Getting better comes with a hefty price tag. With medical treatments getting more expensive and the uninsured growing in numbers, going to a hospital has become more financially painful than ever before. Thankfully, doctors and scientists are teaming up in an effort to bring medicine closer to the less fortunate. Using creativity and resourcefulness, medical practitioners are cleverly challenging the current state of medicine by developing new treatments and technologies that will be more accessible to the masses using everyday materials.

10 Bluetooth Hearing Aids

The ability to hear is a wonderful thing. Sadly, many people don’t have it. It is estimated that around 300 million people around the world suffer from some form of hearing impairment. In the United States alone, as much as 20 percent of the population report some degree of hearing loss. Although the condition is manageable through hearing aids, a lot of people simply can’t afford them. With the device costing up to US$4,000 a pair, spending money on hearing aids just wasn’t an option for many—until now.

Sound World Solutions, a Chicago based company, has created a prototype of hearing aids that use one of the most common technologies today—Bluetooth. It functions just as clearly as other hearing aids, but unlike conventional models, the Bluetooth hearing aids can be easily adjusted using your smartphone. The volume, treble, bass, and all the other sound options of the hearing aids can be attuned with a slide of a finger, eliminating the numerous visits needed to constantly readjust the device. The best part is that, at only US$300, more patients will now be able to afford the ability to hear.

9 Webcam Blood Flow Imaging

A noninvasive way to track blood flow is by the use of Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LCSI). This method is essential for treating and studying conditions like migraine and stroke by examining blood flow. To illuminate and capture images of blood flow, LCSI uses laser light and high-grade cameras. These parts are estimated at US$5,000, which is cheaper than most medical equipment but steep for hospitals in less-privileged areas.

To address this problem, researchers at the University of Texas improvised. Using a typical webcam and a laser pointer used in PowerPoint presentations, the researchers were able to create a blood flow imaging system that only costs US$90. When tested and compared with the more expensive device, the MacGyvered one performed just as accurately. The imaging device stands at 5.6 centimeters (2.2 in) and only weighs 25 grams (less than 1 oz), making it much more portable to areas with less medical access.

8 Kanzius RF Therapy

John Kanzius was not a doctor. He was a broadcast engineer from Erie, Pennsylvania who operated a series of FM radio stations across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. In 2003, shortly after retirement, he was given some of the worst news anyone can hear—he had cancer. During chemo sessions, he noticed that children who also suffered from cancer lost their hair, their smiles, and their overall energy. This depressing sight gave Kanzius an idea.

Knowing little about medicine but much about physics and engineering, he studied the physical mechanics of chemotherapy. He suggested that treating cancer with radio waves—the same waves radio stations use to communicate—could have less harmful effects than radiation therapy. To prove this, he devised a treatment called Kanzius RF Therapy, which uses a device he made from spare parts from his old radio stations.

The device emits radio waves that remove cancer cells without killing the healthier cells in the body, which is a common problem associated with the standard chemo. During laboratory trials, Kanzius RF Therapy was 100 percent effective in removing cancer cells with no harmful side effects. While Kanzius has sadly succumbed to cancer, many doctors are still investigating the potential of the Kanzius RF Therapy and its place in the future of cancer treatment.

7 Acne Medicine For Schizophrenia

For teenagers, there is no greater enemy than the acne. At an age when you desperately want to look attractive, biology interferes and gives you nasty, red marks on your face. Thankfully, there is an array of medication that can be used to treat acne. One of them is minocycline, an antibiotic prescribed for many types of infections and also commonly used for moderate to severe acne problems. For less than US$1 per tablet, teens can easily get rid of their acne and spend more time on their poetry or goth music.

You might think that a medicine for acne wouldn’t go very far. That’s probably what doctors from Japan thought when they prescribed minocycline to schizophrenic patients who had minor infections and unexpectedly found that the drug also alleviated psychotic symptoms in the patients. The drug even showed to be more effective than haloperidol, a strong and expensive anti-psychotic drug. Today, psychiatrists around the world are testing the effectiveness of minocycline for treating schizophrenia across larger populations. The results are promising and have great potential for establishing a cheaper, easier, and better treatment for schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

6 Baby Incubators Made From Car Parts

The principle behind neonatal incubation is simple—newborns, specifically those who are born preterm or with special conditions, need to be kept warm to sustain their lives. However, many hospitals, especially in poor areas, fall short of this simple procedure because they don’t have enough incubators. This results in thousands of babies dying each year from incubator shortage. In Kenya, around 53,000 preterm babies die annually because of a limited number of incubators.

Seeing that number go down is the goal of Massachusetts-based firm Design That Matters. Noticing that cars are more common a technology than incubators, their team decided to create prototypes of fully-functional incubators using discarded car parts. Headlights to provide warmth, dashboard fans for air circulation, and signal lights for incubator alarms are just a few of the features of their cheap incubator design. Since car parts are very common even in developing areas, producing and maintaining these lifesaving devices would be easier and more affordable. Though still on its prototype stages, the car-parts incubator shows a promising future in neonatal care.

5 The Cancer Breathalyzer

Diagnosing cancer is a complicated matter. It is also quite expensive. The median cost of a biopsy is US$5,000 while PET scans range from $850–$4,000. As if having cancer weren’t devastating enough, it also takes a painful toll on the patient’s pockets.

Scientists from Georgia Tech Research Institute have attempted to reduce the expense of diagnosis by developing a device that will detect cancer using a very simple technology—a breathalyzer. The device captures a breath sample from the patient in a container, which is then analyzed for breath volatile organic compounds that are associated with the presence of cancer. In a laboratory trial, the device detected cancer in affected patients 80 percent of the time, making it a potentially viable supplement to our current diagnostic techniques. At US$100 a piece, more indigent patients could have better access to proper diagnosis with the use of this technology.

4 Light For Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease that targets the central nervous system and includes such debilitating symptoms as paralysis and loss of vision. With 2.5 million sufferers worldwide and 200 new diagnoses every week, MS is becoming a bigger challenge to both specialists and patients. While there are a few expensive ways to manage the symptoms of MS, there is currently no cure for the condition. However, scientists believe they have harnessed a force in which a cure may lie—the power of light.

In an exciting discovery headed by Jeri-Anne Lyons and Janis Eells of the University of Wisconsin, early MS symptoms of lab rats were significantly reduced after a period of exposure to a particular wavelength of light called near-infrared. Because near-infrared light is already commonly used in hospitals for other purposes, the researchers are hopeful that further developments in this effective and inexpensive treatment to MS will be available in the future.

3 The Cardboard MRI

The fact that we can take “pictures” of the insides of our bodies is an astounding feat of medicine. Various medical imaging techniques have given us the ability to learn about our bodies with greater precision than ever before. The most popular one, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has been used over the years to diagnose cancer and many other types of illnesses. However, MRI scans don’t come cheap. The cost of an MRI scan can go up to USD $7,000 depending on which part of your body you need imaged. Additionally, the functions of a standard MRI scanner are limited—lung physiology, for instance, isn’t captured very accurately by the technology.

To address this problem, two Harvard physicists, Matthew Rosen and Ronald Walsworth, have built their own MRI imager that can clearly illuminate our lungs using typical items found in any hardware store. In their improvised imager, a magnetic field is generated by two coils mounted on two metal trellises while wire grids and rings redirect this magnetic field towards the patient. The patient is asked to inhale and suspend a lungful of polarized helium and air for 30 seconds while wearing an antenna made of a rubber-coated cardboard tube wrapped with a coil of wire. With the aid of the magnetic field, the antenna picks up the magnetic spin of the polarized helium, displaying an accurate picture of the gas flow and oxygen absorption of the lungs.

A standard MRI scanner displays protons in water molecules. The problem with this is that the protons inside the body need to be aligned by a very powerful magnet. In Rosen and Walsworth’s cardboard MRI, the helium inhaled by the patient is pre-aligned, allowing the scanner to use a magnet 150 times weaker than that of a conventional MRI. Because holding one’s breath may be difficult for people with lung disorders, the researchers are developing their system to capture the lungs in a shorter period of time. Though the machine has not yet been tested in clinical trials, the success of the prototype hints to a future of more accessible imaging technology.

2 Container Hospitals

With only two doctors per 1,000 people and more than 20 million people living with HIV, Africa is desperate for better access to healthcare, but hospitals don’t just sprout from the ground. A typical three-story hospital that would be considered rather small by American standards costs $17 million to build. Add medical supplies and staffing to the total and you have an insurmountable problem for these impoverished regions.

To solve this crisis, the Chinese government offers an amusing plan. China’s Ministry of Science and Technology developed a system of large containers that can be slotted together like toy blocks to form a fully functional hospital. Each container serves different functions found in a standard hospital, such as clinics and waiting areas for patients. The containers are portable and can easily be brought to areas that are short of medical facilities.

This ingenious idea is not without its challenges, such as the constant stream of electricity and water supply required to power the container hospitals, something that many African countries also lack. However, it is a first step to improving the quality of healthcare in Africa. The first container hospitals will be deployed to Cameroon and Namibia and the Chinese government hopes to give more to other African countries in the near future.

1 Slug Glue

We’ve been stitching wounds since the time of ancient Egypt, but little development has been made in sutures aside from proper sanitation and the materials used since then. While this age-old technique has proven itself useful over the centuries, it comes with plenty of hassles. Sutures are painful, time-consuming, and really expensive. Stitches can cost a patient up to US$500 for a single wound.

How can a primitive procedure be so pricey? Biologists from Ithaca College do not know. What they do know is that there is a potentially cheaper alternative that may be more effective than surgical sutures. In search for a naturally occurring substance that can bind wounds easily, they turned to a bizarre solution—slug slime.

Slugs, the bane of every gardener, produces gel that helps them move around with ease. Their slime sticks to wet surfaces and is also compliant to flexing and bending. These conditions make this unique substance a perfect alternative to medical stitches. While dermal adhesives already exist, this type of wound-binding procedure is barely used because they aren’t very resistant to bodily fluid. With slug slime’s ability to stick to wet surfaces, wounds can now be put back together with ease without the risk of leakage of bodily fluids that commonly results from both stitches and adhesives.

Unlike previous methods, slug glue can potentially be used in any kind of wound—straight or jagged, deep or shallow—without the risk of leakage. Because it can survive many harsh conditions, the researcher calls this glue an “ideal medical adhesive.” The best thing about slug glue is that slugs are hermaphrodites, with some laying up to 500 eggs per year. While an abundance of slugs and their goo might not cheer most people, it means this future advancement to wound treatment will be more available to people.

Asher B is currently in grad school to become a cognitive psychologist. In his spare time, he watches lots of sitcoms and eats lots of ramen. You can send him an email here or follow him on Twitter.

The human body is an amazing machine that is more complex than any man-made device ever created. While many of the functions it carries out require little explanation, some things it does are more complex. For the most part, people have no idea why their body does these things, but scientists and researchers have investigated them and came up with simple explanations for the baffling everyday functions of our body.

10Hiccups

Everyone has hiccuped at some point in their life. However, the involuntary action usually comes and goes relatively quickly for the vast majority of people, meaning it is more of a nuisance than anything else. Although for some, it can become something of an issue. Charles Osborne, for example, had the hiccups for 68 years.

Scientists have never been able to completely understand why people hiccup, but they have proposed several theories. One of the most recent ones comes from Daniel Howes. He suggests that the hiccups may have evolved as a way for infants to expel air from the stomach so that they can more effectively suckle milk. The contraction of the diaphragm causes suction that forces air out of the mouth, allowing the infant to burp itself. Howes points to the fact that only mammals—the only type of animals that suckle milk—get hiccups and that they are much more prevalent in the young.

