Silly Putty was a wartime rubber substitute that failed as rubber and became a toy, and flew on Apollo 8

pop & funWikipedia1940s · United States

Silly Putty was a wartime rubber substitute that failed as rubber and became a toy, and flew on Apollo 8

the gist

During World War II Japan's advance cut off rubber supplies, so the US government funded research into synthetic rubber. In the process, researchers including Earl Warrick, Harvey Chin and the Scottish-born James Wright found that reacting boric acid with silicone oil produced a gooey, bouncy material. It bounced, stretched further than rubber, did not go mouldy and had a very high melting point, but it could not replace rubber. In 1949 marketing consultant Peter Hodgson borrowed $147 to pack one-ounce portions into plastic eggs and sold it as Silly Putty. After a New Yorker article mentioned it, he sold over 250,000 eggs in three days. Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola, bought the rights in 1977.

so what

Silly Putty shows how a failed industrial material can find a new life when marketing reframes it, and how wartime research seeds unexpected consumer products. Its origin is still disputed between several inventors.

fun fact

In 1968 Silly Putty was taken into lunar orbit by the crew of Apollo 8.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