Secret Shoulder Straps

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 09, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Body Modifications, Fashion, Inventions, Nineteenth Century

A Wild Man of Alabama

Society does not tolerate outsiders and hermits very well.

Source: The True Democrat (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)16 Mar 1853, Wed Page 2

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 07, 2022 - Comments (5)
Category: Regionalism, Vigilante Justice, Hermits, Dogs, Nineteenth Century

What Demoralized the Barber Shop

Trollops disconcert some gentlemen. It's amazing the customer in the chair did not have his throat cut.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 28, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Public Indecency, Women, Nineteenth Century, Hair and Hairstyling

Odd Showers

Read it here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 14, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Weird Facts, Weird Studies and Guides, Books, Natural Wonders, Nineteenth Century

Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 40

Raymond Duchamp-Villon.

His Wikipedia page.

Sculpture page.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 08, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Avant Garde, Statues and Monuments, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

A History of Mechanical Horses

Read the piece here.

There should be a separate article on mechanical horses in literature. My favorite one occurs in these two novels by Roger Zelazny.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 30, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Inventions, Literature, Fantasy, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

C. W. Leadbeater, Theosophist

Anyone with even a passing interest in the weird has heard of that famous eccentric Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.

But less attention is paid to her interesting comrade, C. W. Leadbeater.

Read his pretty short book THE LIFE AFTER DEATH here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 17, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Death, Eccentrics, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Books, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

Arabic Proverbs

I intend to salt my conversation thoroughly with the proverbs in this book.

Read it here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 14, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Religion, Proverbs, Maxims, Sayings, Folk Wisdom and Quotations, Middle East, Nineteenth Century

The Deadly Tombstone of John Rogers Vinton

From his Find-a-Grave site:

After some time spent at Monterey and Saltillo, He was then ordered to join Gen. Scott in the attack on Vera Cruz. In the evening of 22 Mar 1847, he had just returned to his post when a large shell, hit the top of a parapet, glanced and struck his head, fracturing his skull, and killing him instantly. The shell did not burst, and it is supposedly that very cannon ball, that now adorns his grave.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 05, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Death, Regionalism, War, Cemeteries, Graveyards, Crypts, Mortuaries and Other Funereal Pursuits, Nineteenth Century

William Redgrave’s Safety Travelling Cap

The British patent office granted William Redgrave two patents. The first (No. 2888 - 1853) was for a "safety travelling cap". The second (No. 762 - 1859) was for a "pillow travelling cap". However, the two patents seem to describe the same invention. They just emphasize different uses for it.

Redgrave's patented cap consisted of three air-tight, circular tubes that would wrap around a wearer's head. His idea was that this would provide a measure of safety for travelers, because if the traveler fell the inflated tubes would cushion his head:


The cap could also serve as a pillow (thus, the second patent):


Finally, Redgrave noted that the cap was "an excellent invention for lunatics." Presumably because lunatics might fall over a lot. Or hit their head against a wall.

Unfortunately Redgrave provided no drawings of his safety cap.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 04, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Headgear, Nineteenth Century