Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Robert South once stated that “Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.” I seem to prove daily my lack of wisdom and provide further proof with the following installment of Tuesday Trivia:

• August Fruehauf , a Detroit blacksmith, is credited with developing the semi-trailer. In 1914 August was asked by a local lumberman to design a means of conveyance for a pleasure boat; he’d noticed that the horses he shod were healthier if they pulled their loads, rather than carried them on their backs, and he reasoned the same might be true for trucks. The trailer he built was so successful that the merchant had Fruehauf build similar trailers for his lumber. With business booming he incorporated the Fruehauf Trailer Company in 1918.
• The word “Revolution” took on its additional meanings of “radical social or subversive political change” following the 1543 publication of Nicolaus Copernicus “Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”, which furthered the revolutionary heliocentric notion that the earth revolved around the sun.
• All but one of the 50 states has experienced earthquake activity with North Dakota being the only American earthquake-free zone.
• Speaking of earthquakes; the strongest earthquake in the continental United States, the December 16, 1811 New Madrid Earthquake, caused the Mississippi River to run backward for a short period of time.
• Starfish don’t have brains – but anyone who’s ever watched “Sponge Bob Square Pants” already knew that.
• Many race teams, from NASCAR to Formula One, use pure nitrogen for tire inflation. Compressed nitrogen contains less moisture than compressed air, expands less and runs cooler; all positive traits.
• It takes 31.68 years for a billion seconds to pass, 1901 years for the passage of a billion minutes, 114,077 years for a billion hours and 2,737,850 years for a billion days to pass. At our current levels of spending (Federal Budget FY 2007), the U. S. government goes through a billion dollars every 3.89 hours.
• It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for sunlight to reach the Earth. In that time the Federal Government will have spent $38,204,084.44 – Hmmm… it seems like we’re spending money at the speed of light; doesn’t it?
• Carat for carat, the ruby has been the most valuable gemstone throughout history.
• Originally, one acre was equivalent to the amount of ground a man with one horse or a yoke of oxen could till in one day. The measurement of an acre in the U. S. has been standardized to 43,560 square feet but, because its easier to till a long and narrow strip of land, the first standardized measurement was one furlong (220 yards) in length by one chain (22 yards) in width. As a matter of fact, the word “furlong” is derived from the Old English words furh (furrow) and lang (long).

That’s it! See ya next week.