9Appendix

The appendix has long been considered an organ that does more harm than good. Its function was a mystery, and it has a tendency to cause serious health problems in a number of people. Appendicitis can lead to severe pain, fever, and even death if it is left untreated after the appendix bursts.

In 2007, after years of research, researchers finally discovered what’s believed to be the actual use of the appendix. Rather than simply being a leftover organ from our evolutionary past, it was an important part of the immune system. According to the research team, the appendix provides a safe haven for bacteria that is needed in the gut. When illness or diseases such as dysentery wipe out the bacteria in the gut, the organ allows the bacteria to reenter the digestive system. It essentially keeps a backup of bacteria needed for the immune system to function.

8Tickling

Every person has experienced being tickled at some point. While it can be pleasant at times, it is usually something that people dislike and try to avoid. This has never stopped people from trying to tickle others, though. That fact, combined with the response to tickling, is something that has perplexed thinkers for thousands of years.

Previously, it had been thought that the reaction might be a panic response, similar to that triggered by a spider crawling on you. But Christine Harris, following numerous experiments, has suggested a more complex answer. According to Harris, tickling may be a system designed to help develop combat skills.

She points to the fact that close family members or friends usually carry out that tickling in much the same way as play fighting. It causes the recipient to convulse and try to break free as quickly as possible, teaching the victim how to get away from an attacker without actually causing them any harm. Meanwhile, the fact that the recipients laugh and smile when being tickled encourages the tickler to carry on the action and to do it more frequently. This increases the value of the action as it is reinforced multiple times.

7Wrinkled Fingers And Toes

Spending a long time in the water will lead to fingers and toes becoming wrinkled. This bodily function has baffled researchers for decades, with very little evidence to say definitively what the cause of the reaction was. A leading theory had been that water caused the skin to swell, leading to the wrinkling effect.

Scientists now believe they have come up with the exact reason. According to a number of researchers, the wrinkling is an evolutionary advantage that helps to increase grip in wet conditions. Experiments showed that those with wrinkled fingers and toes get a better grip on wet objects.

Another study from Newcastle University theorized that the function might have helped our ancestors handle tools in rainy conditions or have steadier footing on a soaked floor, providing an advantage over others who did not get wrinkly fingers and toes from water.

6Lump In Your Throat

Ever been really sad and felt a lump in your throat even though you knew for a fact that there’s nothing physically there? That’s a pretty common occurrence that happens to people when they get bad news or are on the verge of crying.

The “lump in the throat” sensation is a consequence of the fight-or-flight response inbuilt in humans, which is induced when a person is put in danger or under intense stress. In these emotional situations, the body pumps blood and oxygen to the brain and muscles to allow it to react faster. This has the added effect of causing the heart to pump harder and for breathing to become more frequent. To facilitate this, vocal chords, known as the “glottis,” expand to allow more air to pass through the throat. However, when a person tries to swallow, the glottis need to close. The muscles effectively work against each other, causing the “lump” sensation.

5Phantom Vibration Syndrome

If you use a smartphone or another electronic device that comes with a vibrate function, you will probably have experienced the “phantom vibration syndrome.” Essentially, you feel a vibration in your pocket, take out the phone, and see that your phone is dark. Nothing has happened to cause the device to vibrate, and yet you could clearly feel it.

In 2010, a study found that 68 percent of people using such devices experience these phantom vibrations on a regular basis. Possible explanations include the brain misinterpreting other sensory information, such as a slight movement in clothing, as vibration as it anticipates incoming communication through the device.

4Shiver Down The Spine

Shivers down the spine, and the goosebumps that traditionally accompany them, happen in all kinds of situations. They usually occur during stressful moments, such as when a person is in danger. This affects the hypothalamus, the section of the brain that controls certain nervous system functions. It releases large amounts of adrenaline to help the body prepare to react to the situation. This causes muscles to contract and hair to stand on end, leading to goosebumps. The same reaction happens when a person feels intense emotions such as love, happiness, or shock. Music causes shivers down the spine because it induces strong emotions in humans, causing the brain to release adrenaline.

3Yawning

The act of yawning is so contagious that even reading about it can cause a person to yawn, but there has been much debate over what exactly causes it. One competing theory was that yawning allows the body to take in more oxygen for stressful events that are about to occur, like in sports, to make the body more alert. Other theories suggested that it may be a way to communicate boredom and tiredness and to pump vital fluid around the body.

In 2014, researchers came up with a new theory that unified many of the contradictory elements of yawning to give a complete explanation. According to the study, yawning is the body’s way of attempting to cool down the brain. The yawn takes cold air in and increases blood flow around the brain, carrying away excess heat. This theory also explains why so many situations cause yawning. The brain heats up in stressful situations and before exercise; it also increases in temperature as people grow tired. Yawns fight boredom by allowing the brain to be more alert.

2Alcohol-Induced Blackouts

It is a fairly common occurrence for those who have drunk a large amount of alcohol to be unable to remember parts of a night out (or the entire event). While these blackouts can happen with other drugs, they happen most frequently with alcohol.

Studies have shown that alcohol prevents the brain from being able to transfer short-term memory to long-term memory, essentially stopping people from remembering recent events. This is because alcohol stops receptors in the hippocampus from releasing glutamate. This prevents neurons from being able to communicate with each other normally, blocking the transfer of memory. As such, the person becomes unable to create new memories. The memory can still exist somewhere in the brain, though, which explains why people can be reminded of an event from the previous night and then suddenly remember all about it.

1Seasickness

Seasickness, and other types of motion sickness, is a set of symptoms experienced by a large amount of people when they are traveling in vehicles such as ships and cars. The symptoms can include vomiting and dizziness.

It happens because of a disconnect between what a person feels and sees. On a rocking boat, for example, the body senses the motion through the inner ear but cannot see the movement, as the entire boat appears to be still. This causes the brain to receive conflicting information. This triggers a psychological defense mechanism, because the most likely cause of a conflict between the senses are hallucinations brought about by poison. The nausea and vomiting are the body’s way of trying to get rid of the toxins it thinks are affecting it.

While medication and electronic devices can prevent seasickness, it can also be mitigated by looking at the horizon on a boat or out of the window in a car. This gives the eyes a visual cue to sense the motion, and so the brain doesn’t receive confusing information.

Nathan is a freelance writer who has provided work for a number of websites across a variety of topics including film, TV, sports, video games, and humor. He also occasionally writes serious pieces. You can keep up to date with his work at his website.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention.” Every day, a new scientific breakthrough occurs or a new product is invented to solve a problem or fulfill a need. Scientists and inventors often spend years researching and refining their discoveries.

However, it is surprising to find out that many common household items were created by mistake during this research process. Some inventors found that a lab mistake could be adapted to a new purpose straightaway. Others were discarded, only to be repurposed many years later.

Most households around the world wouldn’t be without these laboratory mishaps today.

10 Nonstick Cookware

Where would we be without our nonstick cookware? Scraping off the eggs burned onto the bottom of the frying pan and trying to pry muffins out of baking trays, that’s where.

Teflon, or PTFE as it is known in the scientific world, would have to rank as one of the most useful kitchen inventions. However, polytetrafluoroethylene was actually invented by mistake in 1938 when DuPont scientist Roy Plunkett was developing a new CFC refrigerant.

Sawing open a gas canister used in his experiments, he discovered a reaction had occurred between the tetrafluoroethylene gas and the iron shell of the canister. The result was a waxy, repellent substance for which he initially saw no use. Further experiments on the slippery substance eventually saw it used in manufacturing and military equipment.

It wasn’t until 1954 that anyone thought to coat cookware with the substance to stop food from sticking to pots and pans. Frenchman Marc Gregoire was thinking of coating his fishing gear with Teflon to stop it from tangling when his wife suggested that nonstick cooking pans would be more useful.^[1]

Most cookware used today is coated in a variety of Teflon.

9 Post-it Notes

Post-it Notes would have to be one of the most useful items of stationery. The sticky little squares of paper can be found in any home or office. We use them to bookmark pages, stick handy reminder notes to the fridge or computer, and leave phone messages.

Yet this common stationery item was developed by mistake. Dr. Spencer Silver was a chemist working for 3M in 1968. His research into a super-strong glue seemed to have failed when instead he came up with a very weak adhesive that would only stick things together for a short time. What good was that to anyone?

It wasn’t until 1973 that the worth of this new adhesive was recognized. Arthur Fry, one of Dr. Silver’s colleagues, began using this temporary glue to bookmark the pages in his hymnal.

By 1980, 3M was producing small squares of paper lined with a coating of glue along one edge. Today, we use more than 50 billion of these handy little sticky notes each year.^[2]

8 Safety Glass

Man has been using glass since the earliest civilizations. We use it in windows, cookware, jewelry, and decorative items. Blowing glass into decorative pieces is an ancient art form.

However, the main limitation of glass has always been the fact that it breaks into jagged, potentially dangerous pieces. So it is surprising to find that it was only in the last century that someone found a way to make glass safer.

Today, you will find safety glass in motor vehicles, windows, and cookware. It is tougher and less likely to break into jagged shards. Yet this stronger glass was discovered by accident rather than design.

French chemist Edouard Benedictus accidentally knocked a glass beaker onto the ground in 1903. He was surprised to find that it shattered but did not actually break as it contained cellulose nitrate which had left a film inside the glass.^[3]

This plastic-coated glass was further developed during the early 1900s and was first used for the lenses in gas masks during World War I. Various forms of safety glass have been developed since Benedictus’s discovery, and today, safety glass is mandatory in cars, buildings, and some cookware.

7 Microwave Oven

There are very few homes today without a microwave oven. The handy kitchen appliance certainly changed the way we cook. However, the microwave wasn’t an intentional invention. Percy Spencer, a radar engineer, was conducting experiments on a magnetron, a new vacuum tube in 1945.

During the experiment, Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. He grabbed some popcorn and, to his surprise, found that the magnetron also made the popcorn “pop.” He had accidentally stumbled upon a new way of cooking.

Raytheon marketed the new microwave oven as a “RadaRange” in 1946. The initial ovens were costly and too bulky for most kitchens. They were the size of a modern refrigerator and took 20 minutes to warm up before you could actually cook anything in them.^[4]

It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the smaller, cheaper versions found in most homes were developed.

6 Plastic

We can find plastic everywhere in most modern homes—from kitchenware to toys, furniture, and even packaging. Society is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental effects of this man-made substance, with worldwide attempts to minimize the use of plastic.

Ironically, plastic was developed to protect wildlife by reducing the need for ivory, tortoiseshell, horn, and other animal products as well as minimizing the industrial use of our natural resources.

In 1869, John Hyatt answered a New York firm’s call to find a substitute for ivory billiard balls. He found that combining cellulose (derived from cotton fiber) with camphor produced a substance which was flexible, strong, and moldable.

His newly discovered “celluloid” could be used in manufacturing instead of animal by-products, and it was even used in filmmaking. This new synthetic product would reduce the slaughter of animals for the use of their horns, tusks, and shells in manufacturing.

Leo Baekeland was researching an alternative electrical insulator to shellac in 1907. Expanding on Hyatt’s invention, he developed “Bakelite,” the first fully synthetic plastic which could also withstand extremely high temperatures without melting.^[5]

Chemical companies soon began researching and developing new plastics for every use imaginable—from wartime equipment to furniture, cookware, and motor vehicles. The applications for plastic were endless.

