Category:
Nineteenth Century
Nineteenth Century
Death’s Doings
Next time you need cheering up, have a gander at this jolly volume, available at the Internet Archive.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 26, 2022 -
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Category: Death, Books, Nineteenth Century
Mystery Illustration 105
What are these women making?Answer is here.
Or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 21, 2022 -
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Category: Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Nineteenth Century
A New Method for getting Gold from Wheat
In 1884, Harry Fell of South Norwood Park was granted Patent No. 14,204 by the British Patent Office for a "New Method for getting Gold from Wheat". This begs the question, what was the old method of getting gold from wheat?I haven't been able to find a copy of the patent, since 19th-century British patents (unlike American ones) aren't readily available online. However, the March 5, 1997 issue of Science offered a full transcript of Fell's patent, "including the peculiar use of punctuation marks".
That in the steeping of the mixture of half, measure, 'the whole wheat straw cut info fine square snips the width of the straw and half' the grains in a jar of ordinary cold water "I let the steep remain still for ten hours at a temperature of fifty-nine degrees Fahrenheit varying with temperature, and then straining off the liquor into a shallow pan of some such cool substance as china or earthenware, I leave this liquor to stand in this pan for yet twenty-four hours at sixty degrees also varying with temperature; these durations of times of ten hours and twenty-four hours speaking for a very inferior brown straw much knocked about and the grains those, of a very good quality, of red wheat; and then catch up the skim on a cylinder of some such cool substance as china or earthenware," and then let this skim dry, so getting some results of films of Gold.
The April 24, 1885 issue of The Photographic News offered an easier-to-understand summary of Fell's method:
The material (whole-wheat straw) is steeped in slightly warm water for ten hours, and strained off into a shallow pan; the pan being allowed to stand in a moderately warm place for twenty-four hours, a scum appears on the surface of the liquid, and this is caught on a cylinder of some cool substance, as china or earthenware. "Then let this skim dry," says the alchemist, "so getting some results of films of gold."
Of course, what Fell had failed to mention was that the wheat would first have to be grown in soil containing a lot of gold. Then, yes, I think it would be possible to get gold from wheat using his method. Though it would probably be easier to get it by directly filtering the gold out of the dirt.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 21, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Patents, Nineteenth Century
America’s Fattest Presidents
A 2013 article at this link ranks the weightiest of our leaders. Of course, former-President Trump is not included. This official 2020 health report puts him at 244 pounds, making him, by my calculations, Number Three.Number Two, Grover Cleveland, tried many times to lose. His personal physician, Dr. John Gibbs, was fond of a new German treatment.
Read more in this book, which is partially available via Google Books.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 19, 2022 -
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Category: Government, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twenty-first Century, Obesity
Angier’s Petroleum Emulsion
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 15, 2022 -
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Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust
Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 8
Source: NYT for 9/23/1899.
Source: NYT for 1/6/1900.
Source.
Source: Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania)01 May 1900, Tue Page 3
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 11, 2022 -
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Category: Crime, Death, Theater and Stage, Women, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
Druid Priest William Price
Dr. William Price (1800-1893) led a highly eccentric life. Some details from an article about him on bbc.co.uk:- He "ate no meat, drank mainly champagne, eschewed the wearing of socks and prescribed a vegetarian diet for his patients instead of medicine."
- He had a liking for outlandish costume, "notably a fox-skin headdress with the legs and tails hanging down over his shoulders and back."
- "He became fascinated by the old druidic rites and even held druidic ceremonies at the rocking stone outside Pontypridd."
Price in 1884 wearing his druid attire. Source: MarkBerePeterson.com
However, his main claim to fame is that he helped to bring about the legalization of cremation in Britain.
Supporters of cremation had been trying to get it legalized throughout the nineteenth century. But Price caused the issue to come to a head by burning the body of his five-month-old son, Jesus Christ, on a funeral pyre, after the child had died a natural death. Yes, he had named his son Jesus Christ, or "Iesu Grist" in Welsh.
Price was arrested and charged with the crime of illegal cremation. His eventual acquittal led directly to the passage of the Cremation Act, which made it legal to burn bodies in Britain.
When Price himself died in 1893 he was cremated on a giant funeral pyre as thousands of spectators watched.
However, it's worth noting that while cremation is now legal (and commonplace) in the UK and USA, open-air pyres aren't legal, as far as I know.
More info: wikipedia
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 04, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Death, Eccentrics, Nineteenth Century
Stramonium Cigarettes: Smoking to Relieve Asthma
Long professional article on their history here.The relevant info at Wikipedia.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 01, 2022 -
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Category: Nature, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Diseases
The Golden Age of Patents
Alex is a master at finding oddball inventions that received a patent. Surely one of his spiritual ancestors must have been Wallace Peck, who did a humorous book that imagined such inventions.You can read the whole text here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 30, 2022 -
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Category: Humor, Inventions, Patents, Books, Nineteenth Century
Muir’s Improved Pub
In 1865, temperance advocate William Muir obtained a British patent (No. 1 for 1865) for what he called "Improvements in the construction of public houses." Although whether they were actually improvements depended, I suppose, on one's point of view.Muir wanted to improve pubs first by constructing their front walls out of plate glass in order to make the interior visible to people passing by. This, he believed, would "to a great extent check drunkenness and the indecent behaviour of the persons obtaining refreshment."
Second, he wanted to make the entrances only two feet wide in order "to prevent, as far as possible, the entrance of females with extensive steel crinolines." Why prevent women wearing crinolines? He didn't elaborate. Was this some kind of code for keeping prostitutes out of the pubs?
I don't think many publicans rushed to adopt his improvements.
More info about William Muir
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 21, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Patents, Nineteenth Century
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