Window to the Past

Dec. 1936 issue of Better Homes and Gardens

2009-10-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Better Homes and Gardens cost 10 cents in 1936. This was a pretty slim issue, and I must confess, not all that interesting. I did find a few things that I thought I might pass on.
Who hasn't made a holder out of 2 paper plates in school or summer camp? I recall making several of them during the 1950's, and my youngest son made one for me in the 1990's.
The pot holder holder shown below was a handy home made gift idea in the Better Homes and Gardens Dec. 1936 issue. They seemed to think it was pretty nifty. I can't help wondering if this is where it made its debut.

Although they talked a lot about menus in this issue, they didn't have many recipes. I did save two though. They were both marked as Taste Testing Kitchen endorsed recipes. The first one is for English Plum Cake. It's a yeast cake, and uses compressed yeast. I believe that one envelope of modern active dry yeast is equivalent to a cake of yeast. At the end it mentions that sliced citron can be now bought packaged in stores, ready to use.

English Plum Cake 1936
½ cup evaporated milk
½ cup water
½ cup butter or shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cake compressed yeast
1 slightly beaten egg
3 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
1 pound raisins, chopped
¼ lb. citron, finely diced

Scald the evaporated milk and ¼ cup water. Add shortening and sugar. Cool to lukewarm and add yeast cake dissolved in ¼ cup lukewarm water and egg. Add 2 cups of flour sifted with the salt and spices. Dredge chopped raisins and citron with one cup of flour and add these. The batter should be about as thick as layer cake batter. Add a little more flour if needed. Pour into a greased loaf pan, set in a warm place and let rise for 3 hours. Bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees F) for about 45 minutes. This makes a large loaf or two small loaves. Sliced citron can now be purchased in packages, ready to use.

The other recipe is for a jam cake. You'll find recipes for jam cakes in old cookbooks. I always thought about trying one, to see why they were so popular.

Jam Cake 1936
½ c butter or shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
½ cup jam
½ cup buttermilk
1 and ½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp soda (baking soda)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp nutmeg
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup chopped, candied fruits (citron, orange rind, cherries or pineapple

Cream shortening and sugar, add the eggs, jam and buttermilk. Add one cup of flour sifted with other dry ingredients. Add ½ cup of flour to the candied fruit. Add this and the nuts to the batter. Bake in a greased loaf pan in a moderate oven (350 degrees F) about 45 minutes. This will keep moist for a week or two, if stored in a tightly covered container in a cool place.

The back cover had an ad for a solid copper skillet for only 50 cents and a wrapper from a can of Crisco.

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Putting Up The Stove - Dec. 1871

2009-06-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Surprise! a new post, an old article from 1871. Reading this makes me think of most of the simple mundane jobs I've done around the house that turned out to be a regular pain in the neck and not simple at all.

....from The Manufacturer and Builder

WE do not remember the exact date of the invention of stoves; but it was several years ago. Since then mankind have been tormented, once a year, by the difficulties that beset the task of putting them up, and getting the pipes "fixed." With all our Yankee ingenuity, no American has ever invented any method by which the labor of putting up a stove can be lessened. The job is now almost as severe and vexatious as humanity can possibly endure.

Men always put up their stoves on a rainy day. Why, we know not; but we never heard of an exception to the rule. The first step to be taken is to put on a very old and ragged coat, under the impression that when the operator gets his mouth full of plaster it will keep his shirt—bosom clean. Next, he gets his hand inside the place where the pipe ought to go, and blacks his fingers; then he carefully makes a black mark down one side of his nose. Having got his face properly marked, the victim—usually "paterfamilias" ——is ready to begin the ceremony. The "head of the family" grasps one side of the bottom of the stove, and his wife and his hired girl take hold of the other side. In this way the stove is started from the wood—shed toward the parlor. Going through the door, the chief operator carefully swings his side of the stove around and jams his thumb—nail against the door-post. Having got the "family comfort" in place, the next thing is to find the legs. Two of these are left inside the stove since the spring before. The other two must be hunted after for twenty- five minutes. They are usually found under the coal. Then the "head of the family” holds up one side of the stove while his wife puts two of the legs in place, and next he holds up the other side while the other two are fixed, and, one of the first two falls out. By the time the stove is on its legs he gets reckless, and takes off his old coat, regardless of his linen."Paterfamilias" then goes for the pipe, and gets two cinders in his eye. It don’t make any difference how well the pipe was put up last year, it will always be found a little too short or a little too long. "The head off the family” jams his hat over his eyes, and taking a pipe under each arm goes to the tin-shop to have it fixed. When he gets back, he steps upon one of the best parlor chairs to see if the pipe fits, and his wife makes him get down for fear he will scratch the varnish off ffom the chair with the nails in his boot- heel. In getting down, he will surely step on the cat, and may thank his stars that it is not the baby. Then he gets an old chair and climbs up to the chimney again, to find that in cutting the pipe off the end has been left too big for the hole in the chimney. So he goes to the wood—shed and splits one side of the end of the pipe with an old ax, and squeezes it in his hands to make it smaller. The chief operator at length gets the pipe in shape, and finds that the stove does not stand true. Then himself and his wife and the hired girl move the stove to the left, and the legs fall out again. Next it is to be moved to the right. More difficulty now with the legs. Move to the front a little. Elbow not even with the hole in the chimney, and the "head of the family” goes again to the wood-shed after some little blocks. While putting the blocks under the legs the pipe comes out of the chimney. That remedied, the elbowkeeps tipping over, to the great alarm of the wife. "Paterfamilias" gets the dinner-table out, puts the old chair on it, makes his wife take hold of the chair, and balances himself on it to drive some nails into the ceiling but in doing this he drops the hammer on his wife’s head. At last he gets the nails driven, makes a wire swing to hold the pipe, hammers a little here, pulls a little there, takes a long breath, and announces the ceremony concluded. Job never put up any stoves. It would have ruined his reputation if he had.

