Transparency is so familiar that it stops registering as strange. You look through a window and see the street, and it does not seem to require an explanation.
But consider…
The pattern is consistent: name the colour after the thing, then keep the name long after nobody uses the thing. Here are fifteen.
1. Maroon
From the French for chestnut,…
The metric system is the most successful standardisation project in history. It is used by almost every country on Earth, it underpins science globally, and its units have been redefined…
Source: Wikipedia
There is a limit to how loud a sound can be, and it is lower than most people assume.
Sound travels as alternating regions of higher and lower air…
Source: Wikipedia
Ask anyone to picture an aircraft black box and they will picture something black. It is one of the most widely held misconceptions about aviation, and it is wrong…
Source: Wikipedia
None of these vanished dramatically. They thinned out over a decade or two, until the last practitioners were curiosities rather than colleagues. Here are fifteen.
1. Switchboard Operator
Source:…