'. H-E-double L-O. The word had existed before as 'hullo', H-U-double L-O, which never meant a greeting. It just meant an expression of surprise. [picks up his pen] 'Hullo, what have we got here? Hullo, what's this?' We still use it in that sense.

BILL Do we? Do we?

STEPHEN 'Hullo, what's that?' ... Don't we, Bill? 'Hullo, what's that?' ... Don't we, Bill?

BILL Yes, when we ... when we live our life like a 1950s detective film, yes! I often go to my fridge and ... 'Hullo! We're out of milk! I say, mother, where's the milk?' Yes, when we ... when we live our life like a 1950s detective film, yes! I often go to my fridge and ... 'Hullo! We're out of milk! I say, mother, where's the milk?'

STEPHEN You beast, you beast, you utter, utter beast! You beast, you beast, you utter, utter beast!

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Was the first computer bug a real insect?

Yes and no.

First, the 'yes'. In 1947, at Harvard University, the US Navy's Mark II computer, housed in a large un-airconditioned room, was brought to a standstill by a moth getting itself jammed in a relay switch. The operators removed the battered corpse of the insect and taped it next to the entry in the log book before restarting the machine.

The mechanical nature of this computer made it particularly vulnerable to insect interference. Most of the early computers, like ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) at the University of Pennsylvania were electronic and used moth-proof vacuum tubes.

But was this the origin of the term 'bug'? No. Used to mean an error or fault in a piece of machinery, the word 'bug' dates from the nineteenth century. The OED OED cites a newspaper report from 1889, in which Thomas Edison 'had been up the two previous nights searching for a bug in his phonograph'. Webster's dictionary also gives the modern meaning of 'bug' in its 1934 edition. cites a newspaper report from 1889, in which Thomas Edison 'had been up the two previous nights searching for a bug in his phonograph'. Webster's dictionary also gives the modern meaning of 'bug' in its 1934 edition.

And regardless of what numerous books and websites say, 'de-bugging' was also being used before the moth brought things to a standstill at Harvard.

This is a rather satisfying example of life imitating language: a metaphor that, literally, came to life.

What is the most likely survivor of a nuclear war?

c.o.c.kroaches is the wrong answer.

Quite why so many of us persist in the belief that c.o.c.kroaches are indestructible is an interesting subject in its own right.

They have been around a lot longer than we have (about 280 million years) and are almost universally hated as hard-to-control carriers of disease. Plus, they can live for a week without their heads. But they aren't invincible and, since the groundbreaking research of Drs Wharton and Wharton in 1959, we have known they would be one of the first first insects to die in a nuclear war. insects to die in a nuclear war.

The two scientists exposed a range of insects to varying degrees of radiation (measured in 'rads'). Whereas a human will die at exposure to 1,000 rads, the Whartons concluded that the c.o.c.kroach dies at a dose of 20,000 rads, a fruit fly dies at a dose of 64,000 rads, while a parasitic wasp dies at a dose of 180,000 rads.

The king of radiation resistance is the bacterium Deinococcus Deinococcus radiodurans radiodurans which can tolerate a whopping 1.5 million rads, except when frozen, when its tolerance doubles. which can tolerate a whopping 1.5 million rads, except when frozen, when its tolerance doubles.

The bacterium fondly known by its students as 'Conan the Bacterium' is pink and smells of rotten cabbage. It was discovered happily growing in a can of irradiated meat.

Since then it's been found to occur naturally in elephant and llama dung, irradiated fish and duck meat and even in granite from Antarctica.

Conan the Bacterium's resistance to radiation and cold, and its ability to preserve its DNA intact under these extreme conditions, have led NASA scientists to believe it might hold the clue to finding life on Mars.

What's the best use for Marmite?

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Solving the ArabIsraeli conflict in the Middle East No less a person than the inventor of lateral thinking himself, Edward de Bono, advised a Foreign Office committee in 2000 that the whole sorry business might be due, in part, to low levels of zinc found in people who eat unleavened bread, a known side-effect of which is aggression. He suggested shipping out jars of Marmite to compensate.

The popular belief that eating Marmite will keep mosquitoes at bay has no basis in scientific fact. Sadly, the B group vitamins present in Marmite (and beer for that matter) don't appear to have any effect on mosquito behaviour.

Marmite, the love-it-or-hate-it spread, was invented in 1902 in Burton-on-Trent by the Marmite Food Extract Company and contains yeast extract, salt, wheatgerm extract, niacin, thiamine, spices, riboflavin and folic acid.

The exact recipe is you guessed it 'a closely guarded secret'. Since 2000 it's been owned by Unilever, proprietors of Persil, Domestos, Colman's, Cif, Cornetto and Impulse. Its annual sales exceed 24 million jars.