Pittsburgh, 1910

2008-11-18T05:21:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from The Pittsburgh Dispatch Dec 6,1910. The Dispatch was one of the most important American newspapers of its day. The famous woman journalist Nellie Bly worked for the paper in the late 19th c.

Let's start with a comic. This was the only one on my few available sheets, GINK AND DINK. I wasn't able to find much about this strip, except that Dink had a strip all his own before this which was popular.

Here's a nice apron, just wrap your coin in a piece of paper and they'll send you the pattern.

Now here's something you just don't see anymore, Heirs Wanted.

The Flatiron Building in New York was nationally known.

You don't see ads like this anymore either, a comment on the higher mortality rate of that era.

Apparently you can still by Syrup of Figs by the California Fig Syrup Co.

Planning a trip?

Shhh...for men only.Dr.Lorenz had Sunday hours.

An eyecatching ad.

Rosenbaum's was having a sale, with extra S&H Green stamps offered.

Assorted ads and news briefs.

Boggs & Buhl was also having a sale. Furs were very popular, and they had 1/3 off on a limited number of afternoon and evening dresses.

Bennet's furs and some Society notes. The Dispatch was full of the doings of the well to do.

Next a news story about immigration, the page was torn, I did the best I could to piece it together. All the pages were torn into 4 sections because they broke where they had been folded.

Below it was this little bit about a stockholder suing the directors of the Illinois Central RR for failing to do their duty. Does this seem timely or what?

Next comes the sports page with a story about an after the fight fight, some local basketball news, and a recap of the first game in the Billiards Series Championship.
The Boston Doves were not to be sold (they later were renamed the Boston Braves), and famous wrestler George Hackenschmidt was coming to town.

Classifieds next

The Dispatch financial section next, starting with oil prices.

Commodities follow:

Greensburg, Pa. 1910

2008-11-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Greensburg is the county seat of Westmoreland Co.,PA, and in 1910 it was a center of the coal mining industry and a prospering little city. My husband's grandfather came to the area in the 1910's and went to work in a mine.
From the pages of the Greensburg Daily Tribune, Dec 7, 1910 (Greensburg, PA, USA)

Check out the story Latest Departure in Frisking Games. It involves two female con artists, a garter and an orange.

It was Christmas shopping season, and below is most of an ad for Keck's department store, one of several in town. There are very few stores left in the town now, there mostly at the malls at either end of town.

Here's an ad for the famous Gold Dust Twins cleaner.

An ad for Cuticura.

And ads for a menswear store and butter.

Girl Plans Long Jaunt is my favorite story in this paper.

H.S.Ackerman, The One Price Piano Store, was one of several piano stores in town. Unfortunately the other ads were incomplete.

Joseph Strouse The "Fair" Store.

What to do With Hats is actually about what to do with those pesky hatpins.

The Greensburg Steam Laundry will be happy to send around their wagon in a jiffy.

A few classifieds....I think Mr. Loughner wanted a housekeeper who'd work cheap.

There was an interesting story that started on page one, I wish I had page one. It's about attitudes towards Christmas shopping. There a small gap of a few sentences, the paper had crumbled away where it had been folded.

Here's the rest of the story.

And finally, a story about a big snowstorm.

Pittsburgh 1920

2008-11-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

Here are excerpts from the Nov. 6, 1920 issue of the Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA (USA). I aquired a few pages many years ago, gone brown and crumbling around the edges. They've gotten more crumbly since, so I scanned them, cleaned them up, and am posting most of what I had.

