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BS: 100 years ago...
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BS: 100 years ago... |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Kim C Date: 15 Jan 04 - 02:08 PM Pears soap has been in business since the 1800s. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Madame P At Work Date: 15 Jan 04 - 11:47 AM I only wash my hair once a week, but then I can sit on it, washing it any more frequently makes it fall apart. When I was a child (and I'm only 37) it was not unusual for women with long hair to not wash it for two or three weeks at a time. Two hairdressers near us had a specific 'long hair wash' service! Hair rinses involving egg whites used to be common in the 1940's and 1950's as they were an attempt to help the hair to recover from the perms used at the time. Beer was another. But these were rinses, not what you washed your hair with. Lye, carbolic and coal tar soaps were around by 1903. I think Pear's soap was as well. I don't know about the U.S.A. but in Britain at this time there were many public bath houses. You went there to do your laundry and have a bath. Many people in London didn't have baths in their own homes well into the 1940's & 1950's. Our local public baths didn't shut down their actual baths until 1980 something, but the laundry and the swimming pool are still there. I think what's more interesting is the difference between 1940 and now. That's mind boggling! |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Rapparee Date: 15 Jan 04 - 09:01 AM WHAT?! "Just cos it's on the "internet" doesn't make it true." Oh, the horror! The horror! 8-) As a librarian, that's 100% correct. In fact, a friend who teaches research in Law School teaches nothing but paper sources for the first semester -- and you'd BETTER know 'em, because when you come down to it powerful little is digital, both inside and outside the Law. But...did you know that OVER 100 years ago fax machines were in use? Or that punched cards were used for manufacturing 200 years ago? I could go on, but I won't. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: freda underhill Date: 15 Jan 04 - 08:58 AM Hi Sandra - I got this off .. the internet! there are heaps of sites on the topic. fred Druggist John Smyth Pemberton (1831-1888), was the inventor of Coca-Cola Pemberton was wildly excited by reports of the virtues of the coca plant. The coca plant had been chewed by the natives of Peru and Bolivia for over 2,000 years and was reputed to act as a stimulant, aid to digestion, aphrodisiac and life-extender Accordingly, he decided to attempt to base his new drink around it. Indications that the cocaine found in the coca-leaf could prove addictive were generally ignored. Even the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud enthused about the virtues of the leaf in his essay ber Coca, a 'song of praise to this magical substance". Pemberton began researching obsessively for a formula for a new "temperance" drink based on the coca leaf and kola nut, but replacing the wine by an assortment of essential oils. This tasted too bitter, however, and he tried adding sugar - but this resulted in a sickly sweet taste. The addition of citric acid counteracted this effect, and resulted in a palatable drink. from Business Heroes, July 1998 According to Snopes (myth busting site) Coca-Cola did used to contain cocaine. Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days. How much cocaine was in that "mere trace" is impossible to say, but we do know that by 1902 it was as little as 1/400 of a grain of cocaine per ounce of syrup. Coca-Cola didn't become completely cocaine-free until 1929, but there scarcely any of the drug left in the drink by then: http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/cocaine.asp http://cocaine.org/coca-cola/ |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 15 Jan 04 - 07:12 AM First thought when I read the list was Coca Cola never had cocaine as an ingredient. Now, my memory has never been good, but I'm sure I read that somewhere. I work for a Govt agency & we have had enquiries from citizens & reporters re a list of "facts" supposedly put out by us. The thoughtful ones realise we couldn't publish or even collect such crap (no one could!!) & tell us what "they" re publishing in our name, the curious ask if we can confirm the facts, but one journalist published the list as being an official release!! My boss is a librarian who trains our staff on searching the internet & always emphasises investigation of the source. Just cos it's on the "internet" doesn't make it true. sandra |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Jan 04 - 07:56 PM And did you see this one? House of horrors Basically it's reporting evidence that trying too hard to keep clean and fragrent is quite likely to kill us off: "Ironically, it is trying to keep our homes and ourselves ultra-clean and sweet-smelling that is probably increasing our exposure to risky chemicals." Actually, looking round the average crowd at folk events, I think we could have quite a good chance of surviving... |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Gareth Date: 14 Jan 04 - 07:28 PM Mmmm ! Kevin - A speed of 10 mph would in fact be very fast in an urban area today by road ! It would also be intersting to know the distribution curve of death by age. Child mortality puts a bias on actuarial tables. They should be taken in economic and geographic distribution. The conflict of 1914/18, and the Flu pandemic of 1918/19 affected the tables of mortality. Interestingly this the subject of discussion in AMICUS (Trade Union) recently. It appears that employees who work continually in a sterile (clean room) enviroment continually are prone to suffering viral/bacterial infection when they start thier annual holidays. i.e. Thier natural immunity is down graded due to the sterile conditions at work. This results in a significant extemsion of booked annual holidays due to certified sick leave, and the down side is a penalty for the employee on attendance bonus. Negotiations continue. Gareth Gareth Basically a "very Clean room" enviroment in Newport Gwent |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Kim C Date: 14 Jan 04 - 09:42 AM Indeed - but this was something making the e-mail rounds a few months ago when it was still 2003. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Gurney Date: 14 Jan 04 - 05:40 AM America must have also been behind the times. 100 years ago in NZ was 1904. