Mental Floss

NEWS









Gallaher's Cigarettes recommended a hack that involved setting butter on fire.

From raw beef for wrinkle prevention to cleaning paintings with potatoes, here are some of the most memorable life hacks from days of yore.

Ellen Gutoskey












Demonstration of a waterbed, 1971.

Waterbeds were once a coveted "fluid fixture" of bedrooms—until, suddenly, they weren't. So who or what led to their demise?

Jeff Wells




Silent letters are a clue to how words entered English.

Silent letters are the scourge of spellers and a stumbling block when learning how to write in English—but they're often hidden remnants of how the words passed through different languages on their way to English.

Arika Okrent