Shall we start with the funnies?

The first strip is Abie the Agent and was a very popular strip from 1914 through the 20's. It was drawn by Harry Hershield, and was about a Jewish car salesman named Abie Kabibble. It's the first strip to show a Jewish character in a positive light.

The second strip is Jerry on the Job by Walter Hoban. Jerry stayed a small kid over the years, no parents ever appeared. He just held odd jobs at one place or another. After WW 1 he started working at a train station for the peevish Mr.Givney. this particular comic has a reference to the Bolshevics.

Next we have Hon and Dearie, How Do They Do It? and The General.

Hon and Dearie was drawn by Jack Callahan, and the characters were later also seen in another strip called The Piffle Family.
How Do They Do It? and The General were both drawn by Arnot.

Next, an episode of Thimble Theater, from whence was born Popeye. Here we see Olive Oyl and Ham Gravy.

Bringing Up Father., which ran from 1913 to 2000 and was also known as Jiggs and Maggie. In the center panel Jiggs says "If I get by her room I'm all right".

Stuck to the Last was found on the sports page

Finally, Then the Fun Began

The rest of the pages I had held partial sports stories and scores, ads and the want ads,lots and lots of want ads....
Here's a selection from Men Wanted. In those days you could specify if you wanted an employee who was "colored", "foreign","married" or "Catholic".

Let's see some of the Female Help Wanted. How would you like to be a pickle sorter?

The next section has more Female Help Wanted ads, someone was desperate for a prima donna and a soubrette, someone else wanted a Hungarian or Bohemian cook. There are also a few Board Wanted ads, 3 of which are for essentially day care for the children of working mothers.

Shall we see what's playing at the movies? Oh yes, the only complete news stories I had from this issue are on this page.
I'd heard of all the stars on the page, but for a few, but you can find bios about them all online if you're interested.

What's left? Advertising!
This first piece also has a few news items with it.

Workmen needed in Texas-1870

2008-09-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

A business man in New-York lately received the following report from one of his correspondents in Galveston, Texas: 1. We have no hatter in the city. 2. Ice is sold by only one man, who has, therefore, a monopoly. 3. We have only one gas company, which has put prices exceedingly high. 4. We have plenty of bones, but nobody who converts them into manurre. 5. There is neither a soap nor a candle-maker in the whole State. 6. There is no brick-maker, although we possess plenty of material, especially shells, sand and lime. 7. We. are in need of a broom-man. 8. There exists no shoe manufactory in the whole State. 9. We have neither wagon nor furniture manufacturers, and likewise no makers of musical instruments 10. In our harbor we need a dry-dock for the repairing of ships. 11. We possess no paper-mill. 12. Pray can you not assist us to get rid of so many wants? Send us useful men, skilled workmen from the North; we will return you with pleasure, for every honest workman, one dozen individuals of that swarm of carpet-baggers who devastate our country like grasshoppers, doing only ”harm and mischief."

Identifying steamships, 1870

2008-09-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

There were quite a few steamship lines crossing the Atlantic in the 19th century.

Signals of the Steamers Sailing between North- America and Europe. aug 1870

WE find the following interesting facts on this subject in one of our German contemporaries:
CUNARD LINE—Two rockets and a blue light.
INMAN LINE—A blue light at the bow, a red one in the centre, a blue light at the stern, and two rockets. The lights all burn at the same time.
GUYON LINE—Blue lights at tile bow, centre, and the stern, all burning simultaneously
NATIONAL LINE—A blue light, a rocket, and a red light
ANCHOR LINE—Alternately red and white lights.
MONTREAL OCEAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY (PORTLAND LINE.)—White and red rockets following each other.
FRENCH LINE—A blue light at the bow, a white one amidship, and a red one at the stern, all burning simultaneously.
NORTH-GERMAN LLOYD (BREMEN.)—A blue light at the bow, and one at the stern, and two rockets.
HAMBURG-AMERICAN PACKET LINE—A roman light, a rocket, and again a roman light, following each other at an interval of about three minutes.
NEW-YORK AND LONDON LINE—A rocket, a blue light, and again a rocket. RUDGERS LINe—A blue and a red light in the centre, both burning simultaneously.

In the day-time these steamers may be recognized by the color of their smoke-stacks. These are painted respectively: Red, with black top; black, with a white stripe and black top; black, with a red stripe and a small black top; white, with black top ; entirely black black alternating with white; red and white stripes amid a black top; red with black top; black; black; white; finally, those of the Rudgers steamers are black, and the paddle-boxes are all painted white.

Machines Driven by Solar Heat—Sun-Machines. 1870

2008-09-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

from The Manufacturer and Builder,August 1870 issue.