Marmite exerts a strange hold on British popular consciousness its taste is one of the things that ex-pats claim they miss most about home. Bill Bryson has described it as 'an edible yeast extract with the visual properties of an industrial lubricant'.

A marmite marmite is a traditional French lidded cooking pot, the shape of which is echoed by that of the Marmite jar. The word originally meant 'hypocrite', deriving from is a traditional French lidded cooking pot, the shape of which is echoed by that of the Marmite jar. The word originally meant 'hypocrite', deriving from marmouser marmouser or or marmotter marmotter, 'to murmur' (perhaps because both hypocrites and cooking pots hide things from view and bubble away quietly).

CLIVE But the whole point about Marmite ... They advertise it on the basis that some people love it and some people hate it. So he'd have solved the problem, then they'd have wars between the ... the pro-Marmiters and the anti-Marmiters! They'd be back to warfare again! But the whole point about Marmite ... They advertise it on the basis that some people love it and some people hate it. So he'd have solved the problem, then they'd have wars between the ... the pro-Marmiters and the anti-Marmiters! They'd be back to warfare again!

Which is the hottest part of a chilli?

A generation of television chefs have had us believe that the hottest bit of the chilli pepper is its seeds. Not so.

It is the central membrane to which the seeds are attached. The membrane contains the highest levels of capsaicin, the colourless, odourless compound that gives chillies their distinctive heat.

Chilli heat is measured using the Scoville Scale, created by American pharmacist Wilbur L. Scoville in 1912. In his early tests, Scoville mixed a range of chilli extracts dissolved in alcohol and diluted in sugar water. He asked a panel of testers to consume a range of concentrations of various chillies until they ceased to taste hot. A numerical scale was then devised according to the heat of the chillies.

A jalapeno pepper, for example, is said to have 4,500 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), because it has to be diluted 4,500-fold before it loses its heat.

The hottest chilli in the world is from Dorset, on the south-west coast of England. Michael and Joy Michaud's Dorset Naga naga naga is Sanskrit for 'serpent' was grown on a plant from Bangladesh. is Sanskrit for 'serpent' was grown on a plant from Bangladesh.

It was tested by two American laboratories in 2005, and came in at a palate-torching 923,000 SHU. Even half a small Naga would render a curry inedible, and consuming a whole one would mean a trip to hospital. Despite this, 250,000 Nagas were sold last year.

To put it in perspective, pure capsaicin powder delivers 1516 million SHU. It is so hot that pharmacists who experiment with it must work in a filtered 'tox room' wearing a full protective body-suit with a closed hood to prevent inhalation.

There are an estimated 3,510 varieties of chilli.

Where do tulips come from?

Whether from Amsterdam or elsewhere, tulips are as famous a symbol of Holland as windmills and clogs, but they are not native to the Netherlands.

The natural habitat of the tulip is mountainous terrain.

It was only in 1554 that the first tulips were imported from Constantinople (now Istanbul) into the Netherlands. Wild tulips can be found in southern Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia up to north-east China. The tulip is the national flower of both Turkey and Iran.

The name of the flower comes from the word tulbent tulbent which is the Turkish p.r.o.nunciation of the Persian word which is the Turkish p.r.o.nunciation of the Persian word dulband dulband, meaning turban. This is because of what etymologists call a 'fancied resemblance' of the shape of the flower when not in full blossom to a turban (or perhaps because the Turks traditionally wore the bloom in their headwear).

Tulips did become exceedingly popular in the Netherlands (as it should be called: 'Holland' only describes two of the country's twelve provinces) but the stories of the great 'tulipomania' bubble of the early seventeenth century now look rather overcooked.

According to Professor Peter Garber, Head of Global Strategy at Deutsche Bank, the most lurid tales of people being ruined by the collapse of tulip prices stem mainly from a single book Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay published in 1852 and were the result of a moralistic campaign by the Dutch government to spread scare stories to discourage tulip speculation. by Charles Mackay published in 1852 and were the result of a moralistic campaign by the Dutch government to spread scare stories to discourage tulip speculation.

It's true that the price of tulips was inflated (and that one bulb of the most valuable plants could cost as much as a house) but there are many instances of even higher values being achieved in other countries for other plants, for example, orchids in nineteenth-century England.

At its wildest, Garber says that the Dutch speculation 'was a phenomenon lasting one month in the dreary Dutch winter of 1637 ... and was of no real economic consequence'.

Today, Holland produces about three billion tulip bulbs a year, of which two billion are exported.

How many crocuses does it take to make a kilo of saffron?

Between 85,000 and 140,000. Which is why, even today, top-grade Spanish 'mancha' saffron retails at 3,750 per pound.

