# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 212
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4221 "2026-02-27T20:07:12Z")
I just learned some interesting things about transatlantic communications cables: The first one, a telegraph cable, was installed a few years before the start of the U.S. Civil War. The first fiber optic cable, TAT-8, was installed in 1988. It is currently being pulled up, and will sent for recycling. (I find this very odd.) The latest cable, Amitié, went live in 2023. It has 16 fiber pairs, each with a capacity of 23 Tbit/s. [![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55119860885_4cc8d527ae_z.jpg) ](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55119860885_4cc8d527ae_z.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4222 "2026-02-27T20:15:12Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > a telegraph cable, was installed a few years before the start of the U.S. Civil War. I found that interesting as well. So I found some more tidbits about that cable, courtesy of the [history](https://www.history.com/articles/first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable) website. The cable lasted only three weeks and, in that time, carried 732 messages. A second cable was laid in 1866 and was much more reliable than the first. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4223 "2026-02-27T20:52:04Z")
That first cable in 1858, in the few weeks it worked, saved the British government over 50,000 pounds in 1850s money in one fell swoop. The military realized that British troops in Canada who were about to cross the ocean (I’ve seen versions that they were going to England, and others that they were destined for India post-Mutiny) were no longer needed and could stay put, but if the new orders were sent by ship the troops would be at sea by the time the orders arrived, so the cable was used. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4224 "2026-02-28T01:36:07Z")
One of my favorite historians, John Steele Gordon, wrote a fascinating book on this, [A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable – An Epic 19th-Century Achievement that United America and Europe](https://www.amazon.com/Thread-Across-Ocean-Heroic-Transatlantic/dp/0060524464). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4225 "2026-02-28T01:46:47Z")
I just discovered that butter explodes in the microwave after putting butter in the microwave. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4226 "2026-02-28T02:05:46Z")
So if you want your butter to not explode in the microwave, make sure your butter never puts butter in the microwave. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4227 "2026-02-28T02:33:18Z")
My microwave has a butter soften function. It think it pulses rather than continuously runs the beams or something but that’s just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4228 "2026-02-28T14:46:00Z")
If you listen closely, you might be able to tell. My microwave has a power function. If I set it to 80% (my favorite for reheating), you can hear the magnetron cycling on and off, I’m assuming in an 80% on/20% off fashion although I’ve never actually timed it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4229 "2026-03-01T15:23:35Z")
A March hare isn’t a particular species of leporidae. It describes the behavior of some European hares and rabbits during mating season (March) when they get up on their hind legs and box each other as if they have gone mad. Off to look up Dormouse… ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4230 "2026-03-01T17:06:34Z")
Feed your head. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4231 "2026-03-01T20:38:17Z")
Pon Farr. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4232 "2026-03-02T02:14:35Z")
From the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, there were as many as 120,000 elevator operators in New York City alone. Frequent strikes and a strong union meant the shutdown of many major businesses for days (or longer) at a time. By the mid-1960s, there were virtually none left. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4233 "2026-03-02T03:53:35Z")
And of course Huxley’s _ **Brave New World** _ was set centuries in the future and yet they still had elevator operators, specifically made imbecilic enough to not find the job boring. It’s astonishing at times how little automation was anticipated by much science fiction; interstellar spaceships crewed by semi-literate deck apes for example. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4234 "2026-03-02T04:54:13Z")
There are also some examples of science fiction set centuries ahead of when they were written in which people use slide rules to calculate how to set the navigation of spaceships, like _Methuselah’s Children_ by Robert Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4235 "2026-03-02T06:07:46Z")
Heinlein loved his slide rules (“slip sticks”). A significant plot point in his novel _Starman Jones_ was that spaceship navigators need big printed books filled with tables of numbers in order to navigate. The ship has a computer, but apparently the computer has insufficient memory to store a book’s worth of data. Even worse, data is entered into the computer in binary, by an operator pressing two buttons, one of which enters a “0” and the other enters a “1”. The computer is apparently unable to convert from decimal, or even hexadecimal, to binary by itself. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4236 "2026-03-02T09:42:06Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > 120,000 elevator operators in New York City alone. Frequent strikes and a strong union That reminds me of the time lift maintenance engineers in London went on strike. Within a day or two, there was at least one notice posted on the door with the words “This Otis Regrets”. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4237 "2026-03-05T01:13:41Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > If you listen closely, you might be able to tell. My microwave has a power function. If I set it to 80% (my favorite for reheating), you can hear the magnetron cycling on and off, I’m assuming in an 80% on/20% off fashion although I’ve never actually timed it. Newer “Inverter” microwave ovens can run continuously at low power. Microwave tubes work by accelerating electrons around some kind of odd structure. The electrons come from an “emitter”, which is heated by a “heater”. If you just turn down the power on the “acceleration”, the hot electrons stay around the “emitter”, which overheats and burns out. Old uw ovens ran the heater off a coil on the main transformer. The system was either On or Off. “Inverter” ovens can control the heater and the excitation voltage independently, and can control the number of electrons emitting uw radiation continuously, rather than just “On” and “Off” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4238 "2026-03-05T01:23:30Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > . By the mid-1960s, there were virtually none left. Except, perhaps, in the Department Stores? I mention that because “Going up, Mens Wear” was still a meme when I was young. I notice that Macy’s had early-model escalators, so when did they get rid of operators? In my town, Myers had late-model escalators, and the building was built with wide staircases. The lifts still had operators in the late 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4239 "2026-03-05T01:31:11Z")
Old science articles sometimes claimed that microwave ovens cycled on and off because it was fundamentally physically impossible for them to change their actual power level. Which is, of course, a load of rot. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4240 "2026-03-05T03:24:50Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I notice that Macy’s had early-model escalators, so when did they get rid of operators? AI says “Macy’s phased out traditional passenger elevator operators in the 1970s as self-service, automatic elevators became standard, though some staffed elevators remained in operation into the early 2000s.” I can’t imagine that elevators after the 1970s required staffing; I assume that some personnel were kept on as a working promotional relic, like Macy’s still-in-operation wooden escalator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=211) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=213)