Evolution of the Toothbrush

The Chewing Sticks

The Toothbrush first appeared around 3500 BC and was used by Egyptians and Babylonians. People often chewed on one end of the stick until the fibers of the wood formed a brush which was then used to clean the teeth. These chewing sticks were the ancestors of the Miswak toothbrushes which are used the same way as the primitive chewing sticks but are made from the branches of the Salvadora persica tree. The Salvadora persica branches have healing and antiseptic qualities.  Miswak is still used today and is considered by many to be superior to modern tooth brushes (study comparing miswak and toothbrushes). The use of Miswak is especially popular amongst Muslim communities and can be purchased at most Indian, Pakistani or Arab stores.

Other forms of early toothbrushes were strips of linen (used by ancient Greeks), bird feathers, animal bones, and porcupine quills but none were as effective as another early ancestor of the modern toothbrush, boar bristles on a bamboo stick.

The Modern Tooth Brush

During the period 1498-1600, Chinese “dentists” would pluck the hairs off of cold climate pigs and paste them on bamboo sticks or animal bones. These were then used just like a modern manual toothbrush to clean their teeth. Meanwhile, Europeans were still using the ancient Greek way of brushing their teeth; They were dipping linen cloth or sponges dipped in sulfur oils and salt solutions and rubbing away all the tooth grime. Then came William Addis, who introduced the Chinese way of brushing to England in 1780.

The idea of the bristle bone tooth brush came to William Addis while in prison. Boredom and necessity drove Addis to take a bone left behind from his dinner and bristles that he borrowed from a guard and combine them to create a tool to clean his teeth. It was a far better alternate to a dirty cloth with soot and salt. After his release, William Addis became the first person to mass produce modern toothbrushes. The Addis version of the toothbrush used cow tail hair drilled and tied on to cow bones. It was a success! His company still exists today but they have moved away from using bones as the toothbrush handle. Later versions of the European toothbrushes used horse hair instead of boar hair because it was softer.

Bone and Boar Bristle Toothbrush:

Napolean Bonaparte’s horse hair toothbrush:

Patent number 18,653 marked the first toothbrush patent in the United States of America. It was registered by an entrepreneur, H. N. Wadsworth, in 1857. Mass production of tooth brushes began in 1885 and dental hygiene enthusiasts sighed a fresh breath of relief.

The World Wars

When first world war began, the need for soup bones far outweighed the need for brush handles. Once again, necessity was a catalyst that helped create Celluloid handles. Soup bones everywhere breathed a soupy sigh of relief. Molds were created in the shape of brush handles and celluloid was poured in and cooled. At this point, brush makers either dipped bristles into liquid celluloid or drilled holes into solid celluloid handles and then stapled them in.

The next evolution of the toothbrush took place in 1938 when nylon bristles were used instead of animal hair. A company called DuPont de Nemours introduced the first toothbrushes with nylon bristles. These were much more comfortable than boar hair. Boars, vegetarians, Muslim people and Jewish people (who don’t consume animal or pork products) breathed a sigh of relief. The first such toothbrush was called Dr. West’s Miracle-Tuft Toothbrush.

DuPont de Nemours used the World Wars to their advantage and used a support-the-troops war marketing campaign. Your American Duty is to brush your teeth so you can win the war.

Brushing teeth regularly became popular in the United States after US soldiers returned home and brought with them their strict habits of brushing their teeth. People were influenced by the actions of these US soldiers and brushing teeth finally became mainstream.

Late Modern Brushes

An electric toothbrush was invented in 1939 in Switzerland and it came out for public consumption in the 1960s. Broxodent, the electric toothbrush by Squibb, came out and was marketed for the “overly-vigorous type of toothbrushers”.

Dr.Scott was also another early pioneer of the electric toothbrush:

There exist over 3000 toothbrush patents today.

Oral-B is the current leading toothbrush creator and they have a wide variety of electric and manual brushes with the latest one being the Oral-B 9100.

The Oral-B Triumph 9100 with SmartGuide wirelessly transmits a map of your mouth to an LCD display. It monitors how many times you have brushed certain quadrants of your teeth and lets you know where you have yet to brush or which areas still need more work. Once your mouth is perfectly clean, it signals you to stop brushing.

Another type of toothbrush, Tooth Tunes, hums songs and tunes silently into your ear while you brush. The music stops after two minutes, the dentist recommended time for brushing teeth.

What does the future hold for toothbrushes? Will they go extinct and get replaced by something completely new or will they continue to innovate and get better? How much better can tooth brushes get any way?

