Did you know?

Most of the things that surround us on a daily basis have a specific use. But many of those things have surprising extra uses, like the time I opened a bottle of wine with a screwdriver, a loose screw from an office chair and a pair of pliers.

Today we're looking at the baffling originally intended uses of some common items.

Let's start with bubble wrap. This highly useful product is used to keep items safe and intact during transport. It's also a great stress reliever and toy. I mean, who hasn't spent a couple of hours of their lives popping those wonderful, satisfying bubbles?

But the inventors of bubble wrap, Alfred W. Fielding and Mark Chavannes envisioned it as wallpaper! They honestly thought that people would like to cover their walls in translucent plastic blisters. And then, twenty minutes later, popped translucent blisters...

Speaking of wallpaper, Play-Doh started as wallpaper cleaner before becoming that weird colorful edible toy. Who knew?

One of mankind's favorite hobbies is killing each other. That's not exactly anything new. But did you know that the corkscrew was invented for removing bullets from guns? Well it was. You see, back in the days of the musket, bullets were soft lead balls, and the manufacturing process wasn't always that exact. Thus, bullets could easily become jammed in the barrels, and a screw was the best way of popping them out of there. I just wonder how long it took until someone used it to open some wine...

Speaking of bullets, the originally intended use for tampons was for plugging bullet wounds. This was during the Great War, and it didn't take the nurses long to figure out the more commonly know use for these cotton tubes as a better alternative to rags that were used, washed and reused.

Finally, do you suffer from halitosis? The answer is no, no matter what you just said. Halitosis was made up by Johnson & Johnson in order to sell more Listerine, the worlds most common mouthwash. Back in the day, they desperately wanted to sell more floor cleaner which is exactly what Listerine was (and is) but people weren't buying more. So they invented halitosis and launched a massive ad campaign that preyed on peoples insecurities. And it worked. Just be aware that you're swilling floor cleaner in your mouth.

That's all for today, so until next time, have a popping week!