MR. A. Mouchot, a professor in Tours, France, has recently published a pamphlet, in which he communicates his experience about the technical application of solar heat. The article bears the title, “The Heat of the Sun and its Industrial Uses.” In it the French savant has laid down in a clear and sound manner, as the result of observations extending over nine years, what, in 1868, the Swedish engineer, Ericsson, well known for his invention of the caloric machine, had announced to the world, to wit, that it is actually pos- sible to concentrate the solar heat in such a manner as to heat our technical steam and pneumatic apparatus. To us, the consequences which must be the result of an extensive application of the projected machines are of great interest. On this point, the author expresses himself in the following manner: “If Egypt, in spite of her efforts, finds it so difficult to elevate herself from her ruins, this decline is less to be ascribed to the exhaustion of her old physical resources—which, in the powerful sun and the fertile inundations of the Nile, have always remained hers—than it is to the lack of an inexpensive fuel. People have to use dry camel-dung, and at a price of coal of fifty or a hundred francs per ton, laborers can not be readily substituted by machinery. In that country, machines driven by solar heat may be effective, because it lies under a sky on which ‘the sun rises in an eruption, and sets in a sea of flames;’ where, for months, no cloud darkens the lord of heaven ‘—the old guardian-god of the Nile land. And the same holds good for the tropics, under which the heat is great and fuel rare, and where the labor of man and beast is very inconsiderable.” “And the time will arrive,” says the author of the above- named pamphlet, “when the industry of Europe will cease to find those natural resources, so necessary for it. Petroleum-springs and coal-mines are not inexhaustible; but are rapidly diminishing in many places. Will man, then, return to the power of water and wind? or will he emigrate where the most powerful. source of heat sends its rays to all? History will show what will come. Countries which have maintained large nations always needed rest the same as the fields.” No doubt the future will show in what direction “sun-machines” will be practically available. Any one who considers the facts will have to agree that tropical countries offer some hope of success for them; in which case, with the realization of an ancient idea, (Hero of Alexandria having already described a pump driven by the heat of the sun,) great changes would have to take place in many respects. Meantime, let us await results patiently.

Oiled floors- 1870

2008-09-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

from July,1870 issue of Manufacturer and Builder.

Oiling improves a floor in several ways. Grease-spots, of course, will not affect the wood thus treated; and much less scrubbing than is necessary for a plain floor will suffice to keep it clean. Moreover, the appearance is improved by the oil. Many of our native woods, prepared in this manner, become positively handsome. Finally, it gives the surface a harder texture, which makes it wear longer and more uniformly. Paint costs more, takes longer to dry, and wears off more easily, since it simply forms a crust or coating upon the surface; while oil penetrates the wood. Hence an oiled floor looks better than a painted one, especially if a little color, such as Van Dyke brown, umber, or burned sienna is added to the oil. To prepare a floor in this manner, take raw linseed-oil, or some cheap oil, not offensive in odor, and capable of drying; mix it, if desired, within some such transparent color as those mentioned above; and apply it with a common paint-brush. Lay it on smoothly, so that it will strike in uniformly over the whole surface, and not stand in spots. This may be done at night, after the day’s work; and the place will be ready for use again the next morning. As far as the oiled surface is concerned, it might be stepped upon at once without injury; but there would be danger in that case of tracking the grease to other parts of time house. A new coat of oil, applied in this way once or twice a year, is sufficient to keep a floor in perfect order. This treatment is to be heartily recommended for the floors of kitchens, pantries, verandas, closets, bath-rooms, and laborers’ bed-rooms. It is also a good plan in children’s apartments, particularly in training them to do their own house-work, to leave without carpet or matting that part of the floor where the bed stands, with a few feet around it, and to oil the wood. The floor under the bed can then be easily kept free from dust, and the sweepings can be readily removed; while washstands, etc., can be so disposed as to give time youngsters free scope for their duck-like ablutions, without injury to carpets. In country-houses, the plan might be carried still further. We recently had all the floors in a newly-built house oiled; and we think it wise economy. Many well-to-do families in Europe have no carpets at all; and, though there are some disadvantages in such a course, there are certainly some points gained. We think it gives cleaner houses, with less house-cleaning. Putting down, taking up, and beating carpets is the most vexatious and laborious part of our domestic economy, as their cost and destruction constitute one of its great items of expense. Still, we do not attack carpets—though, speaking of attacks, what a tax the tacks are —we only say, where you don’t need a carpet, by all means oil your floor.