Given the origins of plastics, it is ironic that they have become an environmental concern, with more people returning to naturally produced products.

5 Super Glue

A researcher at Eastman Kodak found himself in a sticky mess when he was trying to invent a plastic lens for gunsights during World War II. Yet a handy little tube of the adhesive he had discovered can probably be found in most kitchen drawers around the world.

Harry Coover initially thought that his cyanoacrylate was useless as it stuck to absolutely everything it touched.^[6]

In 1951, he and colleague Fred Joyner were looking for a temperature-resistant coating for jet cockpits. After spreading the cyanoacrylate between two lenses during scientific experiments, they were alarmed to find that they could not pull the lenses apart, which ruined expensive laboratory equipment.

It was then that they realized the potential for this glue, which almost instantly bonded two surfaces together. Super Glue was first marketed in the late 1950s and has become a popular remedy for many small household repairs today.

4 Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is something we take for granted in our modern lives. Cutlery, kitchen appliances, medical equipment, motor vehicles, and even skyscrapers all use the strong, noncorrosive metal.

French scientist Leon Gillet first made a steel alloy mix in 1904. However, he failed to notice the rustproof properties of this new metal compound.

In 1912, metallurgist Harry Brearley was experimenting to find a rustproof gun barrel. During his research, he had added chromium to molten metals. He eventually noticed that previously discarded metal samples were not rusting like other metals.

Based in Sheffield, the home of silver cutlery, Brearley soon began marketing his “rustless steel” to cutlery manufacturers in place of the traditional silver- or nickel-plated cutlery.

Manufacturing companies soon began researching and further developing this new grade of metal. The uses of stainless steel today go way beyond Brearley’s original stainless cutlery. Planes, trains, ships, and cars are made from it. You will find stainless steel in every kitchen and at most building sites. It is also used extensively in medical equipment.^[7]

It is hard to imagine that this essential metal was initially thrown on a laboratory scrap heap.

3 Bubble Wrap

We probably take the protective packaging in most parcels for granted. Many people enjoy popping the small air-filled pockets in the Bubble Wrap in which their parcel contents were wrapped.

But did you know that Bubble Wrap was initially meant to be a textured wallpaper?

In 1957, scientists Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes put two shower curtains through a heat-shrinking machine in an attempt to develop a textured wallpaper. The result was a sheet of plastic covered in tiny air bubbles. Their efforts to use the product as a greenhouse insulation also proved to be a failure.^[8]

In 1960, IBM was looking for a way to protect delicate computer components during transport. Fielding and Chavannes’s cushioned plastic was the perfect solution to their problem.

The usefulness of “Bubble Wrap” soon caught on and is the world’s most common packaging material today.

2 Cling Wrap

Every household has a tube of “cling wrap” in the kitchen drawer. The sticky plastic film wraps our sandwiches and covers our food to keep it fresh.

The sticky film, “Saran,” was discovered in 1933 in the Dow Chemical laboratories. Ralph Wiley was working in the lab developing dry cleaning products and discovered the substance when trying to clean used beakers.^[9]

It was originally used as a protective spray in fighter jets and in motor vehicles. It was even used to line soldiers’ boots.

Saran Wrap was introduced into households as a food wrap in 1953. Concerns about the chemicals in the film being in contact with food led to further research and the development of “safer” plastic films. This effectively wrapped up the array of plastic food packaging we use every day.

1 Safety Pin

There are hundreds of uses for the humble safety pin. Clothing pins have been with us for thousands of years. However, the pointy ends were prone to give the wearer a nasty jab.

In 1849, New York mechanic Walter Hunt was sitting in his office fiddling with a piece of wire as he tried to come up with a way to pay a $15 debt.

He found that he had successfully twisted the wire into a useful object. He could see how the item in his hands could be used as a pin. The piece of wire now had a coiled spring at the bottom. Hunt added a clasp to the top, allowing the pointy end of the safety pin to be secured at the top and preventing users from being stabbed with the sharp end of the pin.^[10]

A clever inventor, Hunt was unfortunately not a sharp business man. A few years earlier, he had invented an eye-pointed needle sewing machine. He failed to patent his invention as he feared that it would cause people to lose their jobs. His design was later copied and marketed by others.

While he did patent his safety pin invention, he sold the rights to the patent to the person to whom he owed the money.

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who provides articles to online publications and her own travel blog.

There are a variety of ways that you can die depending on where you are and what you’re doing when it happens. Although some individuals peacefully pass in their sleep, others have to go through immensely uncomfortable and drawn-out deaths.

SEE ALSO: 10 Weird Causes Of Death Through History ?utm_source=seealso&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct

Death itself isn’t surprising. What’s astonishing is that you may die from the most mundane and unexpected parts of daily life. We all do these seemingly insignificant things without thinking twice about them. However, somewhere out there, someone has found a way to die because of them in one way or another.

10 Doing Nothing

We’ve already established that there’s no way to escape dying. Our bodies are inherently designed to do that when enough time passes—unless we manage to die earlier, which is always a possibility given how clumsy we are as a species.

One would think that unnatural deaths could be completely avoided by doing nothing at all. It stands to reason that if you’re doing nothing, you’re not doing anything that can kill you earlier than you’re supposed to die. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case as doing nothing has a kill count of its own.

Yup, it kills about 5.3 million people every year. Scientists say that it’s almost as bad as smoking or obesity, and we should make sure to keep moving around to lower our chances of being included in that statistic.

We’re not saying that it doesn’t make sense as physical inactivity is known to be an unhealthy habit. All we’re saying is that we didn’t know that sitting on your couch all day can actually kill you.^[1]

9 Sneezing

Depending on where you are in the world, people’s responses to sneezing could range from blessing you to telling you the correct way to do it so as not to offend them. However, it’s not a particularly noteworthy bodily function.

Even if we don’t fully understand the mechanics behind sneezing, we shrug and go about our daily lives without ever thinking about it. Of course, that’s until we find out that it’s also one of the few regular functions of the body that can kill you.

You see, sneezing triggers some powerful responses in the body, especially among all the organs involved in the process. Many people suggest blocking your mouth and nose to keep you from making sounds during sneezing. As one man found out, that is one way of absolutely destroying your pharynx and general throat area.

That’s not the only way it can kill you, either. People have died from it in a variety of ways—from brain hemorrhage to heart attacks caused directly by sneezing.^[2]

8 Taking The Stairs

Taking the stairs is a fairly normal part of our daily routine that we don’t really think about a lot as, let’s face it, they’re stairs. Thinking about whether they can kill us is the equivalent of worrying if walls can kill us. Even if the stairs do cause injuries due to the accidental fall here and there, it certainly doesn’t come across as something with a fatality rate.

However, multiple studies conducted around the world have shown that stairs are deadlier than we give them credit for. In the UK, around 1,000 people die from falling down stairs every year. This is ridiculously high if you think about it. The researchers assume that most of it is just the elderly doing elderly things.

Another study in India found out that most people who died on stairs were in the 31–40 age group, followed by 21–30. In contrast, US statistics show that only 27 people die due to elevators every year, even though viral accident videos tell us that elevators are supposed to be a whole lot scarier than the stairs.^[3]

7 Mowing Your Lawn

Having a lawn is out of reach for many people due to skyrocketing real estate prices across the country. However, for the select few who do, mowing it is one of the regular parts of their weekly routine.

Although it’s probably easy to find a way to die from a lawnmower if you really want to, it’s not more dangerous than any other machine you have in the house. (You can always accidentally stick your head in the mixer.) However, if you check out the stats on how many people manage to kill themselves mowing their lawns, you’d be surprised.

It was highlighted by Kim Kardashian in one of her tweets. She pointed out that 69 people died due to lawnmowers every year. That’s just the deaths. In addition, about 250,000 people injure themselves using the lawnmower every year.^[4]

6 Furniture

If you live in a house, chances are that it has furniture unless you’re going for the really minimal Instagram look that’s all the rage these days. Even if nearly all of us have stubbed our toe on a chair or some other mundane piece of furniture at some point, it doesn’t come across as something that could kill you in the way that leaving the gas on could.

Yet, furniture causes an unexpected number of deaths across the world every year. Many of them are due to accidental tipping.

Now we aren’t sure if furniture manufacturers are still not skilled enough at their jobs after all these years of practice. But we know that a bunch of consumer checks are in place before you can set up a furniture retail store. As for the numbers, a child dies due to a piece of furniture falling on top of him every two weeks in the US. About 2,800 injuries were reported in 2016 alone.^[5]

5 Balloons

Balloons are a common decoration at a wide variety of events—from Christmas to birthday parties to surprise interventions. Even though our fascination with balloons drops in direct proportion to how old we get, we don’t exactly think of them as deadly.

For the one-off ridiculously stupid person who may decide to swallow them for some unfathomable reason, health care has come far enough to stop it from being a fatal accident. Right? Not really.

Even in 2019, a surprisingly high number of people—primarily children—die of choking on balloons, and none of our futuristic health care can do anything to stop it.

Of course, there are other things in the house that kids can swallow and choke on, too. But balloons are particularly dangerous because they can obstruct the breathing pipes more effectively than most other things. That’s because balloons are all elastic and rubbery. It’s difficult to get them out even if you do make it to the ER in time.^[6]

4 Playing Golf

Depending on how rich and old you are, golf is either a leisurely activity you indulge in on weekends or a highly competitive sport you regularly play with a whole group of equally competitive friends. We won’t say it’s impossible to die on a golf course if you really try, but rogue golf balls hitting people in the wrong spot cause more fatalities than you’d think.^[7]

A ridiculously high number of people have died from flying golf balls. These individuals were just in the unfortunate path of the golf ball—like a 10-year-old boy in Alabama or a 69-year-old man in California or even a 27-year-old in Queensland, New Zealand.

3 Going To A Doctor

Of course, we’re not talking about serious diseases that will kill you nonetheless, only a bit faster if you don’t go to the doctor. We’re talking about the general phenomenon of visiting a doctor as a surprisingly high number of people die from faulty prescriptions and medical errors that could have been avoided.

The most surprising culprit? Bad handwriting from doctors.

Anyone who has ever thought “no way anyone can read this” was right after all, according to the numbers at least. Every year, about 7,000 people die due to bad handwriting with prescriptions per a study by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine.

In addition, general medical errors cause a whopping 250,000 deaths every year. That’s a conservative number depending on which study you’re reading. (The estimate can go as high as 440,000.)^[8]

2 Doing Your Laundry

We’re used to the idea of certain things in the household turning dangerous if not taken care of—like heavy-duty computers or exposed power sockets. However, none of those things have anything on doing your laundry.

If you thought there was no way that washing your clothes—especially the part where you dry them—can pose any sort of danger to you, let alone kill you, it’s time to rethink your approach to laundry. Regularly taking care of the dryer may someday prove to be the difference between staying alive and, well, not.

The US Fire Administration even has a special instructions manual for using the clothes dryer, which kills an average of 13 people and injures 444 every year in the US. The primary cause is the dryer catching fire due to reasons like not cleaning out the lint after every round or just generally not taking care of your electronic equipment like a responsible person.^[9]

1 Taking A Bath

Unless you’re not a part of civilized society or you’re not bathing on a dare or something, we assume that you take a bath every day (or at least regularly). It’s not exactly rocket science. You go in, splash yourself with water, wash with some soap, dry yourself, and come back out. It’s a mundane part of our everyday routine. If not for the irritating need to stay clean to be presentable to people, most of us wouldn’t even bother with it.

