The Book Of General Ignorance Part 23

With the help of an engineer friend, she designed the machine in her woodshed. It was crude and c.u.mbersome but effective. There was a small foot-pedal driven version and a large steam-driven one. The latter, able to wash and dry 200 dishes in two minutes, was the sensation of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and won first prize for the 'best mechanical construction for durability and adaptation to its line of work'. At $250 each, however, the machines were too expensive for home use, but enough were sold to hotels and restaurants to keep Cochran's Crescent Washing Machine Company in business until her death in 1913.

Other mechanical dishwashers had been developed (and patented) in the US between 1850 and 1865 (all of them, it seems, by women) but none of them really worked. A hand-cranked wooden machine was invented and patented in 1850 by Joel Houghton. In 1870, Mary Hobson obtained a dishwasher patent, but even then it contained the word 'improved'. The electric dishwasher first appeared in 1912; the first specialised dishwasher detergent (Calgon) in 1932; the first automatic dishwasher in 1940, but it didn't reach Europe until 1960.

STEPHEN So, er, the first practical dishwasher was invented to wash dishes more ... So, er, the first practical dishwasher was invented to wash dishes more ...

JO More ... often than women can be a.r.s.ed to. More ... often than women can be a.r.s.ed to.

What kind of fruit are Jaffa Cakes made from?

Apricots.

The 'orange jam' at the heart of Britain's eighth most popular biscuit is actually apricot pulp, sugar, and a squirt of tangerine oil. This a.s.sertion appeared in the Daily Telegraph Daily Telegraph in September 2002. in September 2002.

(If it's not true perhaps someone from McVitie's would like to get in touch with us and correct this heinous slur. We note in pa.s.sing that even the company's advertising refers to it as the 'smashing orangey orangey bit' (our italics), which doesn't strictly imply the presence of actual oranges.) bit' (our italics), which doesn't strictly imply the presence of actual oranges.) It would take a 70-kg (11-stone) man a 90-minute football match to work off the 809 calories gained by a packet of Jaffa Cakes. Over 750 million Jaffa Cakes are eaten every year, generating sales of 25 million. If placed end to end, they would stretch from London to Australia and back again.

In 1991 McVitie's won a landmark case (United Biscuits (UK) Ltd v The Commissioners of Customs and Excise) to prove that Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes not biscuits.

This was to avoid paying VAT cakes and biscuits are zero-rated by the UK Customs and Excise, except for chocolate-coated biscuits, which are taxable as luxury items. McVitie's had to show that Jaffa Cakes were chocolate cakes, rather than chocolate biscuits.

The evidence turned on what happens when they go stale: like cakes, Jaffa Cakes grow harder, while biscuits become soft.

McVitie's is the third largest biscuit company in the world and is owned by United Biscuits. United Biscuits is owned, in turn, by Nabisco. Nabisco is owned by Kraft Foods Inc., the second largest food corporation in the world after Nestle. Kraft has 98,000 employees and turned over $32 billion in 2004.

Kraft itself is 85 per cent owned by the Altria Group, formerly Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company.

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What do digestive biscuits do?

Not a lot.

Digestive biscuits were invented by McVitie's in Edinburgh by a young employee, Alexander Grant, in 1892.

They were advertised as 'aiding digestion' (a euphemism for reducing wind) because of the high content of baking soda and coa.r.s.e brown flour. This has never been scientifically proven and it is consequently illegal to sell them under that name in the USA. The US equivalent is the graham cracker.

McVitie's Original Digestive is still the ninth-biggest biscuit brand in Britain, with annual sales of 20m.

McVitie's best-selling biscuit and the second biggest biscuit brand in Britain is the chocolate digestive launched in 1925. KitKat remains the biggest UK brand in the sector.

The annual sales of chocolate digestives are over 35m that's 71 million packets, or 52 biscuits per second. Despite recent controversial mint, orange and caramel versions, it remains the chocolate biscuit of first resort. The American travel writer Bill Bryson has called it a 'British masterpiece'.

Biscuits are one of the oldest-known foods. Six-thousand-year-old biscuits have been found in Switzerland. They were eaten in ancient Egypt and were being baked in ancient Rome in the second century AD. AD.

Biscuit means 'twice-cooked' in French, but the English came directly from the Latin biscoctum panem biscoctum panem 'twice cooked bread' and was, until the mid-eighteenth century, correctly spelt 'bisket'. 'twice cooked bread' and was, until the mid-eighteenth century, correctly spelt 'bisket'.

The adoption of the French spelling 'biscuit' (without the French p.r.o.nunciation) was not only pretentious and pointless, but wrong as well. In French, un biscuit un biscuit is not a biscuit but a cake a sponge-cake to be precise. A biscuit in the English sense is is not a biscuit but a cake a sponge-cake to be precise. A biscuit in the English sense is un biscuit sec. un biscuit sec.

