The word fiat means an authoritative decree, from the Latin for “let it be done”.
But the Italian car company founded in Turin in 1899 adopted its name as an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Motorcar Works, Turin).
According to George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, the name is his invention: “I knew a trade name must be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled . . . and in order to satisfy trademark laws, it must mean nothing. . . . The letter k had been a favorite with me, it seemed a…
Haagen-Dazs has no particular meaning, and is two made-up words meant to look and sound Scandinavian. It is a name created by its developer, Reuben Mattus, a Polish emigre living in the United States, to convey a European sensibility. Haagen-Dazs ice cream started in the Bronx, New York, in 1961, and had only three flavors:…
Too much air caused Ivory soap to float. It was originally an error in production. In 1878, Harley Procter and cousin James Gamble decided to create for their company a white soap that would rival the popular castile soaps of their competitors. The product was successful. Then, in 1879, a worker mistakenly allowed the soap…
An hour divided into 60 minutes because it is based on the sexagesimal system of notation, a system based on the number 60 that predates the decimal system. It was developed about 2400 B.C. by the Sumerians. Since ancient times, the sexagesimal system has been used to divide circles into 360 degrees (60 x 6),…
No, an airplane’s black box is not black, it is orange. Inside the box, a stainless-steel tape contains information on the airspeed, altitude, and vertical acceleration. A second orange box contains a tape of the last half-hour of conversation in the cockpit.
The first toothbrush with bristles was developed in China in 1498. Bristles were taken from hogs at first, and later from horses and even badgers. Not until 1938 were nylon bristles, more sanitary and less dangerous, developed by Du Pont.