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Poisonous cosmetics, 1870

2008-08-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

An 1870 article about poisonous cosmetics mentioned a pamphlet by a Dr. Lewis Sayre describing three cases of lead palsey caused by a product called Laird’s Bloom of Youth.
The board of health had a chemist analyze popular cosmetic products of the day to check for lead and other toxins.

I've listed names of many of these popular quaint sounding concoctions.

Hair tonics
For some unknown reason making hair tonic must have been big business in New Hampshire, as many of the following were concocted there. Only one of the following hair restorers was lead free.

Hoyt’s Hiawatha Hair Restorative
Pearson Co.’s Circassian Hair Rejuvenator
Ayer’s Hair Vigor
The Hair Restorer of America
Gray’s Celebrated Hair Restorative
Phalon’s Vitalia
Ring’s Vegetable Ambrosia
L. Knittel’s Indian Hair Tonique
Hall’s Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer
Dr. Tebbett’s Physiological Hair Regenerator
Martha Washington’s Hair Restorative

Next we have "lotions or washes for the complexion". These were amazingly all free of lead and other injurious minerals.
Burnett’s Halliston
Phalon’s Paphian Lotion, or Floral Beautifier.
Enamel of America.
Email de Paris, de Jared
Balm of a Thousand Flowers
Dr. Bradford’s Enameline for the Complexion
Hagan’s Magnolia Balm.
Cascarilla de Jaracol de Persia
Bismuth Powder for Beautifying the Skin and Removing Freckles
And several companies made a Compound Chinese Tablet of Alabaster

On the other hand...
Perry’s Moth and Freckle Lotion....mercury
Snow-white Enamel for Whitening and Beautifying the Complexion...lead
Snow-white Oriental Cream....lead

I wonder what the moths were that Perry's lotion took care of?

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Kalsomining parlor walls 1870

2008-08-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

The March 1870 issue of manufacturer and Builder explained how to do this.

IT is a popular error to believe that the materials for kalsomining are very expensive, and also that few men have sufficient skill to apply the liquid even after it has been properly prepared. For this reason, people are frequently deceived into paying exorbitant prices for this kind of work. The materials employed are good clear glue, Paris white, and water. Paris white is sold here in New-York City and Brooklyn for two to three cents per pound. itinerant kalsominers frequently charge twenty-five cents per pound, as “they use nothing but the genuine silver polish, which is scarce, and very expensive.” In case the wall of a large room, say sixteen by twenty feet square, is to be kalsomined with two coats, it will require about one fourth of a pound of light- colored glue and five or six pounds of Paris white. Soak the glue overnight, in a tin vessel containing about a quart of warm water. If the kalsomnine is to be applied the next day, add a pint more of clean water to the glue, and set the tin vessel containing the glue into a kettle of boilng water over the fire, and continue to stir the glue until it is well dissolved and quite thin. If the glue-pail be placed in a kettle of boiling water, the glue will not be scorched. Then, after putting the Paris white into a large water-pail, pour on hot water, and stir it until the liquid appears like thick milk. Now mingle the glue-liquid with the whiting, stir it thoroughly, and apply it to the wall with a whitewash-brush, or with a large paint-brush. It is of little consequence what kind of an instrument is employed in laying on the kalsomine, provided the liquid is spread smoothly. Expensive brushes, made expressly for kalsomining, may be obtained at brush-factories, and at some drug and hardware stores. But a good whitewash-brush, having long and thick hair, will do very well. In case the liquid is so thick that it will not flow from the brush so as to make smooth work, add a little more hot water. When applying the kalsomine, stir it frequently. Dip the brush often, and only so deep in the liquid as to take as much as the hair will retain without letting large drops fall to the floor. If too much glue be added, the kalsomine can not be laid on smoothly, and will be liable to crack. The aim should be to apply a thin layer of sizing that can not be brushed off with a broom or dry cloth. A thin coat will not crack.

1870's recycling

2008-08-28T17:52:00.001-07:00

What Becomes of Old Shoes, a question asked and answered in the Feb. 1870 issue of Manufacturer and Builder.

The old shoes were cut up in small pieces, and were put for a couple of days in chloride of sulphur, which made the leather very hard and brittle. Afterwards the material was washed with water, dried, ground to powder, and mixed with shellac or some sort of glue.
It was then pressed into molds and shaped into combs, buttons, knife handles and other articles.
A later article added the following...
"Waste leather is an excellent fertilizer, and in some parts of the world, chiefly in England, is cut up in small pieces and used in manuring the land. The same is done with woolen rags, which are highly valuable for this purpose — a fact which should be better known among farmers and Southern planters, who are in general very wasteful in regard to utilizing many substances highly valuable as fertilizers."

