Some stuff you may not have known

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The Arabs invented the concept of the three-course meal, with soup followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts - the habit was brought across to Moorish Spain in the 9th Century from Iraq

Alcohol may have been distilled in c800AD by Jabir Ibn Hayyan from Kufa in Iraq, and our word "alcohol" derives from the Arabic "al kuhul"... many Arab countries, like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco, make wines and beers, even though Islam does not permit the drinking of alcohol
 

muckshifter

I'm not weird, I'm a limited edition.
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The Scots did well too ...

The television John Logie Baird (1923)

The refrigerator: William Cullen (1748)

The first electric bread toaster: Alan MacMasters (1893)

The flush toilet: Alexander Cummings (1775)

The Dewar flask: Sir James Dewar (1847–1932) ]

The first distiller to triple distilled Irish whiskey: John Jameson (Whisky distiller)
we taught the Irish :lol:

... I could go on. :)
 

crazylegs

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Some good random stuff there although the jury's are still out on a lot of it!
 

floppybootstomp

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Alcohol distilled 800ad? If this means booze made then wine was about a long time before that. If it means spirits or industrial alcohol was first produced then well - I dunno :confused:

My interesting fact of the day:

It takes longer to get up north - the slow way.
 

crazylegs

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As I said the jury's out on a lot of it :nod:

I'm sure alcohol was around in the egyptian era and that was 3000+ years BC
 

nivrip

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The Scots did well too ...

The television John Logie Baird (1923)

The refrigerator: William Cullen (1748)

The first electric bread toaster: Alan MacMasters (1893)

The flush toilet: Alexander Cummings (1775)

The Dewar flask: Sir James Dewar (1847–1932) ]

The first distiller to triple distilled Irish whiskey: John Jameson (Whisky distiller)
we taught the Irish :lol:

... I could go on. :)


Don't forget the deep fried Mars Bar. :D
 

Quadophile

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Surgery

Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years.

Coffee

Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century.

University

In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco.

Algebra

The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician's famous 9th century treatise "Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala" which translates roughly as "The Book of Reasoning and Balancing." Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.

The crank

Many of the basics of modern automatics were first put to use in the Muslim world, including the revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to everything from the bicycle to the internal combustion engine.

Hospitals

"Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt," explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it -- a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.


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