Tweet
It's not very often that I am able to add something interesting to this groop of already brilliant folks but I read something so fasinating today that I felt compelled to share. So check it out.. As it turns out, Back in the 16th and 17th centurys there was no commercial fertilizer so loads of manure were sent by boat to were they were needed. The manure was put in crates or boxes and placed in the boats hold under the deck. Under there the manure would sometimes get wet and start the fermentation process creating methane...With me so far?..Once the methane reached a certain point it would explode as soon as it found an ignition source like a lamp or lantern. From what I understand quite a few boats and lives were lost like this. When someone finaly realized what was happening they started marking the boxes of manure they wrote on them "Ship high in transit" meaning quite simply ship this box high on the boat to keep it dry.. after a number of years of this people started to use an abreaviation for ship high in transit. It was ****.. and thats were the word comes from. So when you got your manure it came in a box that said "****" on it. Having nothing to do with the contence of the box but rather instructions on shipping. Interesting huh?