For a part of such a basic routine, though, taking a bath puts you at an unnaturally high risk of dying if statistics are to be believed. In the US alone, an average of 335 people die due to drowning in their own bathtubs every year. You’d think that most of them were kids or the elderly, but about half of those deaths were able-bodied adults.^[10]

Surprisingly, another common cause of dying inside the bathroom is hot water. Apparently, 20 people in the UK lose their lives every year due to burns from scalding water.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs here, or just say hello to him on Twitter.

Germs are crafty little invaders, often thriving in the everyday items we take for granted. We might feel confident tossing groceries into reusable shopping bags or taking a sip from a water bottle, but these seemingly harmless objects can be hiding more bacteria than we’d ever imagine. In our busy lives, it’s easy to overlook just how dirty some of our most commonly used items can get.

Think about it: when did you last clean your credit cards or give your yoga mat a good scrub? These things are part of our daily routines, yet they can quickly turn into breeding grounds for germs if we’re not paying attention. The truth is, the real germ hotspots aren’t just in obvious places like public restrooms; they’re often right in front of us, blending into the background of our everyday lives.

This list explores ten surprisingly germy everyday items and gives you simple, practical tips on keeping them clean. With just a little more awareness and a few easy habits, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the hidden bacteria that might be closer than you think.

Related: Top 10 Ways Binge-Watching Is Ruining Your Health

10 Reusable Shopping Bags

We all love the idea of reusable shopping bags—they’re eco-friendly, sturdy, and help cut down on plastic waste. But there’s a downside most people don’t think about: These bags can be a surprising source of bacteria. Dr. Ryan Sinclair was involved with a study by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University of Public Health that examined reusable grocery bags. It found that while these bags are used over and over, they’re rarely cleaned. As a result, they can easily become a breeding ground for germs. In the study, nearly every bag tested contained large amounts of bacteria, with coliform bacteria found in half of them. Even more concerning, E. coli was detected in 12% of the bags.

The problem doesn’t stop there. When these bags are left in the warm confines of a car trunk, the bacteria inside can multiply rapidly. Dr. Sinclair’s research showed that just two hours of exposure to meat juices in a car trunk could cause bacteria to increase tenfold. That’s a serious health risk, especially if you’re using the same bag for groceries week after week without washing it.

Luckily, the solution is simple: wash your bags regularly. Whether by hand or in the washing machine, cleaning your reusable bags can eliminate more than 99.9% of bacteria. It’s a small step that can make a big difference in keeping your groceries—and your kitchen—safe.^[1]

9 Water Bottles

Reusable water bottles are a fantastic way to stay hydrated and cut down on plastic waste, but they might be harboring more bacteria than you realize. Believe it or not, these bottles can hold an average of 20.8 million colony-forming units (CFUs) of bacteria—40,000 times more than what’s typically found on a toilet seat. Each time you take a sip, you’re transferring bacteria from your mouth to the bottle, where it thrives in the moist environment inside.

The misconception that water bottles don’t need frequent cleaning because they only contain water is widespread, but it’s dangerous. Harmful bacteria like E. coli can quickly multiply, potentially leading to stomach troubles such as diarrhea or vomiting. And it’s not just the inside of the bottle you need to worry about; those tricky crevices in screw tops or under flip-up straws can develop mold, adding another layer of risk.

To keep your water bottle safe, it’s crucial to wash it regularly—ideally after every use. A quick rinse with hot, soapy water will usually do the trick, but if it’s been neglected for a few days, a deeper clean using a vinegar and water solution might be in order. These small steps can make a big difference in keeping your bottle—and your health—squeaky clean.^[2]

8 Credit and Debit Cards

You might not realize it, but your credit and debit cards could be some of the dirtiest things you touch every day. A study by Queen Mary University in London found that 8% of credit cards carry bacteria, including staph and even fecal matter. In fact, 1 in 12 bank cards has traces of fecal bacteria on it. Every time you swipe or hand over your card, those germs can transfer to your hands and then to whatever you touch next.

Dr. Alan Taege, an infectious disease expert, points out that anything passed from hand to hand, like money or credit cards, is likely to pick up all kinds of germs. The problem is that once those bacteria are on your hands, they can easily make their way to your face, especially if you touch your eyes or mouth without thinking. This simple act can increase your risk of getting sick.

To keep these hidden germs in check, make it a habit to wipe down your cards regularly, especially after heavy use. Keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer with you when you’re out and about can also help reduce the spread of bacteria. These small steps can go a long way in keeping you healthier.^[3]

7 Yoga Mats

Your yoga mat might be your sanctuary for relaxation and fitness, but it’s also a hotspot for bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Unwashed mats can quickly become breeding grounds for germs that cause skin infections like athlete’s foot and staph. These pesky microbes love the warm, moist environment created by your sweat, especially after a tough session in a hot yoga studio.

Even if you always bring your own mat to the gym, you’re not completely in the clear. Germs can easily transfer from the gym floor or someone else’s shoes onto your mat. And it’s not just skin infections you need to worry about—your mat can also harbor cold and flu viruses that stick around for days, just waiting for a chance to make you sick.

To keep your mat (and yourself) germ-free, make cleaning it a regular habit. If you’re using it in a gym or class, give it a good wipe down before and after every use. At home, a thorough clean once a week should do the trick, but if you’re prone to sweating or have sensitive skin, consider upping the frequency.^[4]

6 Public Touchscreens

Public touchscreens have made life more convenient, but they’re also crawling with harmful bacteria. A study from London Metropolitan University revealed that these screens are often contaminated with bacteria from human and animal feces, including Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus. These germs can lead to anything from mild skin infections to serious conditions like meningitis or blood poisoning. Even more alarming is the presence of listeria, a bacterium that can cause severe foodborne illnesses.

These bacteria thrive on surfaces touched by countless people every day, making public touchscreens a perfect breeding ground. Whether checking in at the airport, ordering food at a kiosk, or picking a movie on a plane, you’re likely coming into contact with these invisible threats. While places might clean these screens periodically, it’s unrealistic to think they’re sanitized after every use.

To protect yourself, make a habit of washing your hands or using hand sanitizer right after using a public touchscreen, especially before eating or touching your face. These small steps can go a long way in keeping you safe from the germs lurking on these frequently touched surfaces.^[5]

5 Contact Lenses and Cases

Wearing contact lenses is a convenient way to correct your vision, but if you’re not careful, they can turn into serious germ magnets. When lenses aren’t cleaned or stored properly, they can lead to infections like microbial keratitis, a painful inflammation of the cornea caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, or even parasites. In severe cases, this condition can result in blindness or require a corneal transplant.

Microbial keratitis often strikes when lenses are worn for too long or aren’t disinfected as they should be. The symptoms—red, irritated eyes, worsening pain, light sensitivity, and sudden blurry vision—are warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored. If you notice any of these, take your lenses out immediately and see an eye doctor to prevent further damage.

The good news is that these risks are avoidable. By following proper cleaning and storage guidelines for your lenses and regularly replacing your lens case, you can keep your eyes healthy and free from infection. Taking these small steps can make a big difference in protecting your vision.^[6]

4 Makeup Brushes and Sponges

Your makeup might look on point, but if you’re not cleaning your brushes and sponges regularly, you could be inviting bacteria to the party. A study from Aston University revealed that 9 out of 10 makeup products, including lipsticks, eyeliners, and mascara, were contaminated with bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The worst culprits? Makeup sponges, with a staggering 96% harboring fungus. Even more alarming, 93% of those sponges had never been cleaned, and 64% had been dropped on the floor.

Using dirty makeup tools isn’t just gross—it can lead to serious skin infections, breakouts, and even more severe health issues like blood poisoning, especially if you’re applying makeup to broken skin or around your eyes and mouth. If you’re not cleaning your tools regularly, you’re putting your skin at risk every time you get ready.

The good news? It’s easy to fix. Make a habit of cleaning and sanitizing your brushes and sponges after each use. This simple step can keep your beauty routine safe and your skin healthy.^[7]

3 Tattoo Ink and Permanent Makeup

Getting a tattoo or permanent makeup might seem like a bold way to express yourself, but there are some serious risks you might not see. Recent research by the FDA revealed that even sealed and supposedly sterile bottles of tattoo and permanent makeup ink can be teeming with dangerous bacteria. Once injected into your skin, these pathogens can travel through your bloodstream, leading to severe complications like sepsis—a life-threatening condition that can cause organ failure.

But that’s not all. Contaminated ink can also cause painful skin infections, rashes, and deep tissue infections like cellulitis. The risks are even higher if you have multiple or large tattoos since more ink means more exposure to harmful germs. And if you’re thinking about getting permanent makeup, especially around your eyes, be aware that bacteria in the ink could cause severe infections in this sensitive area.

To protect yourself, always make sure your tattoo artist follows strict hygiene practices and uses only well-tested, sterile inks. Taking these precautions can help keep your body art beautiful and safe.^[8]

2 Kitchen Cutting Boards

Choosing the right cutting board isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s a critical decision for your kitchen’s hygiene. Wooden cutting boards have long been a favorite thanks to their natural antimicrobial properties. They absorb and trap bacteria in their fine grains, allowing these germs to die off as the board dries. However, if not properly maintained, deep knife grooves can still harbor harmful bacteria, making cleanliness crucial.

Plastic cutting boards might seem like a safer bet because they’re lightweight and easy to toss in the dishwasher. However, a recent study found that plastic boards can shed microplastics into your food, and over time, grooves from knife cuts can turn into bacterial hideouts. Even though they’re easy to clean, these hidden germs can persist if the boards aren’t regularly sanitized.

Then there are glass cutting boards—easy to sanitize but tough on your knives. Their hard surface can dull your blades quickly and increase the risk of slipping, leading to potential kitchen accidents. No matter what type of cutting board you use, regular cleaning and proper sanitizing are essential to keep your kitchen safe from unwanted bacteria.^[9]

1 Cell Phones

Your smartphone is with you everywhere you go, but it’s also carrying something you might not expect: thousands of germs. In fact, studies show that the average cell phone harbors more bacteria than a toilet seat—over 25,000 bacteria per square inch. From resting on public tables to being handled with unwashed hands, your phone collects germs from all the places it’s been, including the bathroom. The warm surface of your phone is a perfect environment for bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus to thrive.

Every time you touch your phone, you’re transferring these germs to your hands, face, and everything else you come into contact with. This can lead to anything from minor skin irritations to more serious infections like gastrointestinal issues. Considering how often we use our phones, the risk of spreading these bacteria is alarmingly high.

To keep your phone from becoming a health hazard, make it a habit to clean it regularly with alcohol-based wipes or a UV sanitizer. This simple step can help protect you from the invisible dangers lurking on your favorite device.^[10]

We probably do not pay attention to the shapes of lots of things we see around us every day. This is even though we would probably realize something was amiss if we saw them in a different shape. Imagine if you saw a circular television or a square coin.

The shapes of most everyday items are not random as you might think. Sugar is always in cubes, televisions are rectangular, and doughnuts are round for a reason. Most of the time, the shape is selected for practical reasons. Sometimes, they also have one or two things to do with the history of the product.

10 Why Sugar Is In Cubes

Sugar used to be sold in tall, hardened cones called sugar loaves. People went through quite an ordeal to get sugar ready for tea. Users first had to break the sugar apart with hammers or mallets that had chisels. Later, someone came up with the pliers-like sugar nippers to cut the hardened sugar into lumps.^[1]

Users who preferred granulated sugar shattered the lumps with a mortar and pestle or spice mill. Some just saved themselves all the trouble and inserted the whole cone into their cup of tea. Part of it melted into the tea, and they dried the rest for future use. Lucky buyers could also purchase already-broken sugar in lumps, which was sold by weight.

