• Thomas Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and a cigar which was supposed to burn forever
• Elton John’s real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England–1961
• Elton John’s uncle was a professional soccer player. He broke his leg playing for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 English FA Cup Final.
• The saying “it’s so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey” came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off… Thus the saying.
• S.O.S. doesn’t stand for “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls” — It was just chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash..
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This was a really interesting post. I found out several things I never know before.
Jim
I published this but I don’t think it was posted. I thought this was an interesting article and I learned a lot. I love this type of trivia. . .
Jim
Thanks.
I think I will publish 5 “Did you know”s every Friday.
My under standing of “freeze the balls off a brass monkey” is that a brass monkey was a device that held the canon balls on board a ship. When it got really cold the brass and steel would contract different amounts, this differance in shrinkage would cause the conon balls to fall off there rack.
I think you should do this every friday also. I didn’t know any of these. Though, that stuff with Thomas Edison, how was it supposed to work anyway (the cigarette)?
I am definitely going to start this out as a Friday ritual.
I don’t know how the “burn forever” cigar was supposed to work.
If someone is feeling a little froggy (or bored) maybe they could do google patent search for us. If I get some spare time, I will see if I can find it myself.