According to the article, leather contains gelatin, and treating the leather with an alkili will release the gelatin.
"By proper treatment, the gelatine from old leather may be made palatable, and one of the curious feats of modern chemistry, sometimes performed by Professor Van der Weyde before his class in the Cooper Union, NewYork, is the making of a palatable pudding from a pair of old used-up boots, sweetened with sugar made from linen fibre, that is to say, from an old shirt."

Old and scrap leather was also used in the manufacture of paints.

Artificial Coffee, 1870

2008-08-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

June 1870, Manufacturer and Builder
In the 19th century people were well aware that their food was not all it should be, or what they expected it to be. It was common practice to blend brick dust with chocolate or bake sawdust into bread along with the flour.
The following is reprinted from an article published in 1870.

Artificial Coffee.
Every one knows that ground coffee is often adulturated with burnt sugar, rye, barley, malted grain, beet-roots, carrots, acorns, etc., and that some people adulturate it for themselves with chiccory; but it is not so generally known that chiccory is largely adulturated with ochre, soot, brick-dust, black earth, or even the burnt refuse from distilleries.

We have, however, hitherto supposed that if we bought some unburnt coffee beans, and roasted and ground them ourselves, we should be sure of having the genuine article; but alas this also turns out to be a sweet illusion. Coffee-beans are now actually made, like bricks, from a pale greenish clay, and approximate so closely to the natural Java coffee that in their un-roasted state they are mixed with the genuine article and can not be distinguished by the eye alone. As the price of artificial beans is only one cent per pound, in place of forty, this adulteration is very profitable to the grocer.

These artificial beans are made in moulds, each of which will shape one hundred berries from the piece of clay with which it is filled. The moulds open and shut like the moulds for casting leaden bullets. After being filled and shut, they are pressed and placed in a moderate fire for a few minutes. Soon the clay becomes dry and by opening the mould the berries are allowed to fall out. When afterward mixed with genuine beans, they will receive during the roasting the usual aroma, which, as well as the brown color, will be absorbed by tile clay beans, and all will come out with uniform appearance from the roasting-machine. The products of art and of nature will thus together go into the coffee-mill, and thence into the coffee-pot: and the coffee will have no foreign flavor, but only be weaker in proportion to the amount of artificial coffee-beans employed. We most confess that the adulterators of this class are much better than many others who poison the people they rob. These conscientious persons give nothing injurious to health; their adulteration forms simply a sediment of clay at the bottom of the coffee-pot or cup, and is usually supposed to be genuine coffee-grounds. It has in fact, in positive advantage, it assists the settling of the coffee-grounds, and thus, if it makes the coffee weaker, it renders it also clearer. The only way to detect the fraud is to break some of the unroasted beans and inspect their interior or, better still, to chew some of them. To make assurance doubly sure, it has been seriously recommended that every coffee-bean should be broken in two and the interior examined with the microscope!

More on the subject of paper houses, June 1870

2008-08-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Manufacturer and Builder published an article about a paper house in the June 1869 issue. Here's another article about using paper as a building material.

WE live in a peculiar age in all respects. Iron is successfully competing with stone as a superior building material; and now paper commences to compete with lumber and lath and plaster. According to accounts received, it will be as successful in competition as iron in the other.. We have already (Vol. I., p. 179) republished an article from the Desmoines Register, in which the advantages of this substance in economy of money and of time were set forth; and we hear almost daily other favorable reports.
We have received from Mr. B. E. Hale, No. 24 Frankfurt Street, this city, a sample of this building paper which impresses us most favorably. It is nothing but a very stiff pasteboard, to be used for inside finishing in place of lath and plaster: since it costs only 10 to 12 cents per square yard, including labor and material, while lumber costs from 40 cents and upward, lath and plaster nearly as much, and good shingles considerably more.
If we look at the composition of paper, and consider what it really is, we find that it consists of woody fiber, or lignite, compactly pressed together. in fact, pasteboard is wood, with the pores considerably diminished, the thickness and weight decreased, a consequent great flexibility gained, and many refractory properties removed.
Boring holes becomes unnecessary; in place of long nails or screws, tacks do the required service, and they penetrate easily while scissors rapidly and neatly cut to the proper measure, doing away with the hard labor of sawing. Thus a building may be completed in as many days as it would otherwise require weeks. The combustibility is less than that of wood. Pasteboard does not burn as easily as pine boards, as any one may find out by trial; and even the tarred paper used on the outside is scarcely more dangerous than wood, from which the tar is, in fact, extracted. If covered with metallic paint, such a house is not likely to take fire as easily as a wooden frame house; and if once burning, will produce a less dangerous conflagration, because containing a smaller amount of combustible material than buildings made of heavy boards, with twice or three times the amount of studding necessary for paper. As paper is a better non-conductor of heat than wood, such houses should also be warmer in winter and cooler in summer—a supposition verified by experience. On the whole, we shall not be surprised to find, at no distant day, a great many sensible people living comfortably in “houses of cards.”

