Some names are too great not to be used

Who was Boeing? Discover the names behind the brands

Let’s face it, some people have better-sounding names than others. And some of them have the nerve and the pride to slap their own name on their products. A sign of trust, you might say. Sure, everybody knows who Henry Ford is. But what about Glen Bell Jr or James Cash Penney? Take a look at the following brands and discover the people brave enough to give their companies their names.

Let us start the list with a name that is immersed in the world of soups (pun intended). The Knorr brand was founded by Carl Heinrich Knorr in 1838, and it didn’t start in the line of business it is today. First, he supplied chicory to the coffee industry. After that, the founder began experimenting with drying vegetables and seasonings, which led to the launch of the first dried soups across Continental Europe in 1873.

This legendary motorcycle company was founded by two childhood friends, William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson, who began working on a small-engine model in the early 1900s, leading to the creation of the company we know today.

Later on, 2 more Davidsons, William and Walter, joined the venture. The company developed quickly, and in 1903, it began selling motorcycles on a very limited basis.

Some names just sound too cool not to do anything with them. For example, this clothing label was founded by professional tennis player Fred Perry. It all started in the late 1940s, when he and Tibby Wegner, an Austrian footballer, created the first sweatband. Later, Perry and Wegner created their version of a tennis shirt. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Naming a business after yourself is a common practice in the high-fashion industry. And Alexander McQueen is no exception. He was a London-based, English designer who used to work as the head designer of the Givenchy fashion line.

In 2004, he started his menswear line. In his early years, he worked in a tailor shop that created theater costumes, and he used many of the ideas he learned there in his future collections.

A bouncy-sounding name like Boeing didn’t exactly seem destined for a great future in the aviation industry, but it was. In the early years, William Boeing didn’t work in aviation but sold timber. During the exposition in Seattle in 1909, he saw a manned flying machine for the first time and became interested in the concept.

Seven years later, he went into business with engineer George Conrad Westervelt and founded the Pacific Aero Products Co. The company’s name was changed to Boeing Airplane Company the following year. In the beginning, Boeing aircraft only transported mail, but that changed soon.

Just like Knorr, Lipton is a name forever linked to a product, but it wasn’t always like that. Before he got involved in the tea trade, Sir Thomas Lipton had worked as an accountant, a door-to-door salesman, and a grocery assistant. After gaining experience, he opened his first provision shop and later established a chain of groceries. Then he focused his efforts on tea.

According to Sir Lipton, his secret to success was selling the best goods at the lowest prices, harnessing the power of advertising, and always being optimistic.

Just like in the case of Harley-Davidson, Baskin-Robbins is a brand formed by the names of its two founders: Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, who were brothers-in-law.

Irv started Snowbird Ice Cream, and Burt launched Burton Ice Cream Shop. Both were successful. And when the number of stores grew, they decided to drop the separate identities, and all the stores became Baskin-Robbins.

Sometimes it's harder to picture a person behind the brand name if the name is also a common word. But it happens. Taco Bell is named after its founder, entrepreneur Glen Bell Jr, who launched a drive-in after seeing the success of McDonald’s.

Bell saw that there was room for growth beyond burgers and launched several successful taco drive-ins and restaurants with other partners before launching Taco Bell in 1962.

And moving on from Taco Bell, we must now talk about those who inspired him. Their story is the basis for the 2016 movie The Founder (a great watch, and a hypnotizing performance by Michael Keaton), and it started when brothers Dick and Mac McDonald decided to make a burger restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

The company as we know it today was founded by Raymond Kroc, a milkshake machine salesman who was so impressed by their burger restaurant that he became their agent and set up franchises around the US. Years later, he bought the rights to the McDonald's name.

Just like with the Fred Perry case, it would have been a shame for a name as great as JC Penney to end up nowhere. The real James Cash Penney was born in Hamilton, Missouri, and opened a retail store on April 14, 1902, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

In 1909, Penney moved his company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be closer to banks and railroads. By 1912, Penney had 34 stores in the Rocky Mountain States. In 1913, all stores were consolidated under the J. C. Penney banner we know today.

UNSOLVED PUZZLES

10 baffling natural phenomena we still don't fully understand

Image: Stormseeker

We have certainly come a long way since the first humans began wondering about the nature of the universe. But even with significant technological and scientific progress behind us, some phenomena remain elusive, even to experts. These unsolved mysteries continue to baffle researchers, often hinting at how much we still have to learn about the universe. So, jump aboard and join us on this journey through some of nature’s most intriguing mysteries, from dark matter to the reasons behind why we yawn!

Image: arnaud girault

You might think this is a rather dumb question, but its answer is something that keeps many scientists awake at night. The fact is that, according to the best calculations, the universe is missing a lot of mass. And by a lot, we mean A LOT—up to 85% of the total mass we can estimate from gravitational effects is nowhere to be found.

This has led scientists to posit the existence of an invisible form of mass that could account for many otherwise unexplained cosmic phenomena (such as the acceleration of the universe’s expansion), fittingly called "dark matter." Undetectable by most conventional means, recent experiments have allowed scientists to explore this mystery further. Some speculate that dark matter could consist of a new type of subatomic particle or even millions of minuscule primordial black holes.

