People are used to the conditions in which they live. Therefore, many oddities cause sincere bewilderment and laughter.
However, when you get acquainted with the history of unusual phenomena, you are amazed at how resourceful and inventive our ancestors were.
10. "Winter Refrigerator" originally from the USSR
In some apartments, originally from Soviet times, you can find an unusual thing. Namely - a niche in the wall right under the windows of the kitchen. This depression is a winter refrigerator.
The walls of the Khrushchevs are very thick, and the architects came up with an original way to wrap this in favor of man. The architects modified this food storage space.
Moreover, such a “device” does not require electricity, because food is stored due to the cold from the street. For modern owners, this niche saves space in a conventional refrigerator.
9. Garbage chute, USSR
This thing is familiar to any resident of Russia. The garbage chute was created for convenience, so that residents throw out garbage bags without leaving home.
The first devices were designed back in 1938 in Vladivostok. They were located right in the apartments.
However, the project was not entirely successful. Garbage chutes turned out to be a place of complete unsanitary conditions. First they were transferred to the stairwells. Now residents are asking to brew these devices.
8. Unusual keyhole, Cochem
Since the Middle Ages, locks on the doors of Cochem's wine cellars have been decorated with convex patterns and grooves. However, this was not done for aesthetics at all.
The Germans put absolutely practical meaning into beauty. The thing is that the curbs do not allow to "miss" past the keyhole, no matter in which drunk state the visitor is.
Even the most hungry man will easily open such doors.
7. Closed windows, England
Those who were fortunate enough to walk the streets of England noticed that in the old houses some windows were bricked. This feature has historical justification.
At the end of the seventeenth century, the UK government introduced a “window tax”. In this way, it wanted the rich to pay more for housing. But instead, house owners began to lay the windows with brick and wood.
In addition, despite the benefits, the poor also remained without light and fresh air. They often rented apartments in apartment buildings, and the owners demanded a separate fee for the windows from them.
Despite the absurdity of this law, it was repealed only in the middle of the nineteenth century. That is, the window tax has existed for more than a century and a half.
6. Phoenix bird, Stockholm
In the historic center of Stockholm, on the doors of some houses hangs a medallion depicting a phoenix. At one time, this little thing was very expensive, so only wealthy owners could afford it. Phoenix acquired as "insurance".
The fact is that the houses were located very close to each other. Therefore, frequent fires were a real problem for the city.
During the next fire, firefighters first of all rescued those houses on which there is a medallion with a phoenix bird. Buildings without this image were extinguished according to the residual principle.
5. Toilet bowl in the USA
The American drain system often scares the European. For example, in the United States, the water in the toilet stands very high, unlike European samples, where the water is at the bottom. Anyone who is not used to this will think that the toilet is clogged.
In fact, this is done in order not to dirty the walls of the object. That is why Americans often do not even use a brush - this is simply not necessary.
4. Small doors in Florence
Small doors in the walls of buildings are closed by small windows through which even a cat is unlikely to be able to pass. Such miniature doors are called “wine holes”.
This architectural phenomenon can be found exclusively in Florence. It, like the laid windows in England, has its own premises.
In the XVI century, selling wine through resellers and intermediaries became very expensive. Therefore, the owners of the vineyards cut open the wine holes leading directly to the owners cellar. Buyers knocked on doors, gave money and containers, and received their drink.
Buying wine from the owners was much cheaper than in taverns or in the market. Therefore, wine openings appeared in many buildings, even in palaces. To date, you can’t buy alcohol in this way, since all the windows are closed or walled up.
3. Doors to the saloon
Films about the Wild West show saloons with small wooden doors with hinges that can open in both directions. Many do not understand why people chose this design.
Firstly, for the sake of ventilation. Lattice pendant doors perfectly contributed to this. Secondly, passers-by did not see what was happening in the room. And regular customers in the world inside immediately understood whether the institution is open or not.
And, thirdly, the doors of such a structure are the “calling card” of any saloon, it makes it recognizable.
2. English lace switch
Shoelace switch in the bathroom - UK business card. According to local safety regulations, people in contact with water must not come into contact with electrical appliances.
The usual wall-mounted device causes the British more fears than the Europeans. But in order not to light the light from the corridor, the British found an original way out of the situation - they installed a lace in the bathroom.
It prevents direct human contact with the switch and reduces the risk of electric shock.
1. Milk doors, America and England
These small iron doors are very similar in appearance and application to wine openings.
In the 20th century in England and America, dairymen were involved in the delivery of dairy products. They had a lot of work. It was a long and inconvenient thing to knock on customers and give goods from hand to hand.
Therefore, sellers left bottles with milk in a metal niche, and the owners took them through the doors on the other hand, without leaving the house. This facilitated the work of both milkmen and consumers.