The Future of the Automobile, 1902

2007-11-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

The following was published in Harper's Weekly. I found a reprint of it in one of my old books.

FUTURE OF THE AUTOMOBILE
In less than fifty years from now the working man, the mechanic and the laborer will go to their work from their cottages in the country in automobiles.
You smile at this? Don't smile too confidently. Do you remember when the present model of bicycles first came into fashion? Who used and paid for the first bicycles; at one hundred dollars or more each? The rich men and women.
Who made fun of the first bicycle riders, laughing at their sensible costumes, throwing tacks on bicycle paths, doing everything to delay the manufacture of the cheap bicycle by discouraging those who paid for the first experiments? You did, you who now laugh, or throw tin cans at the fast automobile did the same for the bicycle, not so many years ago.
And who uses the bicycle now? Get up early in the morning, especially in the country, and you will see the bicycle carrying the mechanic to his work. The cheap bicycle is almost exclusively used by working men. It is used exclusively by people of moderate means. The rich have long since tired of it. The bicycle at Newport used to fill the foolish "society" columns. It now carries the butcher boy to and from work. It enables the workman to save his carfare, to get cheaper rent and fresh country air for his children by living far from his task. It gives these advantages, in addition to fresh air and daily exercise to thousands of clerks with small salaries.
Suppose that public jeering, sprinkling of tacks, etc. had prevented the
development of the bicycle. The rich would simply have been deprived of one toy. They would never have missed it. The great loss would have fallen upon the poor, to whom the bicycle now offers many economical advantages, and their sole chance of reaching the country and of knowing nature's beauties.