In North America 'biscuits' are more like scones. What Britons call biscuits, Americans call either cookies or crackers. The American English word cookie comes from the Dutch koekje, which means 'cake'.

Biscuits were cooked more than once to make them last longer than bread, but most biscuits are no longer cooked twice. In fact, most biscuits have never been cooked twice. According to Dr Johnson's Dictionary Dictionary, biscuits designed for long sea voyages were usually cooked four times.

ARTHUR It's a ... it's a very, very hard-working biscuit. But have you ever noticed that there is a slightly fishy taste about a digestive? It's a ... it's a very, very hard-working biscuit. But have you ever noticed that there is a slightly fishy taste about a digestive?

STEPHEN Is there? What have you been dunking them in? Good heavens! Is there? What have you been dunking them in? Good heavens!

ALAN Or 'who' have you been dunking them in? Or 'who' have you been dunking them in?

How was Teflon discovered?

Despite persistent claims to the contrary, Teflon was not discovered as a by-product of the s.p.a.ce programme.

Teflon is the trade name of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), or fluoropolymer resin, discovered serendipitously by Roy Plunkett in 1938 and first sold commercially in 1946.

While experimenting with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigeration, Plunkett found that a sample had frozen overnight into a whitish, waxy solid with unusual properties: it was extremely slippery as well as inert to virtually all chemicals, including highly corrosive acids.

His employers, DuPont, soon found a range of uses for the new material, initially in the Manhattan Project (the code-name for the development of nuclear weapons in 19426) and subsequently in cookware.

No one has been able to find a precise source for the 's.p.a.ce programme' myth, except that the Apollo missions all depended on Teflon for cable insulation.

Other myths about Teflon include the belief that Teflon-coated bullets are better at piercing body armour than other kinds; actually the Teflon coating is there to reduce the amount of wear on the inside of the rifle barrel, and has no bearing on the effectiveness of the bullet.

Teflon does, however, have the lowest friction rating of any known solid material, which is why it works so well as a non-stick surface for frying pans.

If it's so slippery, how do they get it to stick to the pan? The process involves sandblasting to create tiny scratches on the pan's surface, then spraying on a thin coat of liquid Teflon which flows into the scratches. This is baked at high heat, causing the Teflon to harden and get a reasonably secure mechanical grip. It's then coated with a sealant and baked again.

Which organisation invented Quaker Oats?

Not the Quakers.

The Quaker Oats Company, started in Pennsylvania in 1901, was named after the Quakers because there were a lot of them in Pennsylvania and they had a reputation for honesty.

However, Quaker Oats, now part of the huge PepsiCo corporation, has no affiliation at all with the Quakers (or Religious Society of Friends) and, unlike the chocolate companies Cadbury's, Fry's and Rowntree, was not founded by Quakers, or established on Quaker principles.

This has caused some distress among The Society of Friends.

In the 1950s, researchers from Quaker Oats, Harvard University and the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology conducted experiments to try to understand how nutrients from cereals travelled through the body.

Parents of educationally subnormal children at the Walter E. Fernald State School (formerly known as the Ma.s.sachusetts School for Idiotic Children) were asked to let their children become members of a special Science Club. As part of the club, the children were put on a diet high in nutrients and taken to baseball games.

What was not made clear, however, was that the food the children were given was laced with iron and radioactive calcium so its path could be traced in the body. The parents sued the Quaker Oats company, who agreed to pay out $1.85 million to more than 100 partic.i.p.ants in 1997.

The cheery character on the front of the box is sometimes said to be William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1682, and an influential Quaker. The Quaker Oats company, perhaps wishing to improve relations with the Society, has emphatically denied this.

It was painted by Haddon Sundblom in 1957, the artist who also created Coca-Cola's iconic Santa Claus images in the 1930s. Sundblom's last commission was a Christmas cover for Playboy Playboy in the early 1970s. in the early 1970s.

It is often alleged that The Society of Friends got the nickname 'Quakers' following the trial for blasphemy in 1650 of George Fox, the founder of the movement, who suggested during sentencing that the judge should 'tremble at the word of the Lord'. However, the sect already had the reputation for 'trembling' in religious ecstasy and this seems a more likely source.

What shouldn't you do twenty minutes after eating?

Swim, is the answer your parents would have given, but there's no evidence that normal swimming after normal eating is risky.

Swimming pools are not particularly dangerous places according to government statistics you are much more likely to injure yourself taking off a pair of tights, chopping vegetables, walking the dog or pruning the hedge.

And keep well clear of cotton buds, cardboard boxes, vegetables, aromatherapy kits and loofahs. All of these things are becoming more dangerous.

