Product Description: In 1828, a young French cook learned how to make the chef's specialty, round sliced potatoes fried in grease until crispy. He thought they were so good, he decided to sell them on the street. They were a hit! After making a lot of money, he left for his home in Germany...read more

Product Description: The Romans had public toilets that removed human waste to the river but 1,000 years later people went back to throwing their waste into the street! The Queen of England was desperate to get rid of the smell. Her godson installed a large container of water on the castle roof with a pipe down to the toilet...read more

Product Description: The Greeks and Romans were the first to use a fork, but it was shaped like a claw and used in the kitchen for cooking, not for eating, which was done with their fingers. Later on, the Italians changed the claw to a spear-like fork with two prongs to pick up food, but they still used their fingers to eat...read more

Product Description: Everyone knows that pizza came from Italy but they may not know that tomatoes came from the Americas. The Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous until a brave Neapolitan chef named Raffaele smeared some cooked tomatoes on a thick pancake and baked it in a very hot wood oven...read more

Product Description: The Romans made the first important discovery about vision. They found that you could see better by looking through a bowl of water, which made what you were looking at bigger. An English monk used glass to make a shaped magnifying device...read more

Product Description: The pen began as a sharpened reed used by Ancient Egyptians, but the reed point dulled quickly. It was replaced by a feather quill, then a steel-nibbed quill, a fountain pen, and finally the disposable Bic pen that was manufactured in the billions...read more