General Knowledge · 2
Which toxic element, used to treat felt in 18th and 19th century hat manufacturing, caused the symptoms behind the phrase "mad as a hatter"?
Answer
Mercury
Mercury nitrate was used to soften and mat animal fur into felt, and workers who inhaled its vapors over years developed tremors and cognitive impairment known as 'mad hatter disease.'
💡 Did you know?
"Mad as a hatter" came from hat makers who used mercury in felt production, causing neurological damage and erratic behavior in workers over time.
Other options people guess
- Lead
- Arsenic
- Cadmium
Topics
- idioms
- word-origins
- history
- chemistry
Know your general knowledge trivia?
Play a free General Knowledge quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More General Knowledge facts
General Knowledge
The idiom "mad as a hatter" originated from occupational poisoning among workers in which trade?
"Mad as a hatter" came from hat makers who used mercury in felt production, causing neurological damage and erratic behavior in workers over time.
General Knowledge
The idiom "caught red-handed" originally referred to a person caught with what on their hands?
"Caught red-handed" doesn't refer to blood—it meant catching a poacher with fresh deer blood on their hands, a prosecutable offense in medieval Scotland.
General Knowledge
What kind of adhesive was Spencer Silver originally trying to develop in 1968 when he instead created the weak, reusable formula behind Post-it Notes?
Post-it notes were created as a failed adhesive experiment, and the inventor nearly threw them away before recognizing their market potential.
General Knowledge
Which everyday food is often cited as the only one that essentially never spoils, since 3,000-year-old jars of it were found still edible in Egyptian tombs?
Honey never spoils; archaeologists found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs still edible due to its low water content.
General Knowledge
The word 'rabbit' in the traditional name for a cheese-on-toast dish was originally meant to mock what about Wales?
"Welsh rarebit" (a cheese dish) was deliberately named as a joke—there's no Welsh ingredient, and "rabbit" was originally mocking Wales's poverty.
General Knowledge
The failed super-strong adhesive that became the Post-it Note was developed in the labs of which American company?
The Post-it Note was a failed attempt at super-strong adhesive that turned into 3M's most profitable accidental product.