The idea behind the popular injunction against swimming after eating frequently posted at pools to this day is that blood will be diverted from other muscles to the stomach, to a.s.sist in digesting food, leaving your limbs with insufficient blood, thus leading to paralysing cramps. (In less sophisticated versions, the weight of the food in your gut sinks you.) Even if you overeat before swimming, the most likely result is a st.i.tch in the side, or a touch of nausea. There is nothing intrinsically dangerous about the combination of food and water.

A greater risk is dehydration from not drinking, or weakness caused by fasting.

On the other hand, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) advocates 'common sense', arguing that there's at least a theoretical risk of regurgitation, which might be more dangerous in water than on land.

The 2002 RoSPA report revealed the following causes of accidents for one year in the UK: Trainers 71,309 71,309.

Tights 12,003 12,003.

Cardboard boxes 10,492 10,492.

Indoor swimming pool 8,795 8,795.

Cotton buds 8,751 8,751.

Trousers 8,455 8,455.

Twigs 8,193 8,193.

Aromatherapy 1,301 1,301.

Loofahs and sponges 942 942.

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How does television damage your health?

Not by sitting too close to one.

Until the late 1960s, cathode-ray-tube television sets emitted extremely low levels of ultraviolet radiation and viewers were advised to sit no nearer than six feet from them.

Children were at greatest risk. Their eyes are so good at accommodating changes in distance that they were able to sit and watch at a much closer range than most adults.

Almost forty years ago, the Radiation Control for Health & Safety Act compelled all manufacturers to use leaded gla.s.s for their cathode-ray tubes, rendering television sets perfectly safe.

The real damage caused by television is the lazy lifestyle it creates. Obesity rates among children in the UK have tripled in the last twenty years, and this has been linked to television. The average UK child aged between three and nine years old spends fourteen hours a week watching television and just over an hour playing sport or doing outdoor activities.

A 2004 study in the journal Pediatrics Pediatrics concluded that children who watched two to three hours' television a day had a 30 per cent higher chance of developing attention deficit disorder (ADD). concluded that children who watched two to three hours' television a day had a 30 per cent higher chance of developing attention deficit disorder (ADD).

In 2005, the research company Nielsen revealed that the average US home tuned in to eight hours of television per day. This is 12.5 per cent higher than ten years ago, and the highest level since television viewing figures were first measured in the 1950s.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that by the time they reach the age of seventy, Americans will have spent an average of eight whole years watching television.

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What do newborn babies like best?

Not much, it seems, and (sadly) not Mummy.

Unlike many creatures, humans don't 'imprint' quickly. While mothers and fathers may form an immediate bond with their baby, it takes most babies between two and three months to show any strong preference for a particular human carer.

Despite the homespun wisdom that says its essential to place a baby with its mother immediately after birth, this is probably more for the mother's benefit than the baby's. Research into the development of human attachments at the University of Minnesota in 1999 showed that the bonding process is much slower than most of us a.s.sume. It outlined the following steps: 16 hours babies prefer the sound of human language to other noises (at least, they start making rhythmic body movements, which psychologists a.s.sume means they're excited). They have no preference for particular voices. babies prefer the sound of human language to other noises (at least, they start making rhythmic body movements, which psychologists a.s.sume means they're excited). They have no preference for particular voices.

2 days babies can tell the difference between their mothers' faces and that of a stranger, but they still appear to show no preference. babies can tell the difference between their mothers' faces and that of a stranger, but they still appear to show no preference.

3 days babies clearly prefer human voices, especially their mother's. babies clearly prefer human voices, especially their mother's.

5 days babies clearly prefer the smell of their own mother's milk. babies clearly prefer the smell of their own mother's milk.

35 weeks babies become especially interested in faces, and particularly in their mother's eyes. babies become especially interested in faces, and particularly in their mother's eyes.

34 months babies start initiating social contact with their mother (or other primary carer). babies start initiating social contact with their mother (or other primary carer).

37 months babies start to show strong preferences for other members of their own family. babies start to show strong preferences for other members of their own family.

The concept of 'imprinting' was made famous by the Austrian animal behaviourist Konrad Lorenz (190389), who demonstrated that greylag geese hatched in an incubator would bond with, or 'imprint' on, the first moving thing they saw within thirty-six hours of birth (in the original case, it was Lorenz's Wellington boots).

This fact has been used to great advantage in breeding programmes for endangered species of cranes, where their eggs are hatched and reared using hand puppets, humans in crane-costumes and taped calls.

However, there is no evidence that humans imprint in the same way. Indeed a Canadian research team recently found that, up to the age of three months, newborn humans respond almost as positively to the calls of rhesus monkeys as they do to their mother's sweet nothings.