The company that eventually bore the name Shell Oil Company was originally a novelty shop in London called The Shell Shop.
In the mid-1800s, shop owner Marcus Samuel became successful selling boxes of pretty seashells.
Imported shells also brought in money, and his international trade business really expanded when he found he could also export kerosene.
The Shell Shop became Shell Transport and Trading Company, and eventually Shell Oil Company.
The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee. It was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The forked symbol is actually a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.
What we now know as the inch (from Latin uncia, or “12th part”) was defined as 112 foot by the Romans. It was roughly a thumb’s breadth, while a foot was roughly the length of a human foot. The Romans introduced the inch to Britain, where it was incorporated into the English system of weights…
The first chewing gum was the flavorless Adams New York Chewing Gum. Snapping and Stretching was developed by New York inventor Thomas Adams and introduced in 1871. Flavored gum followed in 1875, and bubble gum a decade after that.
The abacus was probably invented by the Babylonians. It was refined and used by the Romans, Chinese, Arabs, Europeans, and Asians as late as the seventeenth century. It is still used, in various forms, in the Middle East and Japan.
Aspirin got its name in parts. The a came from the first letter of the product’s scientific name, acetylsalicylic acid. The spir came from Spiraea ulmaria, the meadowsweet plant, which was the original source of the compound. The in was a common suffix for medications in the late nineteenth century, when aspirin was first marketed.
The safety pin as we know it today was not produced until 1849, when American inventor Walter Hunt patented the first modern design. Precursors were developed in Europe about 3,000 years ago and became the standard device for fastening clothes. In the sixth century B.c., Greek and Roman women used a fibula, a pin with…