Quirky Technology (and related) History Facts

[alexander]

Ok, we do have Quirky History Facts topic, but i thought it would only be fair to have a separate topic for this section, simply because they are facts of different kind :)

 

So, how many historically accurate facts do you know or think you do, and what are they.

 

So let me give you a couple of examples

 

Technology:

There is a common misconception that the GUI was invented by Xerox, in reality the GUI was actually designed at the Stamford research institute led by Douglas Engelbart. The focus of the project was to use a computer mouse to manipulate text-based hyperlinks for one of the institute's systems. Xerox researchers expanded on that idea by substituting graphics for the text hyperlinks, and thus the modern-day GUI was born.

 

Technology-Related:

Hilighlighter was not invented by the Avery Denisson Corporation, it was invented actually mostly in 2 parts, the felt-tipped pen that forms the base of the highlighter was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo Stationery Company. The highlighter ink, i should correct myself, the florescent ink, such as what would be used in most highlighters, was mostly "invented" and improved upon in during WWII by German, British and US forces, the properties of the ink glowing when subjected to a black light. This gave the ability to better fulfill the night missions in airplanes, where pilots could now read off their instrumentation without the need to use light in a visible spectrum (thus not giving the plane away) It was also used for marking up maps and documents with "secret" messages.

 

Later secret services found another helpful way this ink could be used, in the age of documents being copied and scanned, the fluorescent ink made it, for a long time, easy to conceal key facts in documents (as the ink photocopies black).