31 Amazing Facts about Household Items - mental_floss List Show Ep. 325 | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube

And did you know that John Silvan, who invented the Keurig, regrets his invention for environmental reasons

He's also said, I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use. Plus, it's not like drip coffee is tough to make. I'm sorry, can't you get a free one, though

Anyway, that's the first of many amazing facts about ordinary household items

that I'm going to share with you today in this video brought to you by GEICO. So next time you're at a boring party, conversation starters will be everywhere. You're welcome

Individual hair curlers were invented in the early 20th century, but they weighed about

a pound each and they had to be left in for many hours

The electric toaster was invented decades before pre-sliced bread was invented. And before hair dryers, many men and women used their vacuum cleaners to dry their hair

Also in Abyssinia, which is modern-day Ethiopia, salt was used as the main currency

Now, of course, we use paper, or in the case of electronic transactions, I guess, the idea of paper

We've been working on some other currency ideas. We've got buttons, trivial pursuit pieces, pebbles from stands, various beach walks

The majority of an incandescent light bulb's energy is used to make heat, not light

In fact, only about 10% of its energy is making light. It is a myth that mouthwash helps get rid of bad breath, at least in the medium and long term

In fact the alcohol in it tends to dry out your mouth making bad breath even more of a possibility as anyone who has ever been hungover will know A lot of people including SpongeBob SquarePants don know the difference between a spatula and a turner A spatula is like more flexible and it usually used to mix things

A turner, or flipper, is what you use to flip foods, like pancakes or burgers

Now, some argue that you can also call a turner a spatula, but then we're just getting into a world of complete linguistic subjectivity

Aussie shampoo is not Australian. In fact, it was founded by a guy from Atlanta, Georgia, and has not been sold in Australia since the 1990s

The modern toothbrush was created by an Englishman named William Addis in the late 18th century

He went to prison for rioting and there he had an epiphany. He used bone and horse hair to create a prototype and then when he got out of prison they were mass produced

Speaking of brushing your teeth, some unusual toothpaste flavors you can buy

Bacon, scotch, eggplant, and pickle. I wouldn't want all of those together

On average, a woman's purse weighs between five and six pounds. And speaking of bags, in 1920, Olympian Harry Priest stole an original Olympic flag as a dare

He finally returned it in the year 2000, when he was 103 years old, after keeping it in a suitcase for 80 years

Magazines and newspapers have an international standard serial number, meaning that no matter where you go in the world, their barcodes will always begin with the numbers 977

Razors made from volcanic glass were common in the Aztec society until about 1500 CE

and central Africa until around 1900 CE, which is preferable to ancient Greece, where unwanted

hair was sometimes removed by burning it off with a lamp. It rumored that Cleopatra doused the sails of her ship in perfume so that people could smell her coming for miles The world largest hammer can be found at the Pearson Building Center a locally owned home improvement store in California The hammer is 26 feet tall

Pillow puffers used to be a term meaning interior designers, and in 2010 the artist Siren Elise

Wilhelmson created a clock that knits with the passing of time. By the end of each year, it's made one scarf that's two meters long

The company Wrigley started when William Wrigley Jr. sold baking powder and soap in Chicago

He realized that people tended to like the free sticks of gum he gave away more than the products themselves, so he made the switch to selling gum

And now his name is on the stadium of a terrible, terrible baseball team, but that's not his fault, he's dead

In the 1950s, Xerox machines overheated so much that they came with a small fire extinguisher

Studies have shown that people's productivity and attentiveness increase when they're in the same room as a plant

Like in a 1996 study published in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture, people actually were 12% more productive during a stressful computer task when there was a plant nearby

That's why we keep you around here, Fire Flower. Another thing that helps productivity? Fountain pens

Like in the early 2000s, a school in Edinburgh switched to fountain pens, even having seven-year-olds make the switch, and they found that both self-esteem and grades improved

People who collect coasters have a name, Tegestologists. Windows tilted at 45 degree angles are known as witch windows because there's a superstition that witches can't fly their brooms into tilted windows

And during Isaac Newton's first year at Cambridge, he kept a journal of his sins. One that he listed was using his roommate's towel

Which is still a sin by the way Alright let move on to tin foil hats I know that we don usually associate them with science but they are effective at reducing both the intensity of electromagnetic radiation and radio waves

Although suspiciously, frequencies that are reserved for government uses get amplified. In 1969, Neiman Marcus sold the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, a 100-pound device that would store

your recipes, balance a checkbook, and had a built-in cutting board. It cost $10,000 and required taking a two-week course to learn how to use it, and no one

ever bought one. In the 1980s, some Kleenex commercials became the cause of a scary urban legend in Japan

The commercials featured a woman in a white dress, a child dressed like a monster, and

the song It's a Fine Day. Unsurprisingly, they weirded out viewers, and rumors started going around that the cast

and crew of the commercial had died. There was even a story about the lead actress having a demon child

According to data from the Nielsen Company, in 2013, nurses and pharmacists are more likely

to use generic headache remedies as opposed to, you know, brand names like Bayer Aspirin

And if we all did that, Americans would spend $410 million less than we do now

And finally, I returned to my salon to tell you that Kleenex is actually trademarked

and aspirin used to be a trademarked word, but after the Germans lost World War I, the

trademark was canceled. Other household items that are trademarked include Band-Aids, bubble wrap, chapstick

and popsicles. Thanks again to you for watching and for not using your roommate's towels

Don't forget to be awesome