A wildlife technician, Richard Thomas, took the famous tongue-twister “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and calculated a rough estimate of what the answer would be. It came out to be around 700 pounds.
100 Mind-Blowing Wood Facts
Doug Engelbart created the very first computer mouse from wood in 1964.
The British tried to invent a ship made out of wood pulp and ice during World War II. Called Project Habakkuk, it was shelved due to costs.
The building One Times Square was built in 1904 as the headquarters for the New York Times. It’s been home to the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Celebration since 1907, when the first New Year’s Eve ball was made of iron and wood, one hundred 25-watt bulbs and weighed 700 pounds. Today’s ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs almost six tons with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles bolted to 672 LED modules attached to the aluminium frame.
A classic violin is made with 70 different pieces of wood. Associated with class and elegance, the earliest version of a violin emerged in the1500s in Italy. The first known creator of the violin was Andrea Amati. He had been commissioned by the Medici family to create an instrument like a lute, but easier to play.
Wood was the first art medium. The earliest forms of art were found in prehistoric cave drawings dating back to the Stone Age. The drawings were made with charcoal, which is essentially burnt wood.
7.5 million toothpicks can be created from a cord of wood.
Ancient pagan cultures, such as the Celts, believed that benevolent and helpful spirits lived in trees. Knocking on tree trunks roused a spirit for protection, which led to the saying “knock on wood.
The kererū (New Zealand Wood Pigeon) is well-known for getting drunk off fermented fruit and falling out of trees. Consequently, it has earned the reputation for being “clumsy, drunk, gluttonous, and glamorous.”
Termites chew through wood twice as quickly when they are exposed to rock music.
The first computer mouse wasn’t made from plastic. Back in 1964, Doug Engelbart invented the first-ever computer mouse! Back then, it was made out of wood. It was rectangular and featured a little button on the top right. He called it a mouse because the cord coming out of the back reminded him of the tiny rodents.
Slow down! On 28 January 1896, Walter Arnold drove his ‘horseless carriage’ through Paddock Wood, Kent, at a reckless 8mph – four times the 2mph speed limit. He also had no man with a red flag preceding him, as required by law. Arnold was chased down by a police officer on a bicycle, and later fined £4 7s, of which 10 shillings was for speeding – the world’s first recorded speeding ticket.
In 1932, wooden bills were temporarily made and used in Tenino, Washington because there was a major cash shortage at the time and wood was readily available.