Sunday, January 29, 2012

Two interestingly repurposed items

Well, actually “6 Hugely Successful Products Originally Invented for Something Else”, but only two apply hear.

Listerine -

Listerine was invented 133 years ago, first as a surgical antiseptic, but also as a cure for gonorrhea (don’t try that at home). An article from 1888 recommends Listerine “for sweaty feet, and soft corns, developing between the toes.” Over the course of the next century, it was marketed as a refreshing additive to cigarettes, a cure for the common cold, and as a dandruff treatment. But it was in the 1920s that the powerful, germ-killing liquid finally landed on its most lucrative use as a magical cure for bad breath.


listerine

Brandy

Brandy, that delightful, caramel-colored after dinner drink, started off as a byproduct of transporting wine. About 900 years ago, merchants would essentially boil the water off of large quantities of wine in order to both transport it more easily, and save on customs taxes, which were levied by volume. After a while, a few of these merchants, bored perhaps after a long day on the road, dipped into their inventory and discovered that the concentrated, or distilled, wine actually tasted pretty darn good. Voila! Brandy was born.

Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/115028#ixzz1krQUnu94

I knew about Brandy, but Listerine Cigarettes is HARD CORE.  It make’s Mom’s Menthols look like candy sticks.

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
Web Statistics