Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Nixon4Prez t1_ja23j2z wrote

Reply to TIL Tolkien assisted on the Oxford Dictionary's first edition, focused on 'W' words waggle to warlock. He "learned more in those two years than in any other"; and certain etymologies continued to puzzle him for years, with many pages of notes written later on 'walrus' for a lecture at Leeds by PianoCharged

JRR Tolkien was primarily interested in linguistics - what a lot of people don't realize is that the entire world of the Lord of the Rings and the entire Tolkien canon originated as a setting for his invented languages. Elvish came first, the whole Tolkienverse came about as a setting for it.

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Crepuscular_Animal t1_ja22wit wrote

Reply to comment by Spacemanspalds in TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. by ExpertPreference8481

I didn't think about that until I watched The Thin Red Line. It puts a lo of emphasis on war's senseless destruction, not only of people and man-made things, but of nature and animals, too. Imagine how many marine animals died from bombs falling into the sea, how many habitats were destroyed. Defoliant use during the Vietnam War was a huge ecological disaster, we'd boo any company that did stuff like that for profit, but it was done for war so it's okay.

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DoomGoober t1_ja21r1u wrote

Reply to TIL of the Battle of San Jacinto. Just six weeks after the Texans terrible loss at The Alamo in 1836. The Texans regrouped under Sam Houston, and surprised the Mexican forces and overwhelming defeated the Mexicans. The Texans had 11 soldiers killed and the Mexicans lost 650. by triviafrenzy

It's also worth knowing that Sam Houston ordered the Alamo abandoned as it was not worth defending and had little strategic value.

Texians didn't have enough pack animals to remove the cannon, so they left them there. Then a bunch of men decided to defy Houston's orders and defend the Alamo anyway.

The Mexicans outnumbered the Texians and defeated the Texians. The Mexican command decided to execute all of the Alamo defenders, even though most of the Mexicans preferred to take them captive.

Houston used the murder of the Alamo defenders as a rallying cry for support and he was able to raise a larger army, leading to the eventual defeat of the Mexicans.

So, while the Alamo was meant to be abandoned, it ended up playing an outsized role in the war.

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MisterMarcus t1_ja200uc wrote

Reply to TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. by ExpertPreference8481

I remember this from a music documentary in the 80s.

The 3 things Athens, Gerogia is famous for:

  1. The double-barrel cannon

  2. A tree that somehow owns itself

  3. A weird local college rock band made big, named "R.E.M.".

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oplus t1_ja1z5hd wrote

Reply to comment by chemamatic in TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. by ExpertPreference8481

But how do you get the rapid acceleration in a single barrel to not snap the chain?

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