Tea bags were created by accident. When Thomas Sullivan created small silk bags in 1908 to give samples of tea to his customers to takeaway, they foolishly thought they were supposed to put them directly in the pot rather than empty the tea out. Thankfully, because they didn’t realise the silk bags were just for transporting the tea home, we now have handy tea bags.
Were you aware that the typical person will swallow 295 times during dinner.
Responding to a competition set by Napoleon in the 18th century, Nicholas Appert had the idea of storing foods in airtight bottles to help preserve them. Taking that process a step further a few years later, Englishman Peter Durand discovered a way of storing foods in cans, perfect for an increasingly mobile world, using sea travel to explore and invade. The process works by heating the contents sufficiently enough to kill all bacteria and then removing all air before closing the can. A modern miracle from years gone by.
Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob.