Obscure historical facts

Discussion in 'History' started by Plazma Inferno!, Jan 13, 2016.

  1. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    I know there's a plenty historical facts that many don't know about.
    For example, despite the popular belief, Napoleon never started a war.
    Or Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone. He stole the idea and potentially improved it.
    Also, Australia was in war with emus (and eventually lost it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
    Term Yankees is derived from common name of Dutch settlers in New England, that was Jan and Kees.

    So, what's yours favorite obscure facts from the history?
     
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  3. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Some of these I think are factoids.

    The Yankee one seems to be. There are several rival explanations, but all are speculative, with little or not supporting evidence, so far as I am aware.

    Re Napoleon, who was it who annexed Piedmont? And who started the Peninsula War by occupying Portugal?

    Re Bell, who did he "steal" it from, then?
     
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  5. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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  7. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes indeed, but from what I read on Wiki they both filed patents on the same day and there is no real evidence Bell stole from Gray - though there is a suggestion that his lawyers might have. It is certainly not established historical fact that Bell stole from anyone.
     
  8. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    ergo
    "(perhaps)"
    we do have the confession of Wilber
    (make that a strong perhaps, and, most likely, probable)
     
  9. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Who "started" a war is not black-and-white. Who fired the first shot? Who provoked the first shot? As the children say, "I only hit him first because he hit me back."
     
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  10. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    My bad. I should write "declared" not "started". Technically, he never declared war, but provoked many conflicts.

    I think there was Antonio Meucci before both Bell and Gray.
     
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  11. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Well you've got me there - never heard of him!

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  12. river

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    The Egyptian great pyramids were not tombs.
     
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  13. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Why do you think the ancient Egyptians built them?
     
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  14. river

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    Interesting question.

    some think that the Egyptians did not actually build the great pyramids.

    As one investigator of the pyramids suggested ; to make us think
     
  15. Syne Sine qua non Valued Senior Member

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    Meucci set up a form of voice-communication link in his Staten Island, New York home in which the second-floor bedroom connected to his laboratory.[5] He submitted a patent caveat for his telephonic device to the U.S. Patent Office in 1871, but there was no mention of electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound in his caveat. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.
    - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci
     
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  16. NCDane Registered Senior Member

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    The Emu War and the etymology of the word "Yankee" are interesting obscure facts, thank you for submitting them.

    There are plenty of such facts which (1) do not hinge on petty legalistic gyrations (such as whether Napoleon ever declared war), and (2) are not marred by controversy (such as the identity of the true inventor of the telephone). This would be a better thread if 1-2 were avoided.

    A good one on Napoleon that most non-Scandinavians probably have no idea of: His first fiancee, Desiree Clary, eventually married one his Marshals, Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who was selected to found a new royal dynasty of Sweden upon extinction of the dynasty then current. The Bernadotte dynasty still reigns, and is approaching its bicentennial (2018). The Swedish laws of succession have been changed to require the monarchs oldest child, male or female, to succeed. The present king has two sons, but their older sister is the heir apparent.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2016
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  17. Oystein Registered Senior Member

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  18. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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  19. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    In his attempts to produce a practical electric light, Edison discovered that he could get current to flow between a heated filament and a wire with a positive voltage applied. He named it, the "Edison effect" and filed it away as interesting but useless. This very effect is the principle by which the vacuum tubes so useful in electronics work.
     
  20. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    There have been many "accidental discoveries" of important scientific facts:
    Jansky the radiotelescope
    Fleming of penicillin
    Van Allen of the radiation belts
    Roentgen the X-rays
    In 1965 Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson of Bell Laboratories were testing a sensitive horn antenna which was designed for detecting low levels of microwave radiation. They found the cosmic back ground radiation by accident and careful analysis of when it was sensed by their system. Later learned it had been predicted to exist.
    Madam Curie, left some pitchblend on a covered piece of undeveloped film for a few days. She saw the over exposed spot when it was later used and developed.
    Firestone the volcanization of rubber. He had worked for years, trying different ways to improve natural rubber. He had put some sulpher in some and accidently dropped it on hot cast iron stove. A reporter inteviewing him later said: "So your discovery of volcanization was really, just a lucky acident." Firestone replied:
    "Yes, but lady luck favors a prepared mind." Madam Curie's mind was well prepared too. - Did not assume the spot was a defect in the film.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2016
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  21. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Such as when one of our unnamed ancestors said, "Hey, look what I can do with my thumb."
     