The whole problem with sugar came to a head in the 1840s when Juliana Rad sliced her finger while cutting sugar. Juliana was the wife of Jakub Krystof Rad, who owned a sugar mill. She complained to Jakub, asking why he could not make sugar that would fit in a cup and save people all the trouble. This made Jakub invent the first press that made sugar into cubes.

9 Why American Football Is A Prolate Spheroid

American football is played with a prolate spheroid ball because that is the shape of a pig’s bladder. The first American footballs were made of inflated pig bladders. Later, people started covering the bladder with stitched leather pieces. The balls still have those stitches, although they are only added to improve handling during play nowadays.^[2]

The shape of the ball did not change when the pig bladders were replaced with rubber in the late 1800s because the footballs were easier to throw that way. However, the change came at a cost. The balls are hard to pick up when they fall. It is also difficult to determine where they will land after a bounce, making it a nightmare for players and game developers.

Game developers often encounter difficulties when determining how to program the movements of the ball. While a regular soccer ball will go in one direction when it bounces, an American football can go in 30 different directions. Interestingly, early soccer balls were made of pig bladders but became rounder after the invention of rubber because they were easier to kick that way.

8 Why Airplane Windows Are Rounded

Airplane windows are round (or oval) because square windows become stressed when the cabin is pressurized. The continuous pressurization and depressurization of the airplane can cause the window to explode midflight, crashing the airplane.

The first commercial jetliner was the British de Havilland Comet. It launched in the 1950s with square windows. However, that turned fatal after two airplanes broke apart midair in 1953, killing 56 people in all.

Experts determined that the constant pressurization and depressurization of the airplane caused the four corners of the square windows to weaken with every flight. This culminated in the windows breaking, causing the airplane to explode and break apart midair. Square windows were quickly replaced with curved windows, which distributed the pressure over the surface of the window.^[3]

7 Why Cartoon Villains Are Triangular

Have you ever noticed that the villains in cartoons, live action, and animated movies all look alike? They often have horns, pointed ears, protruding chins, sharp eyes, pointed wings, V-shaped eyebrows, and devilish goatees.

This is not a coincidence. It is because the facial and body shapes of villains are often drawn or designed to resemble triangles with pointed tips. Filmmakers and animators use triangles for villains because our faces look triangular when we are angry. People also notice triangular and angry faces faster because they appear threatening.^[4]

For movie directors, threatening and angry means evil. This is something backed by science. In one study, volunteers noticed the mad expressions first when shown the faces of smiling, angry, and neutral people. They also noticed the downward-facing triangles first when shown pictures of four triangles pointing up, down, left, and right.

6 Why Stop Signs Are Octagonal

Stop signs are the only octagonal (eight-sided) road signs out there. They are like that because the government wants them to be easily distinguished from other road signs even when viewed from the back.

The first stop signs appeared in 1915. At the time, they were square with a white background. “STOP” was written in a black font. The sign worked at first until more cars started to appear on the roads in the 1920s.

The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) came up with a new eight-sided “STOP” sign that drivers could easily recognize, even if they did not understand or could not see whatever was written on it.

The eight-sided stop signs had yellow backgrounds with black lettering and outlines. The background only became red with white lettering in 1954. The AASHO changed to a red background because traffic lights already used red to mean “STOP.”^[5]

5 Why Televisions Were Once Round

Today’s televisions are rectangular because movies created before the invention of the television were made for projection on a rectangular screen. Interestingly, the first televisions were either circular or rectangular with round edges. Early televisions were round because they contained round cathode ray tubes (CRTs). CRTs were round because they were cheaper to make that way.^[6]

The first CRTs were not made for television but maintained their shape when televisions were invented. Rectangular CRTs came later, but they kept their round edges because it was difficult to make glass tubes with flat edges. Televisions became fully rectangular as manufacturers moved to liquid crystal displays and LED screens.

4 Why Doughnuts Have A Hole In The Center

The origin of the ring doughnut remains hotly debated despite its popularity. People have come up with all sorts of theories about how doughnuts ended up with a hole in the center. One says that a Native American man unwittingly made the first ring doughnut when he shot an arrow into the center of a pastry while aiming at a woman.

Another says that some bakers created the first ring doughnuts. Supposedly, when they added eggs to their dough, the final products were often uncooked in the center but overcooked at the edges. They created the holes to eliminate the gooey centers.^[7]

However, most sources credit a sailor named Hanson Gregory (1832–1921) as the inventor of the ring doughnut even though they do not agree on a single story. One version says that Gregory invented the ring doughnut when he forcefully put some pastries he was eating through a spoke of his ship’s wheel in 1847.

According to another theory, he created the hole to make his doughnut lighter after six of his friends fell overboard because their pastries were too heavy. A third notion says that Gregory asked his mother to make the hole so that they could use lesser amounts of ingredients to make their doughnuts.

In a 1916 interview with The Washington Post, Gregory said that he created the first ring doughnut in 1858. He explained that doughnuts were made in twisting or diamond shapes at the time. They were called fried cakes and twisters.

The insides of the twisters and fried cakes were often uncooked long after their outsides were cooked, making them difficult to digest. Supposedly, Gregory invented the ring doughnut when he made a hole in the middle of a pastry before it was fried. That way, the inside and outside cooked at the same time.

3 Why Love Is Represented With A Heart Shape

Love is universally depicted with a heart shape that does not look like a human heart. Several theories have been proposed for this, but the two most common ones involve the extinct silphium plant and the philosopher Aristotle.

You have probably never heard of the silphium plant. It was popular among the Romans and Greeks who used it as a food seasoning, cough syrup, and contraceptive. They used it for contraceptives so much that they harvested it into extinction in the first century AD.^[8]

Some historians say that the seedpod of the silphium plant looks like the heart shape we use to represent love today. As the Greeks and Romans probably used the silphium plant to represent love and sex at that time, its seedpod became the universal symbol of love.

Other historians believe that we use the heart shape for love because Aristotle and a writer named Galen described the human heart as a three-chambered structure “with a small dent in the middle.” Artists and scientists in the Middle Ages supposedly created the first heart symbol when they tried to draw the heart from the description in ancient books.

2 Why Light Bulbs Are Round

The first light bulbs were spherical. Today’s light bulbs are not spherical, but they still maintain a teardrop shape, just like their predecessors. That is, they are slimmer at their bases and wider at the center with a pointy tip.^[9]

Early light bulbs were spherical because they produced light using filaments placed at their centers. A sphere is the most practical shape that allows a bulb to evenly deliver light across a certain area. Modern LED and compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs are not spherical but maintain the teardrop shape because makers want to stay with their traditions.

1 Why Coins Are Round

The earliest coins came in different shapes ranging from rectangles to circles with holes in their middles. The year in which the first coin appeared remains disputed even though historians agree that it was sometime around the sixth and fifth centuries BC.

Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the first coins were produced in Lydia, which was in today’s western Turkey. Herodotus added that the coin was made with electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. One account says that the coins were oval, while another claims that they were rectangular. Whichever is true, they were clearly not circles.

The Greeks and Romans later jumped on the coin fad. However, they made their coins round to prevent fraud. Coins of the day were made of valuable metals, and it was quite common for people to chip their corners off. They called this coin clipping. It was illegal and reduced the value of the coin.^[10]

The Greeks and Romans created the round coin because it could be quickly spotted if it were ever clipped. Other accounts say that round coins also won over other shapes because they were easier to count, stack, and mint.

The quality of life that modern society has become accustomed to is dependent on various products and utilities. People tend to take these conveniences for granted as the average person has never had to go without them. What many people are unaware of is that these objects have a rich history of development through decades of expert craftsmanship and experimentation to get them to the standard that they are now. Overtime, the demands and needs of society are constantly shifting, thus meaning that the objects that society is reliant on must also change. The list that follows will skip the obvious immense advancements in technology such as phones or computers and instead focus on the inconspicuous objects that still hold significance in most people’s lives. Here are the top ten objects that have drastically changed throughout history.

Top 10 Fruits That Have Drastically Changed

10 Makeup

Makeup has played a very important role in various cultural cosmetic standards throughout history. The earliest record of the use of makeup was during the first Egyption dynasty in 3100-2907 BC. Men and women during this time would use skin care solutions and store them in clay containers called unguent jars. The people of Egypt would later develop dark green powders that women would use to decorate their eyes. These were created by powderized minerals such as antimony.

Makeup nowadays is much more instrinctly produced and widely utilized. There are many more ingredients involved in creating makeup that are both non harmful and much more effective in altering one’s appearance. For example, lipstick is now created by melting wax and oil together while later adding color pigments and a solvent solution.^[1]

9 Toilets

Everyone perceives toilets as a basic necessity in one’s home or public establishments. As a result, people fail to realize that the comfortable and more dignifying models that they utilize on a regular basis are actually recent innovations. For example, in Rome during 315 AD, public restrooms consisted of wooden seats with holes dug underneath them. There would be no barrier separating occupants and public restrooms housed up to 144 people.

Romans would view going to the restroom as a social interaction opportunity and used the time to chat with their friends or even complete strangers. It wouldn’t be until the 20th century where the toilet models that people have become accustomed to would begin to be invented. Around this time, toilets with flushable valves and water tanks resting on the top of the toilets themselves were available for the masses.^[2]

8 Shoes

Shoes are seen nowadays as a fashion staple as opposed to the necessity for function they were used for in the past. When shoes were first created, they needed to be durable and practical for the vigorous physical activities the wearer had to perform. For instance, the earliest discovered model of footwear was in the stone age, around 3300 B.C. The shoes were made from deerskin with a sole made from bearskin. For support they were also stuffed with hay.

With the limited tools that they had at their disposal, their shoes were quite the impressive feat of ingenuity. Overtime, as the masses stepped away from physical labour occupations shoes became methods of aesthetic expression. During the renaissance, a period of immense innovation, shoes were crafted from expensive materials and were used as status symbols.^[3]

7 Chainsaws

The invention of the chainsaw has had an immense impact on the trade industry. In the past, timber industries relied on sharp tools such as axes to chop down trees. This caused immense strain on workers overtime and even resulted in fatalities due to inaccurate swings causing trees to fall in unpredictable directions. In the 19th century, saws were used by Europeans to cut down trees more efficiently. Around this time, German doctors also used the earliest models of an “endless” revolving saw in medical procedures to cut through bones. These required the manual turning of a handle to keep the teeth of the saw moving.

The first electric chainsaw was invented in 1926 which was quite bulky and required two people to use. Finally in 1959, a chainsaw available for the wide public was produced which resembled the models used today.^[4]

6 Guns

Firearms have drastically impacted warfare, politics, and culture since their early inception. Around 850 AD, chinese alchemists utilized the explosive properties of gunpowder to create weapons that could project objects at a lethal velocity. This led to the creation of the earliest models of the cannons and grenades. Eventually, handheld firearms were invented which consisted of hollow bamboo tubes, packed with gunpowder and small projectiles. These were ineffective at long ranges so they were mostly used within close quarters.

