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Thought this would be cool to start about the History of Items, Inventions or Inventors that the average person just didn't know. Just the basics.
So i'll start and that is Bet you didn't know the history of the.......... Electric Chair???
The father of the Electric Chair Alfred P Southwick who got this idea in 1881 when he observed an intoxicated man touch an electric generator an die of Electrocution. Since he was a dentist he got the idea after treating his patients in the dentist chair so devised it after that.
The debate then raged between Thomas Edison who pushed for DC current and Nikola Tesla who pushed AC current back then. Edison actually pushed for the AC version (Tesla's) for the procedure as he thought it show that was to lethal and scare consumers as too dangerous and select his DC form for all usages in the country.
After much debate and ranker the first ever Electrocution was set in July, 7, 1890 as William Kemmler would be the first person ever in New Yorks Auburn Prison. It was botched badly as the 2000 volts failed to kill him as they had to repeatedly shock him over eight minutes before he died. He caught fire and all his blood vessels ruptured all over him. George Westinghouse (famed inventor) stated that ''they would have done a better job with an Axe'' as he was against it.
The first women to die from it was Martha M Place in Sing Sing prison in March 20, 1899.
Anyway there's more to it but that's it in a nutshell as now you can say you know the basic history of the Electric Chair........
I found it humorous that the French Guillotine was a cost cutting measure. Rather than pay a number of executioners who would have to spell each other from the strain, the machine allowed the task to fall to a single man. At the time of the Revolution, the position of executioner was held by Charles-Henri Sanson, who decapitated as many as 300 people in 3 days. FWIW, the guillotine wasn't the first such mechanism, nor was Dr. Guillotin the designer.
The thin red ribbon worn around the neck by women of the time, imitating the bloody separation of head and body, was considered a fashion statement.
Very good thread
Potsdam Giants:
Frederick William I, Frederick the Great's father, kept this Prussian infantry unit as his personal guard. It consisted of taller-than-average soldiers. He designed their uniforms of blue jackets,with gold trim,red hats, scarlet trousers and white stockings. They were never used in battle, only for Frederick's amusement.
Many were recruited, but many wre also kidnapped from several countries and forced to serve in the regiment. The height requirement was 5 ft. 11 in.. well above the average at the time. Some topped 7 feet!
Tall women were forced to marry the tall soldiers so they could produce more tall boys for the corps.
When Frederick the Great came to power, he disbanded the unit and set the captives free, and on their own to return to their homes.
The Gullotine didn't require anyone to hold the victim's head-that was the novel feature.
Scotland had a beheading machine called ''the Maiden'', and in Germany there was the Fallbrett, which used a wooden board to break the neck and squeeze the head off.
The improvement was the sliding, pivoting table that held the subject immobile to be positioned in the 'lunette'.
Once the condemmed was on the table, he was as good as dead-less work for the crew, though.
No one has ever been sure that the severed head lost conciousness, some blinked and moved their jaws for several minutes.
Compared to some of the horrible forms of death inflicted before, the machine was an improvement.
Betcha didn't know that the work of a Russian physicist back in 1919 to create a proximity sensor for use as a "burgler alarm" to secure buildings lead to a musical instrument that is played without touching it. Known today as a theremin, it was the darling of Lenin, Gene Roddenbury (think Star Trek theme song), and other sci-fi producers. Don't know if Mr. Spock or other Vulcans played them, but Hannibel Lector did.
I am not even going to try to explain how it works, but if you've adjusted rabbit ears on top of a TV and the picture was good as long as you stood there, then you get the idea! LOL
The idea originated in Australia in 1924, First with Holden Coachworks (Now General Motors Holden "GMH"), Producing a vehicle known as a "Roadster Pickup", Using modified roadster bodies, That they built for Chevrolet and Dodge.
Then, In 1932..Ford Australia, Receieved a letter from a farmers wife, Complaining that her husband needed a vehicle, For farmwork and to take her to church on sundays....So the designers at Ford, Combined the new Coupe Body, With an Intergrated load well and the first "Ute", Rolled off the assembly line in 1934.
GMH didn't produce an 'Australian Built' Car/Utility, Until 1951... The 48-215 "FX" Holden, A few years later (1960), Ford Australia aquired the US Ford "Falcon" brand, Starting with the "XK".
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