Yes it is that time of the week again and the one post I look forward to as I never know what to expect as I go hunting for some interesting bits of information. Most likely worthless snippets but in some cases nice just to know as you most likely know more than the next person next to you and possibly could shut them up at some point by offering a fact or two. Time to fill up your brain cells with some more interesting and mainly useless facts.
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Jewelry testing kit back in the days. Touchstone is the flat stone that was used to rub jewelry against to determine the carat.
Acid test
Used in a saying showing how hard the test was meaning it was tough.
I think this is a fairly obvious one which I kind of new beforehand but wasn't 100% sure. The acid test was used by dealers and gold prospectors to guarantee what they actually had was gold. Nitric acid was used to see how quickly certain metals dissolved. A stone or touchstone as it was called was the stone where you would rub your gold against to tell it's purity.
Kilroy was here
Finally one I know very well and it isn't used that much today if at all.
During World War 2 many military personnel used to draw graffiti on the walls with the phrase Kilroy was here. Kilroy was everywhere in those days.
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James Kilroy wrote Kilroy was here so it wouldn't get rubbed away as he was under pressure to check every rivet. He was recognised for his efforts with a trolley car given to him by the city of San Francisco. Thousands of troops had seen his trademark whilst travelling across to Europe in the ships.
The actual origin of Kilroy was here comes from a known quality inspector in the States during the Second World War that worked in the ship yards. After checking every rivet he would write Kilroy was here in chalk so he knew he had checked the thousands of rivets. Many of the landing craft had Kilroy was here and became a common phrase during those times as Kilroy was literally everywhere. I am not sure if other rivet checkers coined the phrase as well by adding that as their check phrase, but it has to be as there is only one Kilroy. Kilroy would have had to have been the hardest working person known to man otherwise. His work became legendary and was a challenge by every service man to put Kilroy up first wherever they went.
Stalin was famously known for asking Roosevelt at the Potsdam Conference who was Kilroy. The outside toilet there had rivets with the chalk marks Kilroy was here.
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Definitely not a Scottish thing.
Scot free
To get away with something. Not necessarily financial, but anything that may have consequences.
I would have thought this was a Scottish thing as we all know the rumor that they are tight with their financials. This is not the case though and it goes back to the 10th Century.
Skat is Scandinavian for tax or payment and somehow it migrated across to Britain. Scandinavians were merchants and traders back then so it seems very feasible that Skat was adapted and called Scot after a certain period of time and was adapted that way. Scat means something totally different today and must not be confused even though we could compare it to taxation.
Tax was also known as Scot back then and hasn't been used since in that form. Rome Scot, Church Scot and Land Scot were terms and possibly if you were lucky you would get away without paying some of them and hence the terminology of Scot free.