As time progressed, other countries began using gunpowder for munition purposes. In the 13th century, major innovations of the firearm spread from Asia to Europe through the creation of flintlock firearms. Western contributions to the innovation of firearms really progressed when Americans first settled. American settlers used long rifles with twisted grooves in their barrels which caused the lead bullets to spin when fired. This resulted in a much straighter and accurate shot.^[5]

10 Obvious Lies That Changed The World

5 Eye Glasses

Eye glasses have gone through a number of developments throughout the course of history. Despite the fact that vision impairments are incredibly common, proper optical support has not been widely available for those in need until recently. Previous models of glasses were uncomfortable and unavailable to the mass public. As a result, many people experienced worsened eyesight and even blindness overtime. Romans first discovered the ability to utilize glass to view small texts or things at a distance. As a result, they created the first prototypes of glasses which were magnifying glasses in the shape of spheres. It wouldn’t be until the early 1700s that the familiar pair of glasses we see now came to exist.^[6]

4 Bikes

Bikes are one of the most cost effective and widely accessible methods of transportation used today. However, the durable and fast bikes owned by millions across the world presently are a result of years of constant innovation. The first reported model was created by a German inventor in the early 19th century who made a steerable two handed apparatus. It did not have a chain, brakes, or pedals; it was propelled using manual force from a rider’s legs. In the 1860s, French inventors began adding wheels, chains, and pedals to their bikes. These however were incredibly uncomfortable to use and were hard to control. Finally in 1885, bikes with equal sized wheels were available to the wide public that were much more fluid to control.^[7]

3 Sewing Machines

The production of clothing is an intricate and delicate process that requires competent equipment and workers to be done correctly. Before the creation of sewing machines, this process was much less efficient. Clothing was only made using hand sewing which was much slower and a skill trait that needed to be trained. In 1790, the first model of the sewing machine was designed which was powered by a hand crank.

This idea wouldn’t be brought to fruition until 1834 where an American innovator created the first functioning sewing machine. However, this creator believed that it would cause unemployment for many so he decided to avoid patenting his product. Alas, in 1851 sewing machines began finally being massively manufactured for clothing companies based on lost and found patents. These used threads from two different sources which avoided jams that made previous models unviable.^[8]

2 Lamps

Indoor lighting may seem like a very basic invention, but the modern lighting devices used in most homes have gone through a number of alterations throughout the years. The first lamps used were created around 70,000 BC. These were very primitive and involved a hollow rock being filled with a burnable material soaked in animal fat.

The biggest innovation for lamps happened in the 18th century when central burners were invented. Central burns had fuel sources tightly enclosed in metal. An adjustable metal tube was used to control the intensity of the fuel burning which in turn changed the brightness of the light. Modern electrical bulbs were introduced to the public in the 1870s from Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan inventing the first electric incandescent lamps.^[9]

1 Tractors

Finally, the last entry in our list is known for revolutionizing the agriculture industry and has significantly changed overtime. The invention of tractors drastically speedlined the process of farming by eliminating the need to manually plant, cultivate, and fertilize crops. The invention of the product itself was vital to supporting the exponentially growing population after the industrial revolution. Despite the ingenious applications of the original model of the tractor, it has still been tweaked throughout the years to make it even more efficient.

In 1897, the first factory dedicated to the production of steam powered tractors opened. These tractors were innovative for the time but were designed for off field driving as well. This made manufacturers have to sacrifice useful features such as larger plows for farming, thus making them less effective. In 1910, Henry Ford began producing gasoline powered tractors used exclusively for farming. These were much larger and had larger plows which in turn produced greater yields during harvesting seasons.^[10]

Top 10 Short-Lived Inventions That Changed The World

There is a monster hiding in your house. Many, actually. They’re watching you, waiting. They’re in your refrigerator, your oven, and your kitchen cabinets, because it seems one of the most dangerous things you handle each day is your food. The ways in which your diet can come back to haunt you range far beyond heart disease and diabetes. Human history is rife with horrific episodes brought about by nothing more than this most basic necessity. One look at these ferocious foodstuffs, and you’ll never turn your back on your local supermarket again.

10 Bread

During the 1800s, England’s population was growing faster than ever before. In fact, by 1850, London had become the largest city in history. But this sudden, enormous growth led to serious shortages of day-to-day items, and profiteering manufacturers were quick to respond . . . by packing their products with whatever they could find lying around their garage.

Plaster of Paris and even chalk were used to stretch out actual ingredients, but the worst was the use of toxic alum.^[1] Safer versions of alum are used for things like pickling, but the dangerous variety—used in modern-day washing detergents—was used heavily in bread. Not only did it allow for more loaves per batch, but it also gave them a more attractive white color. The thing is, alum prevents actual food from being absorbed by the intestines. In the end, this practice led to an epidemic of severe malnutrition, diarrhea, and even the deaths of many children, as starving citizens were unable to digest what meager scraps they could find.

9 Corn

The early 20th century saw the American South gripped by a nightmarish new disease. Sickening skin lesions and madness were the calling cards of the mysterious malady, which took over 100,000 lives between 1906 and 1940. Worse yet, no one could figure out where this “pellagra” even came from.

That is, until Dr. Joseph Goldberger came along. The Pennsylvania physician joined the Public Health Service in 1899 and had spent the last few decades traveling the country solving medical mysteries. It occurred to him that the disease only struck the especially poor, who survived on a diet composed almost entirely of nice, cheap corn.

His dietary findings didn’t go down well with Southern doctors, though, who were convinced the illness was caused by a germ. So Dr. Goldberger proved it wasn’t contagious by swallowing the scabs from an infected patient’s sores as well as infected urine and feces.^[2] He didn’t catch the dreaded disease, and his work helped to unmask pellagra as a simple niacin deficiency.

8 Wine

A symbol of class and refinement for millennia, wine would seem like one of the least harmful things on the planet (unless you count the occasional drunken fistfight). But just try telling that to English nobleman George Plantagenet.

The duke of Clarence and brother of King Edward IV, Plantagenet found himself involved in a Game of Thrones–style medieval power struggle in the late 1400s. Constantly at odds with his brother, he began scheming to remove him from the throne. However, before his rebellion could even start, King Edward beat him to the punch. Plantagenet was secretly imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed on February 18, 1478.

Despite beheading being the traditional fate of traitors, Edward instead had a final insult planned for his sibling. He ordered Plantagenet drowned in a barrel of his favorite drink, malmsey wine.^[3] After his uniquely ironic execution, some believe his body was left in the barrel when it was sent off to be buried.

7 Chocolate

In the early 20th century, the world stumbled upon a miracle. By simply adding a small amount of a newly documented element, any humdrum object could be made the stuff of fairy tales. Clock faces and cosmetics were dressed up with the miraculous glowing material. Candy manufacturers even began adding it to their chocolate for its supposedly invigorating qualities. Too bad it was radioactive.

Radium-infused chocolate was only one dangerous product that people were woefully eager to cram in their mouths. Wines and water were also packed with radiation before the dangers started to make themselves known. A 1925 article in The New York Times heralded the end of the radium age with the announcement of a nightmarish new disease: radium necrosis. It was basically radiation poisoning of the jaw caused by ingesting radium. Victims found the flesh and bone of their lower faces dying and falling away or developing grotesque tumors.^[4] Death followed shortly after.

6 Fish

For some, eating raw fish may be a terrifying prospect in its own right, but a certain Japanese delicacy gives sushi-phobes another reason to fear. Blowfish, or fugu, is prepared with extreme care by master sushi chefs. The law demands it. The government regulates the process carefully because a single mistake could end the life of a customer.

The organs of the blowfish are filled with a substance called tetrodotoxin.^[5] Should any taint the meat, this unbelievably nightmarish poison begins with a subtle numbing of the unlucky customer’s mouth. Soon, however, the numbness evolves into full-blown paralysis, which slowly migrates down the body. The victim is left completely unable to move but fully aware. Death finally comes when the paralysis reaches the lungs, and the still-conscious diner slowly suffocates. Luckily, due to the strict laws concerning its preparation, only 23 people have been killed by fugu in the last 16 years. Still, not many takers.

5 Nutmeg

During the 1600s, a terrible war was waged between the English and the Dutch. It was a brutal and bloody conflict that lasted for years. It was over something we like to sprinkle on eggnog.

Humble nutmeg found itself at the center of this bizarre international conflict because it had become something of a status symbol.^[6] Nobles of the era would stockpile spices like gold, and the trendiest new addition to any spice cabinet was nutmeg. The seeds were prized for their exotic flavor, their supposed aphrodisiac properties, and the belief that they could actually cure the Black Death. Unfortunately, though, they could only be found on a single Indonesian island chain, the Bandas. The quest to monopolize the nutmeg industry led Dutch and English forces to commit horrors ranging from torture to mass slaughter, upon both enemy combatants and the innocent residents of the islands.

Luckily, the bloodshed finally ended in 1667, when England signed a treaty handing over control of their only remaining Banda island. They didn’t get much in return, just the Dutch-controlled island of Manhattan.

4 Water

Throughout history, typhoid fever has claimed countless lives. Minor epidemics were fairly common until recently, but in 1903, the city of Ithaca, New York, faced a sudden and unusually aggressive outbreak of the dreadful disease.^[7] Construction had recently begun on the Six Mile Creek Dam, and the shady owners had neglected to include a filtration system of any kind. Conditions were rough for the builders as well; the entire crew was forced to share a single outhouse, leading many to simply use the creek. However, the final nail in the coffin was that a few of the builders had recently moved from an area of Italy notorious for typhoid outbreaks.

The results were as obvious as they were devastating. Ithaca residents began experiencing crippling stomach pain and dangerously high fevers. The sickness had spread far and wide before anyone figured out their drinking water was to blame. People could only watch as friends and family began to succumb. In the end, 82 people, including 29 college students, were killed.

3 Grain

Medieval England just couldn’t catch a break. As if constant war and the Black Plague weren’t enough, folks had a more obscure reason to lock themselves in their mud cottages: English sweating sickness.

With outbreaks occurring mainly during the summers of the 15th and 16th centuries, this strange illness came on fast and killed faster. Within 24 hours of infection, the victim would sweat profusely, experience shortness of breath and heart palpitations, and finally drop dead. Despite much documentation in everything from official records to fiction (Shakespeare even mentioned it in his play Measure for Measure), no one really knew where it came from.

Researchers now believe the hantavirus was to blame.^[8] The symptoms are eerily similar, and just like the Black Death, it is transmitted by rodents. Medieval England had no shortage of rats; the vermin were notorious for chowing down on stores of grains like wheat and oats. While eating, the incontinent beasts would leave their urine behind, contaminating the food. Unlucky peasants would then sit down for dinner, and an epidemic would be born.

2 Cheese

Listeria monocytogenes is a particularly nasty bacterium. In humans, it causes an unpredictable condition called listeriosis, which can be as minor as a touch of the flu or infect the nervous system, causing convulsions and death. It also really seems to like cheese.

Products containing unpasteurized milk are prime targets for Listeria. In 1985, California’s Jalisco Products produced a batch of cheese without following pasteurization procedures. The result was one of the largest listeriosis outbreaks in history.^[9] Southern California was devastated by the deadly neurological disease, which hit pregnant women and newborn babies the hardest. The death toll topped out at a terrifying 62 when all was said and done, including many stillbirths.

And this wasn’t an isolated incident. Listeriosis outbreaks linked to cheese are insanely common, even now. Maybe order a side of antibiotics the next time you hit the pizza joint.

1 Rye

In the Middle Ages, Europe was subjected to what can only be described as a full-on living nightmare. A strange plague, known as St. Anthony’s fire, began to spread. Victims suffered extreme burning sensations in their hands and feet, the feeling of insects crawling beneath their skin, and horrifying hallucinations. The infection sometimes even caused the flesh of the hands and feet to die, requiring amputation.

