Useless Information!

[Trigger]

Latest post of the previous page:

Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was Marion Moon.

[Dave]

King Henry III had a polar bear in his Royal Menagerie. It went fishing in River Thames and attracted many viewers.

[Trigger]

Lt. Col. John “Jack” Churchill, a British Army Officer who fought throughout the Second World War armed with a longbow, bagpipes, and a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword.

[Trigger]

Trinity House built its first lighthouse at Lowestoft in 1609

[Mel]

The most misspelled word in English is 'separate'.

[boatbuilder]

The most misspelled word in English is 'separate'.

Well, it has just moved one step closer to being the second most misspelled word Mel, as you spelt it correct.

[Mel]

1% of all the timber sold in the world is bought by IKEA.

[Trigger]

Guitarist Brian May prefers to use coins (especially a sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum, on the basis that their rigidity gives him more control in playing.

[boatbuilder]

Well that proof set will have lost its value, but then with the money he has probably got I guess it wouldn't worry him. However, why not use any another coin of similar size as I'm sure they are all just as rigid?

I certainly won't let him near my proof sets.

[Mel]

The first typewriter was called the 'writing harpsichord'.

[Trigger]

The nutcracker was invented by Henry Quackenbush in 1878.

[boatbuilder]

Interestingly enough, a nutcracker was indicated much earlier than that in a story by German author E T A Hoffman in 1816 entitled
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

According to Wikipedia, Mr Quackenbush only invented his nutcracker in 1913. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Quackenbush#Nutcrackers

[Trigger]

According to Wikipedia, Mr Quackenbush only invented his nutcracker in 1913.

From my source:

"One of Quackenbush's most famous and most successful inventions came in 1878, when he created the first nutcracker and nutpick.

In 1913, he patented the spring-jointed nutcracker, a nickel-plated, solid steel nutcracker with four picks. Nearly 200 million of these nutcrackers have been sold worldwide since then."

Perhaps Wikipedia doesn't know everything after all!

[boatbuilder]

Maybe it seems both are wrong to some extent, Trigger. I have just found this page which indicates they go back much, much further than either of us thought. No doubt Mr Quackenbush held the first patent but that was only from 1913. I guess they didn't have patents going back to the dates referred to in the link below.

http://www.nutcrackermuseum.com/history.htm

[Mel]

An extreme fear of Halloween is called samhainophobia

[Mel]

If you have £1,785 of savings, you are richer than half of the world's population.