- Roger McGough wrote a poem about welcoming someone at birth and bidding farewell at death. The last line references calling out "oxygen" with one's last gasp.
- In the 1850s, limes replaced lemons as the supply for preventing scurvy on ships. However, limes have a lower vitamin C content and thus caused scurvy to return.
- The lightning arrestor/conduction rod on St. Paul's Cathedral was originally intended to be made of copper but was instead made with iron, which did not work as well. Eventually it was replaced with copper.