It wasn’t until much later that botanists were able to crack this “holy fire.” The fungus Claviceps purpurea infects many grain plants, but it seems especially fond of rye.^[10] Small black growths called ergots grow alongside the grains on tainted plants and were often mistakenly ground up with them in medieval mills. Bread made from the flour would then infect humans, leading to the hellish symptoms.

Despite the horrors, the study of ergot has led to many advances in medical science, like cures for migraine headaches and psychological disorders. It has also led to advances in psychedelic science by giving the world LSD.

Our lives are filled with ideas and inventions that we take for granted. What appears absolutely normal to us today might have once seemed strange or even dangerous to our ancestors.

10 Movie Concepts You Won’t Believe Exist In Real Life

Just like modern people are scared by the idea of self-driving cars, people in the past were scared by some things that they thought were crazy.

10 Passport Photos

What could be a more obvious idea than a passport photo? What better system could there be to identify someone than an actual picture and description of that person?

Well, if you were the British government in 1835, a better system was “no system.” The British foreign secretary found the suggestion of describing British citizens on their passports to be “degrading and offensive.” The government didn’t want their citizens to be “perused by foreigners.”

British passports remained without photos or descriptions until World War I. This was when they discovered that foreign spies could essentially enter Britain at will. Only then did the government make it mandatory for passports to contain both a photograph and a physical description.

This proved controversial. Bassett Digby, an explorer and natural historian, criticized the Foreign Office’s “high-handed methods.” He described his own face as “intelligent” and was outraged when the official form simply described it as “oval.”^[1]

9 Guide Dogs

After World War I, Europe was filled with blinded or wounded veterans. To help with the issue, guide dog schools were set up throughout the continent. In Germany, where the first schools were established, public reaction to the idea was largely positive.

However, some animal protection organizations did criticize the use of undertrained or misused dogs by beggars or people pretending to be war veterans. In Britain, however, guide dog users faced a much more hostile reaction.^[2]

Many were scandalized by the “torturous treatment” of the animals and the amount of work they were expected to do. Early trainers even encountered abuse by members of the public trying to stop them. Fortunately, this attitude quickly vanished once the benefits of the program—and the bond between dog and owner—became clear.

8 Cars

The humble automobile is arguably the most influential invention of the modern era. Most cities would collapse overnight without the fleet of cars, vans, and trucks keeping them supplied. Turn back the clock 100 years, however, and you’ll find that a lot of people hated cars.

The hatred partly stemmed from the fact that cars were entirely controlled by a single person. In 1896, Alfred Sennett of the British Association for the Advancement of Science issued a warning: A driver of the “horseless carriage . . . has not the advantage of the intelligence of the horse in shaping his path.”^[3] A horse would naturally stop or avoid obstacles, but a car couldn’t think for itself if the driver was distracted.

In Pennsylvania, the Farmers’ Anti-Automobile Society suggested some extreme rules for motorists. These included sending up flares every mile at night as well as constantly blaring your horn to make your presence known. If horses refused to pass his vehicle, the driver was to immediately dismantle his car and conceal the parts in the surrounding bushes.

Britain passed the Locomotives Act of 1865, which required a pedestrian to walk 55 meters (180 ft) ahead of any moving locomotive. That person had to carry a red flag to warn people that the vehicle was coming. This law was significantly loosened in 1896, allowing cars to go up to 19 kilometers per hour (12 mph)!

To understand the fear, you have to imagine how different city life was at the turn of the 20th century. In the late 1890s, pedestrians dominated the roads and children would freely run across busy intersections. People were not prepared for the deadly speeds of a car.

By 1925, auto accidents accounted for 67 percent of the death toll in US cities. Major newspapers like The New York Times wrote editorials disapproving of “the homicidal orgy of the motor car.” Tens of thousands marched on the streets to protest.

The car’s reputation was only saved by lobbyists, who invented the term “jaywalker.” They successfully convinced the public that the deaths were the fault of irresponsible pedestrians.

7 Nostalgia

From Stranger Things and constant film reboots to “Make America Great Again,” nostalgia is fashionable right now. Cut to a few hundred years ago, however, and anyone caught reminiscing about the “good old days” could have been hospitalized or even killed.

During the Thirty Years’ War, six nostalgic Spanish soldiers were discharged with el mal de corazon. It later became known as “Swiss illness” after Swiss soldiers were put to death for singing a nostalgic folk song.^[4]

In 1733, a Russian general told his troops that the first one to be afflicted by “Swiss illness” would be buried alive. It was believed to be dangerous for soldiers to reminisce about home or their loved ones. Their attention should be fully focused on the task ahead. In the 19th and 20th centuries, nostalgia came to be classified as an “immigrant psychosis” and a “mentally repressive compulsive disorder.”

The cure for Swiss illness varied considerably. French doctor Jourdan Le Cointe recommended “pain and terror” as an effective treatment. In the US, the approach was a little more humane. Military doctor Theodore Calhoun preferred shame as a treatment, subjecting afflicted individuals to public ridicule and bullying. Thankfully, mental health care has moved on a bit since then.

6 Potatoes

The potato is one of the most versatile and loved foods on the planet, but it wasn’t always this way. When the potato was first introduced to Europe from the Americas, the majority of the population viewed it with suspicion and distrust.

King Frederick the Great actually had to order his starving populace to eat tubers during a famine in 1744. A group of English farmers, who associated the potato with Roman Catholic excess, helped popularize the 1765 election slogan “No Potatoes, No Popery!” French people in the late 16th century regarded the potato as fit only for cattle, and some alleged that eating it might cause leprosy.

The potato’s savior was Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (of Parmentier potatoes fame), who organized elaborate pro-potato publicity stunts for high-profile guests and foreign dignitaries. The legend goes that Thomas Jefferson was present and this is how America got french fries.^[5]

Parmentier convinced the French nobility to wear potato blossoms in their hair and to plant tubers on the outskirts of Paris. Allegedly, Parmentier surrounded these potato crops with armed guards to give them the illusion of great value. Then he withdrew the guards at night knowing that the starving populace would steal some potatoes for themselves and increase the potato’s popularity.

10 Strange Architectural Concepts Of The Modern World

5 Movies With Sound

In the modern era, films are often defined by their audio. Would Star Wars be as iconic without its bombastic score or Marvel without its quick-fire banter? Most audiences would be put off by a silent film being released in theaters today. At the start, however, a lot of industry professionals were skeptical of this “audio” nonsense.

In the 1920s, Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Bros., was shown Vitaphone (an early sound system). He was very impressed by it and remarked that it could save theaters the cost of hiring a live band.

When told that it also let actors talk on-screen, Warner replied, “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? The music—that’s the big plus about this.” Film executive Joseph Schenck thought similarly, once remarking that “talking doesn’t belong in pictures.”

Silent movie stars hated these new “talkies” even more than the executives. Clara Bow, a 1920s sex symbol, said, “I hate talkies. They’re stiff and limiting.”^[6]

Actors were indeed physically limited by the bulky microphones they now had to wear, but many of them were also emotionally limited. They were trained to make large, exaggerated facial expressions and movements to convey their emotions. With sound, the old-school actors just looked silly and theatrical.

Even Charlie Chaplin was initially resistant. In 1931, he wrote that the “silent picture . . . is a universal means of expression. Talking pictures necessarily have a limited field.”

4 Library Books

Libraries are one of the miracles of the modern age. Anyone can read books for free there or even take the books home! If libraries were introduced today, everyone would ask what the catch was. That’s exactly what happened in the late 19th century when the US and Britain were gripped by the “great book scare.”

Diseases like tuberculosis and scarlet fever were rife in the 1800s, and library books were widely believed to be vectors for disease. Public libraries were a relatively new idea. It was easy to wonder about the people who might have last handled a book and what illnesses they may have had.

The United Kingdom’s government entertained the idea and launched a wave of legislation aimed at preventing people from borrowing books or using libraries if they were ill. Libraries across the English-speaking world were expected to disinfect their books, and in 1900, Scranton, Pennsylvania, ordered its libraries to stop all book distribution.^[7]

By the 1910s, the great book scare had mostly calmed down after it became clear that librarians weren’t showing higher illness rates. Readers will be happy to know that modern studies have shown that library books “do not serve as a potential source of transmission” for bacteria.

3 Shopping Carts

On the surface, the shopping cart seems boring. It’s a big basket on wheels in which you can put your shopping items, so what’s the controversy?

In fact, the shopping cart marked a major shift in the way people used stores. Before the 1920s, most shops didn’t let you pick your own goods. Instead, a store employee did it for you behind a counter.

This changed with early shopping magnates like Sylvan Goldman, who pioneered the revolutionary “self-service” concept. This was a lot cheaper than having employees do it, but it was limited by how much a customer could physically carry.

To increase the amount a shopper could carry, the humble shopping trolley was born. Goldman sent them to all his stores. He hired actors to hype up the newfangled shopping carts, stationing “an attractive girl” near the store entrance and planting actors around the store to show how they worked.

Even with this marketing push, the idea didn’t take off as easily as Goldman had hoped. In a 1977 interview, he claimed that women refused to use the carts because the ladies were sick of pushing baby carriages around all day. On the other hand, men took offense at the idea that they weren’t strong enough to carry all their shopping in a basket.^[8]

2 Coffee

Since it was first grown and traded, coffee has been controversial. Religious authorities in Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul made many attempts to ban it. Some religious officials argued that the physical effects of coffee could be compared to alcohol, which Muslims are forbidden to drink.

Perhaps more importantly, coffee meant coffeehouses. They were seen as dangerous gathering places where people could openly discuss topics like religion or politics.

A couple of hundred years later, coffeehouses were seemingly still hated in England. In 1674, “The Women’s Petition Against Coffee” was a comedy pamphlet supposedly published by a group of annoyed women. They claimed that coffee made their husbands too talkative, writing that “they sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at gossipping.”

They also complained that coffee reduced their husbands’ sex drive: “[S]he approaches the nuptial bed, expecting a man that . . . should answer the vigour of her flames, she on the contrary should only meet a bedful of bones.”^[9]

Or did they?

Instead of being written by actual women, this pamphlet was probably made as part of King Charles II’s attacks on coffee and coffeehouses. Much like Arabian cultures, he saw coffee as a seditious drink that made his subjects rebellious. His father being executed by rebellious subjects probably didn’t help his paranoia, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he tried to ban coffeehouses a year later.

1 Comic Books

Whether you like it or not, we live in a world where superheroes and comic books dominate pop culture. Go back to the post–World War II era, however, and there was a genuine fear of comic books. The 1940s were the height of what is now called the Golden Age of Comic Books, with almost 60 million comics being sold a month in the US.

However, popularity brought greater scrutiny. The war had made violence in comic books more acceptable, and there were even popular violent comics written by women and black people!

Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham started a crusade against comics by arguing that comic book readers became “sexually aggressive.” He made several unsubstantiated claims, such as suggesting that Batman and Robin represented “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.” His ideas eventually made their way to a Senate subcommittee where Wertham said, “I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic book industry.”^[10]

To appease the growing fear about comics, several publishers formed the Comics Code Authority, which cracked down on violence, cursing, anti-authority story lines, and any comics dealing with racial or religious prejudice. Even with these extraordinary measures, the public wasn’t happy. The 1940s and ’50s saw public comic book burning across America. Tens of thousands of comics were destroyed.

