Page 151 - How It Works - Book Of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, Volume 05-15

History

How was ocean How did

depth first people stay

clean?

measured? The gruesome practices
that were once
considered healthy!

Urine mouthwash
Explore the clever methods used to take the first 1 Ammonia, a common ingredient
of household cleaners, is also found
measurements of the sea floor in urine, and so the Romans used it
to clean their clothes. However, they
he first evidence of humans attempting to but in 1872 the first wide-scale study of the world’s also believed its stain removing
measure the depth of the oceans can be seen oceans began. On its four-year expedition, the HMS powers could clean and whiten
Tin Egyptian tomb paintings from 1800 BCE. Challenger took 360 depth readings of the sea floor teeth, and so they regularly gargled
The images show a man on a boat dipping a using a variety of sounding devices. These devices with it as mouthwash.
sounding pole (a long rod used to measure depths) used a weight to pull a sounding line to the seafloor
into the water and measuring how far it goes in and collected samples from the seabed in the
before it reaches the bottom. This technique didn’t process. The findings helped to identify underwater Toilet closets
change much for the next several thousand years, mountain ranges and trenches, as well as 2 In medieval houses, toilets were
with the pole simply switched for a rope with a thousands of new marine species, forming the basically a bowl covered by a slab of
weight on the end. basis of modern oceanography. However, it wasn’t wood with a hole in the middle.
Most of the measurements were taken in shallow until 1914 that sonar was first used to take more They could usually be found in
areas to identify near-shore hazards for shipping, accurate measurements.
closets called garderobes, and
people would often keep their
clothes in their as the smell helped
The Brooke’s Take measurements to keep moths away.
By counting the number of
sounding apparatus markers that are pulled under the
water, the approximate depth of
How this deep-sea sounding device worked the ocean is measured. Rotten teeth
3 The Tudors knew that sugar
rotted their teeth, but because sugar
Weight and cord was so expensive and therefore a
The weight is attached sign of wealth, Tudor women would
to a cord with markers Release the weight
spaced 25 fathoms A pair of hinged arms at the deliberately blacken their teeth to
(45.7m/150ft) apart. top of the rod fall down, make them look rotten!
releasing the sling that
holds the weight.
Hair-raising treatments
4 A common treatment for
baldness in the 17th century was to
mix potassium salts with chicken
droppings and rub it into the scalp.
Lowered overboard Alternatively, one method for
The weight is lowered over removing hair involved creating
the side of the boat, and when
it reaches the seabed, the a paste from eggs, vinegar and
cord goes slack. Back onboard cat dung.
The cord is pulled
back up, bringing the Mouse-skin eyebrows
Into the seabed iron rod with it, but
When the weight leaving the weight on 5 During the 18th century, it was
reaches the bottom, the the seabed. unfashionable for women to have
iron rod that passes thick eyebrows, so they would shave
through its centre is
driven into the seabed. Secure the them off and replace them with ones
sample made from mouse skin. Pale
Collect sediment A valve closes up make-up was also popular – but
As the bottom end of the end of the deadly – and contained poisons
the rod is hollow, it fills hollow rod, such as lead and mercury.
with the sediment on trapping the © Alamy
the ocean floor. sediment inside.

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