Painters of the 18th and 19th centuries used paint made from mummies. 'Mummy brown' was ground from Egyptian mummies; on learning this in 1881, the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones gave his tube a solemn burial.
More amazing facts
- 1879 Saccharin was discovered by not washing up before dinner.
- 1882 English owes the word 'jumbo' to an elephant.
- 1882 · 1889 · 2012 Work on the Sagrada Família began before the Eiffel Tower.
- 1883 The last quagga died at Amsterdam Zoo on 12 August 1883 — two weeks before Krakatoa's catastrophic eruption.
- 1883 · 1884 The Brooklyn Bridge was proven safe with elephants: in May 1884 P. T. Barnum marched 21 of them across, led by the famous Jumbo, easing public doubts and advertising his circus at once.
- 1883 · 1892 A German hygienist drank a cholera culture to prove Koch wrong.