Why are some boats called "schooners"?

• A Book About a Thousand Things, published in 1946.

Why are some ships called schooners?

• A Book About a Thousand Things, 1946

Today's installment from A Book About a Thousand Things, published in 1946:

I found this book sometime in hazy past. (At a used bookstore? In a cardboard box on the sidewalk? I can't remember.) It's called A Book About a Thousand Things, it was published in 1946, and it is literally just a book about a thousand things without themes or order.

For today's installment: How did Nome, Alaska, get its name? And why was paper money called "shinplasters"?

Since people have been asking about it in the comments threads of previous posts about A Book About a Thousand Things, here it is, the question you remember from childhood: Why are dummy clocks set at 8:18? Click to zoom.

From page 447 of my 1940s version of Wikipedia.

Can horses sleep while standing?

Horses have the power to sleep while standing. In 1943 Professor C.G. Winchester, member of the animal husbandry faculty at the University of Missouri, said that experiments indicate that horses rest better on their feet than on their sides. Their legs are provided with muscular mechanisms that cause them to "lock," as it were, and permit the animals to rest somewhat as if they were standing on stilts. When a standing horse is unconscious there is no direct brain control over the muscles essential to the maintenance of an erect posture.The muscles in the legs, back and chest are controlled by the reflex actions of the spinal cord. In a similar manner a bird sleeping on a swaying limb maintains a reflex balance while its consciousness is in abeyance. Horses sleeping while standing occasionally, though rarely, fall down.

More often certain muscles in the forelegs relax suddenly and the horse knuckles over onto the fetlocks and then immediately catches itself. Horses sometimes go for months without lying down. It is astonishing how little lying-down rest they require. Yet a horse left to itself will sleep, standing up or lying down, eight or ten hours a day. This is true of other Herbivora, including elephants. An Indian elephant often will feed eighteen or twenty hours and then rest and sleep only one or two. It is said that they have been known to remain standing even after they were dead. When horses lie down to sleep their eyes usually remain open or partly open and they sleep so lightly that they are awakened by the faintest sound. They seldom lie long in the same position because their great weight cramps their muscles and prevents the under lung from functioning.

I found this book sometime in hazy past. (At a used bookstore? In a cardboard box on the sidewalk? I can't remember.) It's called A Book About a Thousand Things, it's by a guy named George Stimpson, and it was published in 1946. It's my new favorite book. From page 113:

Why does a red schoolhouse symbolize education?

Although most wooden schoolhouses in the United States are now painted white, a few generations ago it was customary, especially in New England and other northeastern sections of the country, to paint frame schoolhouses red, not because that color was preferred, but because red paint was cheaper than any other kind obtainable. Thus the little red schoolhouse became a symbol of popular education in general.

And from page 259:

Does thunder kill chicks in the shell?

Many people are of the opinion that thunder frequently affects the hatchability of eggs. Poultry experts assert that there are many instances on record that apparently support the common belief that thunder sometimes kills chicks in the shell. If such a phenomenon exists it has not been adequately explained by either physical or biological science... Of course a different problem is presented in cases where lightning actually strikes in the vicinity of eggs that are being incubated. Both the terrific shock and the lightning itself would probably have an unfavorable effect upon the eggs.

You don't say!

I found this book sometime in hazy past. (At a used bookstore? In a cardboard box on the sidewalk?) It's called A Book About a Thousand Things, it's by George Stimpson, and it was published in 1946. The book is like an early 20th-century Wikipedia, 550 pages of questions without any apparent organizing principle: "Why do some shoes squeak?" And: "Is the art of hardening copper lost?" And: "What is the function of lucky stones in fish?"

Let's begin with a boring one, shall we?

Why is "controller" sometimes spelled "comptroller"?

The spelling comptroller was introduced about 1500 and arose from a mistaken derivation of the word from compte, an obsolete form of count suggested by the French compte. Count was derived indirectly from Late Latin computum, from computare, "to calculate." The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says of count that it was "refashioned in the fourteenth century, after Latin, as compte." Since a controller's business was to examine and verify accounts it was supposed that the word should be spelled comptroller, and this spelling was affected particularly by official scribes. The erroneous form now survives only in certain official usage; as, Comptroller General of the United States, Comptroller of the Currency, and Comptroller of the Post Office Department. Controller is the correct spelling for ordinary purposes. In both cases the word is pronounced the same—kon-trole-er. Literally a controller is one who controls. Control comes from French controler, which in turn is derived from Latin contra, against or counter, and rotulus, roll. The present French form of controller is controleur, not comptroleur, as often supposed.

Thanks, Book About a Thousand Things! Bonus question about snake hearts after the jump!

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