10 Brain-Breaking Scientific Concepts

History rewrites the past. It doesn’t just record what happened—it changes it. With a sweep of the pen, it labels whole nations of people as monsters and villains. It reduces soldiers on the other side to nothing more than mindless cogs in an evil machine.

But every army was made up of people. The soldiers who carried out every atrocity throughout history were just individuals with minds and lives of their own, people who thought they were doing the right thing. It can be hard to wrap your mind around how these people must have seen the world, but the letters they left yield clues.

10 The Last Letter Of A Japanese Kamikaze Pilot

Before the Japanese kamikazes went off to their deaths, many wrote letters home to their families. It was their last chance to say goodbye to the ones they loved.

Most tried to show their bravery in their letters home. They would try to convince their families that they were unafraid of the death that awaited them, that they thought only of the glory of the empire. But in one touching letter, a new father named Furukawa Takao let that mask of bravery fall.^[1]

“I find my thoughts returning continually to you and our soon-to-be-born child,” Furukawa wrote to his wife. “Every day, as I wait for my first, and last, attack, I reread the letter you wrote the day you made the jelly and gazed at the photos of you and Sister Etchan.”

He had already been sent out on kamikaze missions, but he hadn’t sacrificed himself yet. As he put it to his wife, he made it back “without doing anything especially heroic.” There were still more missions on the horizon, though, and the pressure to sacrifice his own life for the glory of Japan was mounting.

Furukawa didn’t want to die. “Now, more than ever, the fleetingness of human life astonishes me,” he wrote home. “Wait for me. I will return without fail. Until you’ve safely given birth to our child, I have no intention of dying easily.”

He didn’t go through with his promise. On April 21, 1945, Furukawa Takao sacrificed his own life in a kamikaze mission. World War II would end just a few months later, but his wife and son would have to face it alone.

9 A Letter From A Black Slaveowner

William Ellison is hard man to understand. He was born a slave and worked his whole life to win his freedom. When he finally won it, though, he didn’t share it. Instead, Ellison copied what his former master had done to him. He bought his own plantation and a team of 63 slaves.

It’s difficult to imagine how a man like Ellison could have justified owning slaves, but a letter he wrote to his son gives a little hint.^[2]

In the letter, he doesn’t try to justify his lifestyle. Instead, he just talks business. He updates his son on his finances and in particular the frustrating struggle he was having getting his clients to pay. Mr. Ledinham has insisted he “has not the money” right now, Mr. Turner admitted “it was his fault that the account was not paid,” and Mr. Van Buren wouldn’t pay unless a third party would certify the purchase. Beyond that, he listed a few tools he wanted his son to buy—tools his slaves would use to till the farm.

It doesn’t seem like much, but it reveals volumes about the man in his life. Even as a slaveowner, Ellison struggled to be treated as an equal. His clients did everything they could to make sure he didn’t get a dime. But Ellison didn’t complain once. With infinite patience, he would go through anything to earn his wealth.

For him, it seems, there was no point in fighting the inequality around him. What mattered was what a man could get for himself.

8 An Auschwitz Guard’s Letter To His Wife

“From the very beginning I was completely absorbed, in fact obsessed, by my work,” Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss told his wife in a letter home in 1940. “All I thought about was my work.”

It’s a theme that carries through almost every SS officer’s account of life in the Nazi concentration camps. For them, it was work, a repeated, focused task that left them desensitized to the horrors around them.

A letter from a guard named Hugo Behncke to his wife shows just how desensitized he’d become. For him, all that mattered was making it through his long shifts without getting exhausted.^[3]

“I’ll be able to cut a few corners,” he told his wife. “I can sit down and that makes the work fairly easy.” He was relieved, too, because it was winter. “In the winter time the prisoners are disinclined to ‘travel,’ ” he told her. The word “travel” here meant “escape.” To him, a fleeing Jewish prisoner was just a pain.

He didn’t have much sympathy for his victims. “The prisoners were all sick, dirty and thin as skeletons,” he told her. “Many of them are stupid, primitive people. [ . . . ] All they were good for was to be burned in the Neuengamme crematorium.”

More than hate, though, the emotion that permeates throughout the letter is nothing more than exhaustion. “The war situation is still gloomy,” it ends. “I want to get home to you and my children.”

7 The Diary Of A Viet Cong Doctor

Dr. Dang Thuy Tram met her end in a blaze of glory and fury. The American army had reached the hospital where she treated the wounded men of the Viet Cong. They ordered her to surrender, but she refused. Dr. Dang, in a final blast of fury, grabbed an old rifle and opened fire on the troops, not stopping until they’d put a bullet through her brain.

On her body, the soldiers found a diary and, within, a disturbingly humanizing insight into the minds on the other side of the battlefield.

“How hateful it is!” she’d written in an entry reflecting on America’s presence in Vietnam. “We are all humans, but some are so cruel as to want the blood of other to water their gold tree.”

In another, she described how she’d watched a young soldier die. “A badly wounded soldier 21 years old called out my name, hoping I could help him,” she wrote. “I could not, and my tears fell as I watched him die in my useless hands.”

Her last entry might be the most tragic of all.^[4] In her last moments on Earth, she’d been overwhelmed with a crushing sense of loneliness. “Why do I want so much a mother’s hand to care for me?” she’d written. “Please come to me and hold my hand when I am so lonely, love me and give me strength to travel all the hard sections of the road ahead.”

6 A Letter Home From A Confederate Soldier

The Confederate Army had their reasons for fighting. It might seem ironic to us today, but Confederate officer and slaveowner James Griffin wrote home to his wife that he would fight “until he dies, rather than, be a Slave, Yea worse than a Slave to Yankee Masters.”

Not everyone shared Griffin’s enthusiasm, though. One of the most touching letters from the Civil War was written by a Confederate soldier named O.D. Chester to his sister in 1864.^[5] By then, many on both sides were tired of fighting.

“We go down to the edge of the river on our side and the Yankees come down on their side and talk to each other,” he told her. “The men on picket opposite are from Ohio, and seem very tired of the war.”

Though they’d been warned against it by their superiors, the Confederate and Union soldiers would sneak across the river and trade rations and supplies. And after a while, they would just sit and chew the fat.

“I asked some of them who they were going to vote for President,” Chester told his sister, recounting a riverside chat with the men he’d been hired to kill. “One of them said ‘Old Abe’ but most of them said they were for McLellan.”

It was as casual a conversation as could be. But as they talked, they all must have known that the order to fight could come at any moment. And when it did, their guns would pointed at one another once more, aimed to kill.

5 The Diary Of A Gulag Guard

“Minus 45 degrees,” Ivan Chistyakov wrote in his diary on December 10, 1935. “The train runs slowly. Only the moon, with a superior air, glides serenely through the sky. I stay indoors all day, wearing outer clothing.”

It could be any diary written on a cold winter day, but this one comes from a Soviet gulag guard.^[6] He was a man in charge of forcing political prisoners to work, part of the crushing machine of Stalin’s reign of terror.

Throughout the diary, Chistyakov never quite gives sympathy to his captives. He comes close, though. He expresses something like pity through his troubled reflections on the cold, detached man that his years in the gulag have made him.

“My heart is desolate, it alarms me,” Chistyakov wrote. “I’m beginning to have that mark on my face, the stamp of stupidity, narrowness, a kind of moronic expression.”

That was the extent of the sympathy he could offer, though. Day after day of trying to keep these people in line turned Chistyakov as cold as the world around him. After calming down a knife fight and an escape plan, Chistyakov made a quick note on what he’d done before angrily jotting down his thoughts on the prisoners:

“To hell with the lot of them!”

4 A Brit During The American Revolutionary War

“I have read somewhere, and I begin to think it possible, that a whole country as well as an individual may be struck with lunacy,” Henry Strachey wrote.^[7]

He was talking about the United States of America. To Strachey, the American War for Independence was nothing more than an act of sheer madness.

“The people are beyond nature as well as reason,” Strachey wrote about the American revolutionaries. “They might at this moment have peace and happiness, but they insist upon having their brains knocked out first.”

That peace and happiness, as far as Strachey concerned, would come from acknowledging King George as the rightful ruler of America. To the Americans, of course, that idea would have seemed disgusting—but as far as Strachey was concerned, that was just a trick the American government had pulled on them, convincing them of what he called the “imaginary oppressions” of England.

“Alas!” Strachey complained, after the Americans refused to surrender. “They still continue obstinate.”

3 Black Police Officers During South African Apartheid

While Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were rising up and fighting for equal rights in South Africa, thousands of black-skinned men and women stood against him. They were the police officers of apartheid-era South Africa, the armed muscle of a government that was actively suppressing their own rights.

A New York Times reporter named Christopher Wren interviewed some of them in 1990, trying to understand why they would actively fight against their own rights.

“I thought in order to help society, I should become a policeman,” a police officer named Franz Nikelo told him. Crime, he said, was the biggest problem in Africa, especially in black communities. That was what South Africa needed to focus on, he felt.

They didn’t see themselves as supporters of the government, even if most of the people they were trying to protect viewed them that way. “It’s stupid to think that black policemen are collaborators,” another officer named Col. Zwane said. “I don’t think we can be a police force if only whites are policemen. We need blacks to investigate. We understand our own people better so it’s important that we be there.”

Nikelo agreed. They weren’t supporting the system, he said; they were just focused on the immediate problem. “When the rate of crime has been lessened, we can look at apartheid.”

2 An Abolitionist Who Learned To Embrace Slavery

Sarah Hicks Williams had her reservations about her new husband Benjamin. Sarah was a Northerner and a strict abolitionist, but the man who had swept her off her feet was a Southern slaveowner.

“There are but two things I know of to dislike in the man,” she wrote home. “One is his owning slaves. [ . . . ] The other is not being a professing Christian.”

To her family, it must have seemed like a terrible match. Nobody could have imagined that this young idealist would ever become a brutal slavemaster, but her letters over the next few years show a young advocate for freedom slowly declining into cruelty.^[8]

Within a few months, she was starting to write about slavery as something that wasn’t so terrible. Whether it was a few calm weeks or just the rose tint her love for her husband filmed over her eyes, she wrote home that the slaves weren’t treated too badly. “Indeed,” she said, “I think they are treated with more familiarity than many northern servants.”

The slaves clearly disagreed. Several tried to run away or to steal their freedom, and within a few years, Sarah was as brutal as any other slavemaster in the South.

“Three have run away during the last few months,” she ranted in a letter written after years on the plantation. “They are an ungrateful race, they drive me to be tight and ‘stingy’ with them.”

1 A Wounded Knee War Criminal’s Letters To His Lover

Sergeant Michael Conners was court-martialed and imprisoned for his role in the Wounded Knee Massacre. He was part of a cavalry that gunned down 300 members of the Lakota tribe, many of whom were helpless women and children. He would go down in history as a monster.

In his letters to his wife Lillie, though, Sgt. Conners spoke like nothing worse than a doting husband worried for his young bride’s heart. “Don’t be alarmed,” he promised her in a letter before the massacre, “as there are enough soldiers here to do up all the Indians here.”

When the massacre was over, he felt he’d done something great. “The men behaved very good and done splendid,” he told her, for having run down the Lakota tribe. “They made a break, and we shot them down. We followed them for miles and killed them all quick.” They would call in more troops tomorrow, he assured her. “We will exterminate all the Indians in the country.”^[9]

To the modern reader, Conners’s letters are the signed confession of a mass murderer. For Conners, though, it was nothing more than justice served.

“Some of the eastern papers give us the Devil for killing the poor Indians,” he told his wife. “I wish they were out here for a while. I think they would change their opinion.”