Why Chopsticks Are Connected And 15 More Hidden Features of Everyday Things

Ok, I know it’s kind of cold to the touch, especially on a freezing winter’s day, but did you know that brass doorknobs actually serve a purpose, apart from looking classy and shiny? Since it is a copper alloy, brass has antimicrobial properties. That means it can help get rid of harmful germs and bacteria, sometimes in up to two hours. In high traffic areas that’s all the more useful, but since brass is much costlier than other metals like nickel and steel, you barely see these types of doorknobs anymore nowadays.

Speaking of lovely multi-purpose items, most screwdrivers have a tiny little secret of their own. They can sometimes be slid through a wrench so that they can be used to create more torque when twisting. Not to mention the uses when it comes to bolts located in hard-to-reach places.

There’s a reason why buttons on women’s shirts are for the left-handed, and it has nothing to do with fashion. This practice dates back to the times when chambermaids were helping ladies dress themselves, and it was easier for them to perform their job with this orientation. Having the buttons placed as such indicated a sign of wealth, so it’s easy to imagine why the practice carried on, even though most people dress themselves these days.

Next time you receive a package in your mail, take a look at your box cutter. If it features some diagonal lines on the blade, you’re in for a little design perk. Turns out these are blades that snap off. Continuously cutting cardboard can dull the sharp edge of the blade. To help prevent the need to buy a brand new box cutter, the top segment along the next line can be broken off to reach a new sharp edge. To do this, check out the small hole at the base of the tool, sometimes called the blade snapper. The people that first came up with this brilliant invention were engineers inspired by the way chocolate bars are segmented.

Hold on a minute, don’t throw away the cardboard package just yet. Most likely you’ll have some silica gel packets somewhere at the bottom of the box. Since this gel is basically a drying tool, it gathers up the moisture out of its environment, so you can store these packets for further occasions. Whether you’ll need to dry out your phone or some other electrical object, you can place them in a container next to the silica gel to reduce the damage.

You don’t have to be a mechanic to know when standard car tires need replacing, since they come equipped with a neat indicator. Take a closer look and you’ll see that treads within the tire are a bunch of rubber notches. When the treads are evened out with the perpendicular bars, it’s a sign you need to book an appointment with your local car service, since most likely the tires have lost most of their traction and may not be safe for driving any longer.

The upper corners of a car windshield feature textured black dots melted into the glass edges. This neat add-on isn’t there for design purposes. It’s called frit glazing, which means that a special type of ceramic paint is added to the window for protecting its sealant from UV rays. It also conceals and creates a coarser surface for the adhesive used to set the window in place.

Whenever you’re up for a drive, check out if there’s a small tab under your car’s rear view mirror. Bet you didn’t know it’s there to help switch the mirror from daytime to nighttime views. It uses a prismatic glass technology to blur the reflection and reduce the glare of the headlights behind you in traffic. People came up with these manually tilted mirrors in the 1930s, but they became standard somewhere in the 1970s.

While you’re in the car, check out the headrests, as you most likely don’t know that they carry a little disguised purpose. Of course, they’re adjustable to accommodate passengers of any height so that they get the proper support for their heads and necks. The hidden feature is that they are detachable and come with two very solid metal bars. Should you ever find yourself stuck in a car and need to make a fast getaway, these bars can come in handy to crack out the car windows.

So, you’re out for a drive and you’re suddenly out of gas. What I’m about to describe sounds more like a meme than an actual situation bound to happen, but what if you’re in such a hurry that you accidentally drive off with the gas nozzle still in the tank? Well, the nozzles have been designed to prevent any hazards from happening, rest assured. They feature a break-away device that will allow the hose to separate when taken out with enough force.

Initially designed in the early 20th century to be worn exclusively by basketball players, sneakers soon became one of those fashion fundamentals, similar to jeans and leather jackets. If you take a closer look at them, you’ll see they have two extra holes on the side, similar to the shoelace holes. They’re manufactured as such not only to provide extra ventilation but to allow people to get extra creative with their laces when wearing the shoes.

Admit it, you’ve always thought that chopsticks are merged at the end for the sole purpose of keeping them together until you’re ready to dig into your meal. That may or may not be the whole truth. Under a more detailed inspection, the wooden tools feature a square-shaped end. Chopsticks manufactured like this date back to an old Japanese traditional design which can help with breaking the ends easily. The separated end can then be used as a resting block for the chopsticks, to keep it more sanitized in hopes it can be used again since they won’t be touching the table or any other surface.

Women’s bikes have a special design which surprisingly has a historical and fashionable purpose. The lower frame is for the most part meant to make up for the generally shorter height of ladies, compared to that of the average gentleman. While that is the case for handlebars and saddles, the overall frame is lower for an additional purpose. Way back when women wore long skirts and dresses all day, every day, they needed to make sure their outfits wouldn’t get caught in the frame. That’s how we came up with a lower framed bicycle, perfectly made for women and their needs at the time.

The fact that toothpastes are multicolored is not just a nice perk to make dental hygiene more fun. There’s a secret meaning related to each of the colors, which dates back to the 1970’s. In those days, people grew more and more interested in their oral healthcare and as such they were looking for products which could do more than merely clean their teeth. One company was the pioneer in that regard, adding mouthwash to its toothpaste — meaning the blue strip. They later added on the red strip, meant to feature ingredients which helped with gum care.

Speaking of toothpaste, check the cap next time you open a new tube, you may be in for a little surprise. There’s a pointed cone shape inside the cap, so you can puncture the seal of the toothpaste without cutting yourself or ruining your manicure. Not to mention it’s more hygienic since you won’t be able to transfer germs or other bacteria into the product itself.

On the subject of bathroom countertop items, toothbrushes come with a neat add-on, hidden in the bristle patterns. Apart from making the toothbrush look cooler, they also do come with a practical purpose. Most toothbrushes come with a pattern of blue bristles intertwined within white ones. The blue dye is meant to fade out, signaling the time when you should replace your toothbrush. Dentists say that toothbrushes should be replaced every 3 to 4 months, but it does serve as a great reminder in case you forget.

Still love playing with Legos? I don’t judge, hey, it is a great hobby for all ages. Notice there’s a hole on top of the Lego heads. Behold, you’re looking at a safety feature that the people at Lego designed to prevent choking hazards. The most dangerous issue should a person swallow any of these pieces is the blocking of the airways. Designing a hole inside the Lego head helps the air to flow freely through the piece, until it can be removed safely.

We’re now used to all sorts of modern light bulbs, some tubular, some shaped like diamonds, and some even twisted altogether. Historically, lightbulbs were round and the initial shape served a purpose in itself. It was mainly connected to the fact that glass bulbs were hand-blown, which gave them the round shape to begin with. The hidden practical reason was that the lightbulb filament needed to be at the same distance from every surface of the glass sphere. The easiest way to achieve this was to make the glass in the shape of a globe.