Did You Know That...

Kleenex-brand tissues started out as thin, gauzelike paper called Cellucotton that Kimberly-Clark produced as liners for GIs' gas masks during World War 1. When the war ended, the company used the surplus to make "Kleenex Kerchiefs", which it heavily promoted as "the Sanitary Cold Cream Remover". Women all over the country scrambled to buy the handy things. Until then, they'd used washcloths and towels to take off their makeup. But they soon began writing to the company with a complaint: Their husbands and children were forever snatching the Kerchiefs to blow their noses! The folks at Kimberly-Clark took the hint, changed their marketing strategy, and, voila - Kleenex tissues were born.


Dandelions can erase liver spots and get rid of warts as well. Pick some dandelions, break the stems open and squeeze a generous amount of the milky sap onto the blotches or warts. Then rub with a circular motion until the fluid disappears. Do this two or three times a day until the marks fade or warts disappear. If the liver spots are very, very, dark they may never completely disappear; but, they will become light enough they are barely noticeable.


No one know exactly who invented the washing machine or when. The basic concept goes back centuries to the days when sailors on long sea voyages would stuff their soiled clothes into canvas sacks, tie them to ropes, toss them overboard and let the ocean waves tumble them clean. One thing we do know is that as early as the 1700s, women in western Europe were doing the family laundry by putting it into a wooden box, which they filled with soap and water; then, tumbled the clothes with a hand crank.

The first electric clothes washers appeared in England and the United States in 1915; and, featured a motor that rotated a metal drum pierced with holes. These pioneer machines were a step in the right direction; but, still demanded a fair amount of hard labour, including hauling wet laundry out of the tub and running it through a wringer.

Then in 1939, the first truly automatic washers came on the market, complete with preset water levels, variable studiness cycles and timing controls.