The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1635: The Sign of the Barber Pole
Engines of Our Ingenuity

The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1635: The Sign of the Barber Pole

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 27, 20263 min
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Episode: 1635 At the Sign of the Barber Pole: of barbers and barber-surgeons. Today, reflections in a barbershop.

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at the intersection of innovation.

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This programming is sponsored by near Northwest Management District, celebrating 25 years at the intersection of innovation. More information at nnmd.org. This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, made possible by the friends of KUHF Houston.

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Today Reflections in a Barber Shop, the University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. Barbers and surgeons used to be one and the same. The red stripes on a barber's pole

0:39

signify the once bloody work of the surgeon. That goes back at least to ancient Assyria, where the symbols for knife and barber are related. Barber surgeons turn up in Egyptian literature. Some Roman barbers did a form of plastic surgery in which they removed the brand marks from freed slaves. British author William Andrews published a very popular

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