Sources:

• ToothBrushes on Wikipedia
• Library of Congress
• ASME
• TIAS 2

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Reason why Nature Documentaries flop in Russia

Random passerbys near some fountains of Khabarovsk city in Russia were surprised when they saw a small crocodile frolicking amongst the water waves. Apparently, the most obvious thing that they could think of was to pick it up and take photographs with it. There was no news about whether any of them lost any digits. Crickey (russian accent)!

I freak out if a small gecko runs across the wall.

Credit: English Russia

Technorati Tags: Crocodiles

Popularity: 2% [?]

Popularity: 2% [?]

New Pilgrimage Location for Pastafarians

Holy baths (Kumbh Melas) aren’t just for Hindus any more. Pastafarians can now travel to HAKONE, Kanagawa, Japan to partake in their very own holy bath ritual.

HAKONE, Kanagawa — A “ramen bath” has been opened at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun, a local theme park and hot spa.

The bath, shaped like a ramen bowl, contains pepper-flavored water colored a light, milky brown, to like tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen soup. The special bath was created jointly by the theme park and a famous ramen shop, Nantsuttei in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The bath was completed at the unveiling event, with the owner of Nantsuttei adding “noodles” made of bathwater additives into the tub.

The water contains collagen and garlic extracts, and theme park officials claim it can help produce beautiful skin and aid moisture retention.

Please try not to trample each other to death while racing to be the first one in (even though FSM said, “blessed is he that reaches the pool first and the last one in-eth is a rotten eggeth”

Credit: MSN Japan

Technorati Tags: FSM, Japan, Pastafarian

Popularity: 1% [?]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tallest Person, Meet the Shortest Person

While Khagendra Thapa Magar may be the shortest person in the world (20 inches), he still is not registered in the Guinness Book of World Records because of his young age. That title is held by Madge Bester of South Africa (Shortest Female at 26 inches) and Lin Yih-Chih of Taiwan (Shortest male at 27 inches). Lin Yih-Chih is currently being challenged by He Pingping from Inner Mongolia. He may be in for a disappointment though because he is now 28.8 inches. He should, instead, complete in the World Limbo Contest. However, that doesn’t take anything away from the following photo session of Bao Xishun (world’s tallest man at 94.8 inches) and Mr Pingping.

The following meeting took place in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China

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Bao Xishun recently saved choking dolphin by using his long arm to pull out some plastic shards from their stomachs. He recently got married to Xia Shujuan on the 24th of March, 2007 [ Link to wedding Photo ].

The following is an image of Madge Bester (Shortest human in the world):

Madge Bester and Lin Yih-Chih met in 1998 to bring attention to the plight of the physically disabled. She is quoted as saying, “My message to you is to take charge of your life. Forget your disabilities and use your abilities,”

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Khagendra Thapa Magar

Khagendra Thapa Magar is the world’s smallest person. You won’t find him in any record books at the moment because officials believe that the 14-year-old isn’t done growing yet. He is currently only 20 inches tall and weighs 10 lbs.

His website, www.khagendratma.org, has stopped working and it seems as if some body forgot to renew it. Khagendra Thapa Magar can be found touring all around Nepal. His parents show him off to the public and collect money from the shows. They claim that all the proceeds go to Khagendra’s education fund, however, he was withdrawn from school because other students teased him.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Popularity: 2% [?]

Kwik-e-Marts popping up across the US

Over a dozen Seven-Eleven stores across the US have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts in preparation for the launch of The Simpson’s Movie.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Old Photographs of Japan

These are some images from the Bakumatsu-Meji period that existed approximately during the 1850s.

[ Link ]

via

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Stadium

Hey, why not?

via

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Stills from Persepolis

Sony Pictures Classics has stills of Persepolis, an animated movie about the Irani Islamic Revolution of the 1970s.

This is going to be an amazing.

Written by Marjane Satrapi

It will shed some light on the absurdities of these so-called “Islamic” revolutions around the world.

[ Link ]

via

If you are interested in learning more about another similar situation then check out Kite Runner, a story about how the Taliban came to take over Afghanistan.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Brain cell

On the left is a picture of a single brain cell. On the right is an image of the universe.

Are we in someone’s brain? Are the planets that we are familiar with just atoms for another, much larger, universe?

That Pale Blue Dot in the image above is earth. This image was shown by Carl Sagan in 1994. It was taken by Voyager 1 when it was floating away from earth.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]