Tag: history
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Time travel back to New York City, 1911
In 1911, Swedish film company Svenska Biografteatern recorded its trip to New York. Fortunately, the footage survived and most recently was speed-corrected (slowed down) and reproduced with the ambient audio of street sounds of car horns, horses, and police whistles to give us a sense of the environment back then. There’s also a color version of the…
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The evolution of the price tag
The history of the price tag goes back to the founding of brick and mortar stores. Can you imagine having to haggle over everything you bought in a store? But as businesses got bigger in the 1870s, shopkeepers needed a way to streamline pricing for both sales clerks and customers alike. Two department stores helped…
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The spherical nature of the Earth
The world is round, and it has been for some time despite the rise of the flat earth movement. Take a look at some of the armillary spheres below, starting with the Chinese diagram from 1092. Even back then, they had could rationalize that the Earth adopted a round shape. The curvy nature of the…
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Ancient Roman fleeing Mount Vesuvius crushed by flying rock
Imagine fleeing the ash that swept Pompeii during the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., only to crushed by a flying stone. According to the Telegram, the archeologists also found that the 30-year old merchant was carrying 22 silver and bronze coins in a leather pouch. They also found a house key buried underneath…