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Metchosin Date: 13 Jan 04 - 11:24 PM One of the glaring inaccuracies seems to be that, in 1903, Canada supposedly passed a law "prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason." What Canada did in 1903 was to increases the Chinese Head Tax from $50, to a staggering $500. This was imposed only on those of ASIAN descent. This was an obscene, racist attempt to prevent further Chinese immigration and also an attempt to stop the thousands of Chinese labourers, already here, that Canada had used to build it's railways and blast it's tunnels and mines, from bringing their wives, children and relatives to Canada. You could come to Canada if you were European and poor, but Canada was going make it next to impossible if you were Asian. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Kim C Date: 13 Jan 04 - 04:24 PM I'm going to be a spoiler. Sorry. "Average" life expectancy is very misleading. It was low only because infant mortality was still very high. If you survived childhood, you had a pretty good chance of joining the ranks of the elderly. Many of our founding fathers (and mothers) lived to be over 70, and that was 200 years ago. If you don't believe me, look at your own family history. People did not suddenly get old and drop dead at 47. While people didn't wash their hair as often, I think once a month is a stretch. Homemade soap is quite suitable for washing the hair, and by 1903, the soap industry was going strong. I have never, ever, in all my research, EVER seen a reference to anyone using egg yolks and borax to wash their hair. Eggs were too valuable as food to be used for any other purpose. These kinds of things are fun for comparison & whatnot, but not always entirely accurate. There was another one making the e-mail rounds about what life was like in Shakespeare's day. Most of it was complete BS. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Cluin Date: 13 Jan 04 - 02:34 PM Mind-boggling was a respected trade 100 years ago. These days skilled practitioners of the craft have been driven underground to the oxygen-starved catacombs of political bureaucracy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Rapparee Date: 13 Jan 04 - 01:13 PM Sorry, but it's all too pat: "1879 - The oldest sweet tea recipe (ice tea) in print comes from a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, published in 1879: Ice Tea. - After scalding the teapot, put into it one quart of boiling water and two teaspoonfuls green tea. If wanted for supper, do this at breakfast. At dinner time, strain, without stirring, through a tea strainer into a pitcher. Let it stand till tea time and pour into decanters, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the pitcher. Fill the goblets with ice, put two teaspoonfuls granulated sugar in each, and pour the tea over the ice and sugar. A squeeze of lemon will make this delicious and healthful, as it will correct the astringent tendency. 1884 - This may be the first printed recipe using black tea, which has become so universal today, and could also be the earliest version of pre-sweetened iced tea, the usual way of making it in the South today. Mrs. D. A. (Mary) Lincoln, director of the Boston Cooking School, published Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking in 1884. On page 112, there it is: iced tea, proving that the drink was not just a Southern thing. Ice Tea or Russian Tea - Make the tea by the first receipt, strain it from the grounds, and keep it cool. When ready to serve, put two cubes of block sugar in a glass, half fill with broken ice, add a slice of lemon, and fill the glass with cold tea." I don't have historical statistics handy, but an Internet search turns up the facts that California's population in 1900 was 1,485,053, and in 1910 2,377,540. If the growth was smooth (and I'm sure that it wasn't), that would mean that in 1903 California had a population of 1,752,803 (rounding off the average annual growth of 89,249.6 to 89,250 and doing away with that pesky 6/10th of a person). (This data from the US Decennial Censuses for 1900 and 1910.) As a librarian, I suspect ALL statistics that don't give their source. It takes some joy out of life, but satisfies my idea of Truth. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Jan 04 - 12:40 PM "Just think what it will be like in another 100 years." One thing I imagine (and hope) will be back where it was 100 years ago: |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: LadyJean Date: 13 Jan 04 - 12:50 AM 100 years ago, having worked for a year to earn his tuition, my grandfather was studying law at the University of Pittsburgh. He never went to college, just law school. He became a respected judge. When not reading "Blackstone's Commentaries" he was taking my grandmother, the original Jean, rowing on Silver Lake. There is no lake now, just a car wash. Gains and losses. Jean went to Flora Stone Mather College of Case Western University. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: dick greenhaus Date: 13 Jan 04 - 12:45 AM Nostalgia's not what it used to be. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago... From: Leadfingers Date: 13 Jan 04 - 12:07 AM The Good Old Days ??? |
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Subject: BS: 100 years ago... From: tar_heel Date: 12 Jan 04 - 07:01 PM SO,WHERE WERE WE 100 YEARS AGO? "THE YEAR 1903" Where were we a century ago. This ought to boggle your mind. The year is 1903, one hundred years ago... what a difference a century makes.. Here are the U. S. statistics for 1903.... The average life expectancy in the US was 47. Only 14% of the homes in the US had a BATHTUB. Only 8% of the homes had a TELEPHONE. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11. There were only 8,000 CARS in the US and only 144 miles of paved ROADS. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. The average wage in the US was $0.22/hour. The average US worker made between $200-$400/year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000/year, a dentist $2,500/year, a veterinarian between $1,500-$4,000/year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000/year. More than 95% of all BIR THS in the US took place at HOME. 90% of all US physicians had NO COLLEGE education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard." Sugar cost $0.04/pound. Eggs were $0.14/dozen. Coffee cost $0.15/pound. Most women only washed their HAIR once a month and used BORAX or EGG YOLKS for shampoo. Canada passed a law prohibiting POOR people from entering the country for any reason. The five leading causes of death in the US were: 1. Pneumonia &influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30. Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented. There were no Mother's Day or Father's Day. One in ten US adults couldn't read or write. Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from HIGH SCHOOL. Coca Cola contained cocaine. Marijuana, heroin and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." 18% of households in the US had at least one full-time SERVANT or domestic. There were only about 230 reported MURDERS in the entire US. Just think what it will be like in another 100 years. It boggles the mind! |
