Debrain – Amazing facts, random facts, interesting facts

Morse Code

The first message sent via Morse Code was “What hath God wrought?”
The Morse Code distress signal “SOS” was initially “CQD” (“sécu” of sécurité) and means “All stations: distress.”
The first distress code was sent 60 years after its invention and 30 years after the death of its creator Samuel Morse
Samuel Morse was a supporter of slavery

Daylight saving was created by a New Zealander entomologist
Daylight Saving Time (DST) was fist implemented during World War I by the Germans
When it first started, Daylight Savings Time was also called ‘Summer Time’
Some countries like Iceland, Belarus and Russia have switched to ‘Permanent Daylight Saving Time’ (staying on Summer Time all year long)

The contact lens was invented in 1888, the same year the first beauty contest was held
It is a fact that contact lenses were first made of heavy glass

Benjamin Franklin used to keep a list of “13 virtues.” If he violeted one, he would check it off, and use it as motivation to improv e his moral standing.
Benjamin Franklin did not graduate from school but The Harvard and the Yale Universities awarded him honorary degrees. Later in 1762, the Oxford University awarded him a doctorate.
Benjamin Franklin interestingly founded the a fire fighting company
It is a fact that Ben Franklin once wrote in the newspapers under the anonym Mrs Silence Dogood.
Franklin also invented the glass harmonica
Ben Franklin did not like patents and so failed to patent many of his inventions

in 2008, Japan invented a silent wasabi fire alarm that wafts wasabi vapour. In a test, 93% of occupants woke up within 2 minutes.

The first United States coast to coast airplane flight occurred in 1911 and took 49 days
When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal – several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down
An airplane’s “blackbox”‘ is a device which records conditions and events on an air vessel. A “blackbox” is actually orange in color to make it more visible in the wreckage. The term black box might come from its charred appearance after an air crash
A 747-400 has six million parts (half of which are fasteners) made in 33 different countries
Seventy-five thousand engineering drawings were used to produce the first 747
The outer skin of an aeroplane is only 5 mm thick. Only 7.5 in (19 cm) separate the passengers from the outside
During takeoff, when full of high pressure air, the takeoff weight is increased by about a ton

Chess was invented in Iran
There are more than a thousand trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion ways a chess game can be played. ( 10¹²⁰). That is more than the number of electrons in the universe
The Queen in chess was originally a male prime minister and could only move 1 square diagonally. Her power grew during the Renaissance period.
The folding chess board was invested by a priest
The rook is named from an Arabic word rukh, meaning chariot. During the Middle Ages, when chariots were no longer in use, the rook was gradually modified to look more like the turret of a castle.
The word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “shah mat,” which means “the king is defeated.”
Lewis Carrol’s novel “Through the Looking Glass” was based on a chess game, much the way “Alice in Wonderland” was based on playing cards

There are more bicycles than cars in the world
A long time ago, bicycles were faster than cars
The first bicycles were made without pedals
The first bicycle was called a hobbyhorse
The fastest cyclist is Olympian John Howard. He rode at an amazing 245.08 km/h (152.2 mph) by slipstreaming a car
Car tyres were modified out of bicycle tyres