How did a Hungarian chemist catch canteen workers reusing leftover food? Detailed answer

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How did a Hungarian chemist catch canteen workers reusing leftover food? Detailed answer

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How did a Hungarian chemist catch canteen workers reusing leftover food?

The Hungarian chemist György de Hevesy, a future Nobel laureate, worked in Manchester in 1911 on the use of isotope tracers. Not having much money, Hevesy lived in a hostel and ate in the dining room. Suspecting the workers of using half-eaten leftovers to prepare new dishes, the scientist added a small amount of radioactive materials to his plate. A few days later, he took a sample of a similar dish and confirmed his fears by detecting the radioactivity of food using an electroscope.

Authors: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What should we thank Thomas Crapper for?

a) For the cover of the sewer manhole.
b) For a shop window with toilet bowls.
c) For the ball valve.
d) Behind the flush toilet.

All of the above except the last one.

Thomas Crapper (1836-1910) was a London plumber with nine patents: for manhole covers, downpipes, pipe connections and, most importantly, for the ball valve.

The window of his shop in Chelsea was incredibly popular, although eyewitnesses claimed that some ladies literally fainted at the sight of the "indecencies" on display. Crappers, founded by the inventor's nephew George, operated on King's Road until 1966.

Crapper & Co. was the purveyor to His Majesty's court and held four royal patents. When the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) purchased Sandringham in 1880, it was Crapper's firm that did all the plumbing and roofing work there.

In his book Flushed With Pride (1969), Wallis Rayburn credits Crapper with the invention of the flush toilet and claims that it was for these merits that he was awarded a knighthood, and the name "Crapper" entered the Encyclopædia Britannica forever. As any plumber will tell you, none of Raybourne's claims are true.

Although Crapper's "silent valveless sewage safety device" was indeed a flush toilet, the patent was not his: the application was filed in 1819 in the name of a certain Mr. Alfred Giblin.

The oldest flush toilet was discovered in 2000 in China, in the palace of the emperor of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). It was a stone latrine with a seat, an armrest and a system of drain pipes. The first modern "water closet" was most likely invented in 1592 by Sir John Harington, who was also the godson of Queen Elizabeth I.

As for the surname Crapper, from which the popular jargon denoting a toilet allegedly originated (Crapper - toilet, push (English slang)), then really - anything can happen. In the official press, the word first appeared only in 1930, while the concept of crap (Shit (English slang).) refers already to 1440 - however, then it meant exclusively "nonsense", "rubbish" and by 1600 was completely outdated and out of use. Victorians, for example, would not understand the word crapper, let alone find it funny.

It is believed that English settlers brought the word to America, where it became vulgarized to its modern meaning. When American soldiers landed in England in World War I and saw the "Crapper" brand engraved on virtually all English latrines, they found it terribly hilarious - and the term stuck forever.

Wallis Raybourne, by the way, went even further and in 1971 published Bust Up: The Lifting Story of Otto Teasling, a ridiculous fiction about the man who supposedly invented the women's bra.

Test your knowledge! Did you know...

▪ Which of the modern monarchical dynasties is the oldest?

▪ Why does a cat need a mustache?

▪ Which election was won by a party that said in advance that it would not keep its promises?

See other articles Section Big encyclopedia. Questions for quiz and self-education.

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