Image: Jr Korpa

Dreaming seems like such a natural and commonplace phenomenon that we rarely question why we do it. The nature of dreams has fascinated humans since ancient times, with beliefs about their causes varying widely across cultures and centuries. But despite recent advancements in neuroscience and related studies of the human brain during sleep, both the purpose and precise origin of dreams remain unknown.

So far, we only know with certainty that dreams primarily occur during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. During this stage, brain activity is surprisingly high, resembling a state of wakefulness. Some theories propose that dreams help process emotions, solve problems, or even simulate threats, but their true function remains one of neuroscience's greatest mysteries.

Image: Amos

Sometimes, during thunderstorms, people have observed a baffling phenomenon: ball lightning. These are luminescent, spherical objects that seem to fly erratically over the ground, only to suddenly disappear without a trace. This rare and elusive weather phenomenon has been reported since the 19th century, and it has been suggested as the origin of many ancient myths and legends.

While scientists have yet to determine its exact origin, there have been advances in experimentally reproducing the phenomenon through various methods. Hypotheses range from the vaporization of silica in the soil by lightning strikes to the disturbing possibility that ball lightning is entirely a product of lightning-induced hallucinations in the observers' minds.

Image: Lamna The Shark

Are we alone in the universe? So far, the search for extraterrestrial life has not yielded any significant results, though some recent findings have excited scientists about the possibilities. Traces of chemicals often associated with biological processes have been detected in Venus’ upper atmosphere, hinting at the possibility of extraterrestrial microorganisms being present in the planet’s clouds. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Also, there is the still largely unexplained "Wow! Signal," a mysterious radio signal picked up by the Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in August 1977, which some researchers have suggested could be a sign of intelligent life. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, but it has not been detected again since.

Image: James Yarema

A very well-documented phenomenon, to the point where it is essential to account for its effects in randomized clinical trials to test the efficacy of various medical treatments, the placebo effect remains largely a mystery to science. How can a sugar pill or an inert saline injection produce real, measurable health benefits instead of doing nothing at all?

Most hypotheses point to psychological mechanisms at play, where the belief in treatment activates the body's natural processes for relieving pain and other symptoms. This "ritual effect" could influence the individual's expectations, preparing them to feel better.

Image: Dmitrii Shirnin

In 1908, an extremely violent explosion seemingly out of nowhere flattened over 80 million trees in a vast forest area in Siberia. With an estimated force of 3 to 50 megatons (for comparison, a modern nuclear weapon yields just over 1 megaton), the explosion left no distinguishable impact crater, suggesting that it occurred above the ground.

So far, the leading explanation for the event is a meteor airburst—an explosion of a large rocky asteroid entering the atmosphere at an altitude of 3 to 6 miles. Despite the area being very sparsely populated, eyewitness accounts report observing a bluish light moving across the sky before the time of the explosion, supporting the meteor hypothesis. The sudden burst of energy was reportedly so strong that its shockwave knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of miles away.

Image: Adrian Lange

The origin of life on Earth, known as abiogenesis, remains a mystery. Various theories exist, from life emerging through almost spontaneous chemical reactions in a primordial soup to the idea of panspermia, which suggests that life could have originated elsewhere in the universe and been brought to Earth by meteorites.

The prevailing hypothesis, however, is that life did not originate from a single event but rather through a complex process involving many stages. Connected to this mystery is the question of whether life can exist in forms different from those we know, potentially using elements other than carbon and water.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's north pole is home to a giant hexagon-shaped storm, a phenomenon unlike anything else seen in the solar system. This strange phenomenon was first discovered during the Voyager mission in 1981 and was later revisited by the Cassini-Huygens probe in 2006. Curiously, the hexagon seems to change colors over time, exhibiting variations from bluish to golden hues.

Some of the most compelling hypotheses point to complex atmospheric dynamics, such as wind patterns and pressure variations, as potential culprits for the storm’s bafflingly geometric shape. Experimental tests have managed to recreate similar patterns under laboratory conditions, but it remains uncertain whether these processes mirror those observed on Saturn.

Image: Clay Banks

Star jelly is a mysterious, transparent gelatinous substance occasionally found on the ground or on tree branches. Since ancient times, its appearance has been linked to meteor showers and similar celestial phenomena. Theories about its origin vary widely, ranging from unfertilized frog spawn or even frog vomit to different species of slime mold or algae colonies.

However, no scientific consensus has been reached, and its true origin and nature remain unknown. Scientists have yet to conclusively determine where star jelly comes from.

Image: Miikka Luotio

If this article has got you yawning (we hope not!), you’re encountering one of life’s many unexplained mysteries right under your nose! Yawning is a universal human experience, yet its purpose remains unclear. Various theories suggest that yawning might help cool the brain, increase alertness, or even serve a social function, but no single explanation has been universally accepted.

Curiously, yawning is not limited to humans; it occurs in almost all vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even fish!