There are frescoes in Minoan Crete dated to 1600 BC BC showing saffron being gathered. Alexander the Great washed his hair in saffron to keep it a lovely shiny orange colour. It was a seriously upmarket shampoo: at that time saffron was as rare as diamonds, and more expensive than gold. showing saffron being gathered. Alexander the Great washed his hair in saffron to keep it a lovely shiny orange colour. It was a seriously upmarket shampoo: at that time saffron was as rare as diamonds, and more expensive than gold.

In fifteenth-century Nuremberg and during the reign of Henry VIII in England, adulterating saffron by mixing it with something else was a capital offence. Culprits were burned at the stake, or buried alive with their illegal wares.

The town of Saffron Walden in Ess.e.x takes its name from the spice: it was the centre of the English saffron trade. Legend has it that this dates from the fourteenth century when a pilgrim from the Middle East arrived with a stolen bulb of a saffron crocus hidden in his stick. Until then, the town was simply called Walden.

Only the arrival of tea, coffee, vanilla and chocolate saw its cultivation decline, although it remained an important crop in Italy, Spain and France.

The word saffron comes from the Arabic asfar asfar, meaning 'yellow'.

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What can you tell about a man from his shoe size?

Stop sn.i.g.g.e.ring at the back there. In most cases, it won't even tell you the size of his feet.

A study in 2002, published in the British Journal of Urology British Journal of Urology International International, scientifically proved there is no link between shoe size and p.e.n.i.s size. Nurses at St Mary's Hospital and University College Hospital in London measured the foot size and p.e.n.i.s length of 104 men. In each case, the p.e.n.i.s was 'gently stretched' before it was measured, but no correlation was found.

Previous studies, which had seemed to indicate a mild link between the two, relied on simply asking male subjects for their intimate personal details rather than, in this case, whipping them out for some hard evidence.

The average Caucasian man's p.e.n.i.s is 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) long when limp and 5.1 inches long (12.9 cm) when erect. Most p.e.n.i.ses stop growing when their owner is in his sixteenth year, although there is some evidence to suggest that it begins to shrink in middle age. Most men who opt for p.e.n.i.s enlargements are in fact average-sized rather than small, though no doubt the people who carry out the operations have good reason to encourage them to think otherwise.

Even more surprisingly, most people don't know how big their own feet are and they don't wear the correct shoe size. According to David G. Armstrong, Professor of Surgery at the William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago, three-quarters of people wear the wrong-sized shoes. The reason for this may be that they stick to a size they were measured for when young and fail to realise that their feet change shape throughout their lives. Or it may be that they like to get value for money and wear and re-wear a pair of shoes even if they don't fit.

Somewhat stating the obvious, podiatrists ('foot doctors' to you and me) recommend trying on shoes first rather than buying a standard size off the peg, as each brand uses slightly different measurements, though they stop short at suggesting you buy a different size shoe for each foot.

Alternatively, you could give up wearing shoes altogether. Shoes are actually bad for you. In 2007, a South African study in the podiatry journal, The Foot, The Foot, looked at the feet of 180 people from three different ethnic backgrounds (Sotho, Zulu and European) and compared them to 2,000-year-old skeletons. The research concluded that human beings had healthier feet, joints and posture before the invention of shoes. The Zulu, who often go barefoot, had the healthiest feet of the three groups in the study. looked at the feet of 180 people from three different ethnic backgrounds (Sotho, Zulu and European) and compared them to 2,000-year-old skeletons. The research concluded that human beings had healthier feet, joints and posture before the invention of shoes. The Zulu, who often go barefoot, had the healthiest feet of the three groups in the study.

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What drives human sperm wild?

The smell of lily of the valley.

It appears sperm have 'noses' which they use to navigate towards a woman's egg. Researchers experimented with a range of floral fragrances and lily of the valley came top, getting the random sperm wiggling in the same direction at twice the normal speed.

The research was carried out at Ruhr University in Germany in 2003. They discovered a new sperm protein, hOR17-4, which acted as a receptor for sperm in exactly the same way as protein sensors in the nose detect smells. They then tested their new sperm 'nose' on hundreds of synthetic compounds, many of them used to mimic floral scents in commercial perfumes.

One of these, bourgeonal, is used to create the lily of the valley fragrance. It had two dramatic effects on the behaviour of sperm: doubling its speed and changing undirected swimming behaviour to direct movement. The 'foot-to-the-floor' effect seems to derive from hOR17-4 making the sperm wag their 'tails' harder.

Bourgeonal is now being used in fertility treatment to pick out the Mark Spitzes of the sperm world.

JACKIE It depends whether they're male or female sperm. Boy sperm swim faster, but don't live as long. It depends whether they're male or female sperm. Boy sperm swim faster, but don't live as long.