  22. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    I have accidentally made a discovery while slowly increasing day-by-day the amount of fat/oil boost given to one Zytiga pill. Four each day are FDA approved and known to have more than 94% just go thru you and into the toilet, if taken on a two hour empty stomach as Janssen, the maker studied in its clinical trials. Not very desirable when bottle of 120 pills cost about 1000 dollars! Also known* was that if taken with a "High Fat Meal" (57% fat and 825 calories) the absorption would increase 17 fold. Note 6x17 = 102% absorption is impossible, so implies less 6% enters the blood if taken as FDA has approved. That recommendation was made because an over doses can seriously damage the liver and the amount of fat in food is very variable.

    An empty stomach seemed to be the only way to assure reproducibility, but I carefully measure with medical syringe the volume of soy oil and grams of butter I take 1 Z-pill with. My boosts, with monthly checks of blood chemistry, especially liver damage indicators ALT & AST finally became 5dl + 25 grams with blood pressure measure every 15 minutes after swallowing the pill with this boost in a 50/50 water emulsion.

    First and second days using this boost had everything OK, but third day I became quite sick about 10 minutes after swallowing the pill with this boost. My systolic BP measurement was 160mmHg. Even only 140 is high for me and normal it is usually less than 135x85. The illness was sort of like nausea + dizziness but I had no urge to vomit. I named this new type of illness: MDU, Mental Disturbance Unease.

    Next day after MDU, I used only 1dl of oil but kept the 25 grams of butter. (I buy it in 200g brick shaped blocks; cut it carefully into 8 equal pieces; 200/8 =25 g). This next day, my PB was normal with no hint of MDU, so the next day I used 2dl and it strangely had a peak BPs slightly less than the prior day with only 1dl and still no hint of MDU, so the next day I used 3dl of soy oil with 25g of butter (and still do).

    The most plausible reason why (and my "accidental discovery") that 2dl had lower peak BPs than day with only 1dl of oil boost was that the three days of 5dl over dose with drug accumulation inside the cells had ended two days earlier, not just one. I. e. the "half-life" inside the cells must be about 3 days, not the 15 minutes it is, according to the literature, in the blood with the liver actively removing it. This may already be known, but I have very extensively read the literature and never saw any report on the "inside the cells half life." That "accumulation hypothesis” also explains why I had no ill effect, or even significant elevation of BP when I had used 5dl of oil +25 grams of butter for first two days at this over dose level of boost.

    I just completed the PB measurements for the half hour after fifth day of using 3dl of oil + 25 g of butter, with no ill effects. I. e. when part of the prior concentration in the blood had already fallen significantly. - I seem to be at a steady level of concentration inside the cells now. I. e. an inside the cells half life of three days is about correct. - My "accidental discovery."

    Here is the data for the fifth day of using 3dl + 25 g swallowed at 9:00 PM in a 50/50 with water emulsion with no food eaten after 7PM:

    8:58 BP = 147x84 due in part to 2+ minutes of vigorous shaking of the boost dose with equal volume of water to make an emulsion.
    9:03 BP = 134x87
    9:12 BP = 126x81 This is a too low variation, I think. The cuff of my G.Tech BP measuring machine may have shifted during the measurement. I know cuff placement can make this difference.
    9:18 BP = 132x85
    9:29 BP + 124x78mmHg

    So I will continue this boost until data from blood to be taken on 15 April 2016 is known but I think, I have discovered “MY max safe boost.” MY is in Caps, as everyone is different. If you have CRPC, you must find your own “max safe boost” NOT copy mine but perhaps can do that in less than the 100 days I took. I speculate that it may be possible to make one 120 pill bottle last a year by taking the 5dl over dose for one day, then taking no pills for two days, but will not test this for at least a year as I soon will start 35 days of IMRT that should kill the target tumor and drive my PSA down to near zero. I will not use Zytiga, while this is done, as measuring PSA is one way they see if the radiation, 2Gy per day, is working.

    * For this and more facts, see: Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 30, 2012 Feb 13, 2012 which is reply by five Janssen employees to:
    MJ Ratain's late 2011 article: Flushing oral oncology drugs down the toilet. in J Clin Oncol Vol 29 pages 3958-3959.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2016
  23. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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