Message text written by INTERNET:ExTR3A@aol.com
>The lubrication system you are referring to was once common in large
factory machinery and on steam locomotives. A bit of trivia: it was
invented by Elijah McCoy. Soon after it began appearing in wide use, many
unscrupulous folks infringed on Mr. McCoy's patent and developed similar
systems, but none of them ever worked as well as McCoy's lubrication
system, which saved countless lives by allowing machines to be lubricated
without crawling inside of them. When buyers of such equipment would
inquire as to its lubrication system, they all wanted "the real McCoy," and
a cliche was born!
How's that for useless knowledge?
<
I can top that.
Did you know that Alexander the Great invented the wrist watch? Indeed.
Back when he was conquering Prussia during the rainy season his men didn't
know what time it was since it was cloudy all the time and it would
suddenly get dark while his men were away from camp and spend half the
night stumbling around trying to find their way back. One of his
alchemists noticed that if he mixed certain chemicals there would be a
delayed reaction and the mixture would change colors after a period of 8
hours. He proposed that he dip rags in the chemical mixture and the
soldiers knew that when the rag changed color it was time to return to
camp.
Well, that didn't work since they would either stick the rags in their
belts or loose them and they would still get caught out at night. So he
had the idea of tying these rags around the wrist of the soldiers and they
would always be in view but not in the way. And thus the wrist watch was
born.
Of course it was called "Alexander's rag timeband."
Dave
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