Today in History: Oct. 29

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Gimbels department store in Manhattan started to sell ballpoint pens on this date in 1945. Thus, today is sort-of the 71st birthday of the ballpoint pen.

Now, the first patent for a pen utilizing the ballpoint design was granted in 1888, and newer patents that both refined the ballpoint pen design and the ink formula were awarded to various inventors through the years.
Read More

Four Is the Loneliest Number

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The Wikipedia disambiguation page for the commonplace partial phrase “rule of three” lists nine items. Actually it lists 10, the tenth not being an example of the concept of the rule of three in day-to-day life but the title of a play; it may have been added by an editor simply to amuse himself or herself. (It was not me.)

It would be amusing if there were nine, because it would be a perfect example of the “rule of three” to have three sets of three things in a list of the possible definitions of that very phrase; it is comic to have 10 instead. (Nerds Unite!)
Read More

Today in History: Oct. 28

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The Statue of Liberty National Monument was dedicated in New York Harbor on this date in 1886. President Grover Cleveland (he was a former New York State governor) was among the dignitaries.

The huge statue, a gift from France, was hidden behind an enormous cloth, and a signal was to be given when the final speech was done to drop the cloth and reveal the work. The last speaker, U.S. Senator William Evarts, had been on the committee that raised funds to build the pedestal for the statue. He paused in the middle of the speech, and this was interpreted as the end, so the signal was given, and the veil was dropped. With that, guns were fired from hips in the harbor for the next 30 minutes, and Sen. Evarts sat down.
Read More