Category:
Nineteenth Century

S.S.S. Tonic

Created by Charles Swift, this patent medicine is still for sale today. (Two separate links in that last sentence, if you're interested in following them!) And yet for some reason they make no claim about "purifying and invigorating polluted blood" or "inherited taints."




Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 15, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

Cottolene

As the Wikipedia page tells us:


Cottolene was a brand of shortening made of beef suet and cottonseed oil









Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 07, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust

Chief Long Hair

The modern-day Vietnamese man named Tran Van Hay reputedly had hair "over 22 feet long."



Other modern record-holders are in the 18-ft range.

But they can't hold a patch to Chief Long Hair of the Crows.

Itchuuwaaóoshbishish/Red Plume (Feather) At The Temple (born ca. 1750, died in 1836) A Mountain Crow leader during fur trade days and signer of the 1825 Friendship Treaty. Traders and trappers called him Long Hair because of his extraordinarily long hair, approximately 25 feet long. At his death, his hair was cut off and maintained by Tribal leaders.


Now because Long Hair lived before photography, there is no visual record of this. However! Supposedly his tresses are part of the exhibit at Chief Plenty Coups State Park in Montana. (Plenty Coups was a descendant of Long Hair.)



Source of quote.

If any WU-vie is passing by the museum, perhaps he or she can confirm!

Here's a photo of another Crow tribe-member named "Curley."



Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 30, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Human Marvels, World Records, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Hair and Hairstyling, Native Americans

Occupation: Woman

The year 1850 was also a time when one large life insurance company's records showed its first policy issued to a female, reports the American Council of Life Insurance. She was one Caroline Ingraham, 36, of Madison, N.J. The policy register of November 19th, which contains the entry of Miss Ingraham's policy, lists her occupation as "Woman."

Dixon Evening Telegraph - Nov 19, 1976

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 18, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Jobs and Occupations, Gender, Women, Nineteenth Century

Human-Powered Flight

"Vélocipède aérien," proposed by Jean Jacques Bourcart, Paris, August, 1866



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 11, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Flight, Technology, Nineteenth Century

Laura Bullion, Pard to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid




Wikipedia says:

Members of the Wild Bunch nicknamed Laura Bullion "Della Rose", a name she came by after meeting Kid Curry's girlfriend Della Moore. Often, Bullion also was referred to as the "Rose of the Wild Bunch". When her boyfriend Ben Kilpatrick and she fled east to evade the law after a train robbery in 1901, the couple traveled under the names "Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Arnold".[7]

In an arrest report following the train robbery, dated November 6, 1901, Bullion's name is filed as "Della Rose" and her aliases are stated to be "Clara Hays" and "Laura Casey and [Laura] Bullion". The arrest report lists her profession as prostitute.[5] According to a New York Times article, she was "masquerading as 'Mrs. Nellie Rose' at the time of her arrest.[8] The same article also mentions the suspicion that she, "disguised as a boy", might have taken part in a train robbery in Montana. The paper cites Chief of Detectives Desmond: "I would'nt [sic] think helping to hold up a train was too much for her. She is cool, shows absolutely no fear, and in male attire would readily pass for a boy. She has a masculine face, and that would give her assurance in her disguise."[8] Instead of "Clara Hays", Bullion also used "Clare Hayes" or "Clara Hayes" as a version of her alias. Other assumed names she used at that time were "Desert Rose", "Wild Bunch Rose", and "Clara Casey".[7]


Her gravesite.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 09, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Regionalism, Women, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

The War in Cuba Board Game





Official entry.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 22, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Games, War, Nineteenth Century

Animal Trap

Jason Alexander Williams didn't mess around when it came to killing rodents. His 'animal trap' (patented in 1882) shot them dead:

My invention relates to an improvement in animal-traps; and it consists in the combination of a suitable frame upon which a revolver or pistol is secured, a treadle which is secured to the front end of this frame, and a suitable spring and levers, by which the firearm is discharged when the animal steps upon the treadle, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

The object of my invention is to provide a means by which animals which burrow in the ground can be destroyed, and which trap will give an alarm each time that it goes off, so that it can be reset.



And his invention didn't just kill rodents. Williams noted:

This invention may also be used in connection with a door or window, so as to kill any person or thing opening the door or window to which it is attached.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 21, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Inventions, Patents, Nineteenth Century

Novel Device for Stopping a Runaway Horse



If you read the words on the "counterweight," they say, "Recommendations for Reichenbach's Tile Drains." So this is a humorous advertisement rather than an actual patent. But I would not be surprised if someone somewhere had come up with such an idea.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 07, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Humor, Nineteenth Century

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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