Ancient Babylonians invented the waterbed!

karen · Post by **karen** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:43 am

No really -- this one's sourced.

Plutarch (trans. Dryden) wrote:The manner, however, of the production of naphtha admits of a diversity of opinion... of whether this liquid substance that feeds the flame does not rather proceed from a soil that is unctuous and productive of fire, as that of the province of Babylon is, where the ground is so very hot that oftentimes the grains of barley leap up and are thrown out, as if the violent inflammation had made the earth throb; and in the extreme heats the inhabitants are wont to sleep upon skins filled with water.

Vergina Sun · Post by **Vergina Sun** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:42 am

Really? That is quite interesting. I'm definately going to bring that up in a conversation soon. I love odd facts. I looked it up, and the British Waterbed Company seems to agree. In response to the question "Who invented the first waterbed?", they responded saying:

The earliest recorded use of a 'waterbed' was over 3000 years ago when Persians slumbered on sun-warmed goat skin water bags.

I wonder what sparked the idea of a waterbed...