Harpers Weekly 1902

Occupations and Wages in California , 1869

2007-10-24T06:06:00.000-07:00

from THE MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER
THE following abstract from one of the tables accompanying the semi-annual report of the Secretary of the California Labor and. Employment Exchange, gives the number of persons furnished with employment during the past six months averaging about 1400 a month the occupations for which they werwanted, and the compensation.
The abstract is valuable as a complete exhibit of the industrial range and reward in this State. In cases where employees were engaged for places in the interior or out of this State the fact is noted in parentheses. It will be seen the great demand here is for skilled and unskilled labor, rather than for clerical and professional service:
Architectural Draughtsmen, 1; according to ability.
Amalgamators, 1; $100 per month, and found.
Apprentices, 32; $25 to $28 per month, and found, (20 for U. S. Navy.)
Apothecaries, 1; $40 per month, and found, (for U. S. Navy.)
Bakers, 21; $30 to $60 per month, and found.
Barbers, 6; $60 to $100 per month, and found.
Barkeepers, 6; $30 to $45 per month, and found.
Basket-makers, 5; piece work.
Bee-tenders, 1; according to ability.
Bed-makers, 9; $30 to $35 per month, and found.
Bell-hangers, 3; $2.50 to $3 per day.
Belt-makers, $2 to $2.30 per day.
Blacksmiths, 215; $2 to $4 per day; $50 to $100 per month, and found, (2 for Honolulu and 3 for Nevada.)
Boiler-makers, 45; $3 to 4 per day; $35 to $60 per month, and found.
Book-binders, 2; according to ability.
Book-keepers, 4; $35 to $100 per month, and found.
Boot-makers, 34; piece work; $35 to $15 per month, and found.
Bottlers, 4; $35 to $40 per month, and found.
Boys, 234; $10 to $40 per month, with or without board.
Brewers, 1; $50 per month, and found.
Bridge-builders, 1; $5 per month, and found.
Bricklayers, 130; $5 to $6 per day, with or without board.
Brick-makers, 49; $35 to $60 per month, and found.
Brush and broom-makers, 4; $2.50 to $3.50 per day.
Burnishers, 11: $2 to $3.50 per day.
Butchers, 43; $35 to $60 per month, and found.
Butter-makers, 1: $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Cabinet-makers, 11; piece work; $3 to $4.50 per day, (2 for Honolulu.)
Canvassers, 84; commissions.
Carpenters, (house,) 1166; $3 to $4 per day, 8 and 10 hours.
Carpenters, (ship,) 18;, 43 to $5 per day, with or without board.
Carriage-makers, 8; $3.50 to $4 per day.
Carriage-painters, 25; $3 to $4 per day.
Carriage-trimmers, 5; $3 to $4.50 per day.
Carpet-weavers, 3; according to ability.
Carvers, 1; piece work.
Charcoal-burners, 2; $35 per month, and found.
Cheese-makers. 2; $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Clerks, 15; $40 to $100 per month, and found.
Coachmen, 10 $30 to $50 per month, and found.
Coal-miners, 23; $1.12 1/2 to $1.25 per yard.
Coal-passers, 42; $30 per month, and found.
Coffin-makers, 2; $3.50 to $4.50 per day.
Confectioners, 5; $40 to $60 per month, and found.
Cooks, 305; $35 to $80 per month, and found.
Coopers, 20; $2.15 to $3.50 per day.
Coppersmiths, 6; $3 to $5 per day.
Cutters, 1; according to ability.
Dairymen, 1; $30 to $35 per month, and found.
Deck-hands, 24; $40 per month, and found.
Dishwashers, 64; $20 to $30 per month, and found.
Distillers, 2; according to ahility.
Door and sash-makers, 8; $2.50 to $4.50 per day.
Druggists, 1; $60 per month, and found.
Dyers, 3; $40 to $50 per month, and found.
Engineers, 56; $60 to $128 per month, and found; $4 to $5 per day.
Engravers, 3; according to ability.
Farm-hands, 1442; $26 to $46 per month, and found; $1.50 to $2.50 per day.
Filers, (saw,) 8; $45 to $50 per month, and found.
Firemen, 13; $50 to $60 per month, and found.
Fishermen, 11; 2/5ths share of take.
Flour-packers, 1; $30 per month, and found.
Foundrymen; 9; $2 to $2.50 per day.
Fringe-makers, 1; $15 per week.
Fruit-peddlers, 2; $30 to $35 per month, and found.
Fruit-packers, 4; $25 to $30 per month, and found.
Furniture-polishers, 3; $2.50 per day.
Gardeners, 38; $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Gardeners and grooms, 48; $30 to $48 per month, and found.
Gas-Otters, 1; $3.50 per day.
Generally useful, 62; $20 to $10 per month, and found.
Gilders, 4; $50 per month, and found.
Glue-makers, 2; $35 to $50 per month, and found.
Grave-diggers, 1; $50 per month, and found. (Sacramento.)
Grooms, 136; $30 to $45 per month, and found.
Gun-smiths, 3; $3 to $5 per day.
Hair rope-makers, 2; $2.50 per day.
Harness-makers, 44; $2.50 to $4 per day, and $40 to $15 per month, and found.
Herders, 1; $25 per month, and found.
Hod-carriers, 1; $2.50 per day.
Hop-growers, 3; $30 per month, and found. (3 for Sacramento.)
Hose-makers, 4; $2.50 to $3 per day.
Housekeepers, 5; $30 per month, and found.
Inteipreters, 1; $30 per month, and found. (French hospital.)
Iron-moulders, 24; $3.50 to $4 per day.
Laborers, 3923; $1.50 to $3 per day, and $25 to $50 per month, and found.
Last-makers, 2; $2.50 to $3 per day.
Lathers, 6; $3 to $4 per day.
Laundrymnen, 9; $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Local reporters, 1; $50 per month, and found. (For the Guide.)
Locksmiths, 4; $3 to $4 per day.
Lumbermen, 432; $35 to $70 per month, and found. (63 for Washington Territory and 8 for Nevada.)
Machinists, 31; $3.50 to $4.50 per day.
tachine-planers, 6; $2.50 per day.
Man and wife, 53; $50 to $30 per month, and found.
Map-mounters, 1; according to ability.
Marble-cutters, 3; $4 for 8 hours.
Marble-polishers, 65; $2 to $2.50 per day.
Masons, 55; $4 to $5 for 8 and 10 hours.
Mattress-makers, 12; $2 to $3 per day, and found.
Milkers, 122; $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Millers, 6; $3 to $4 per day.
Millwrights, 15; $4 to $5 per day.
Miners, 239; $2.50 to $3 per day, $40 to $60 per month.
Mowers, 3; $2 to $2.50 per day.
Nurses, 3; $25 to $35 per mouth.
Ox-teamsters, 44; $35 to $45 per month.
Painters, (house,) 129; $2.50 to $4 per day.
Pantrymen, 1; $35 per month.
Paper-hangers, 8; $2.50 to $3.50 per day.
Paper-rulers, 5; according to ability.
Partners, 3; private.
Pattern-makers, 15; $4 to, $4.50 per day.
Physicians, 1. (Mendocino county.)
Picture-frame makers, 3; $2.50 to $3.50 per day.
Pile-drivers, $2.50 to $3 per day.
Plasterers, 56; $1 to $5 per day, with and without board,
Ploughmen, 1; $80 per month, and found.
Plumbers, 8: $3 to $5 per day.
Porters. 11; $30 to $40 per month, and found.
Potato-diggers, 77; $30 to $35 per month, and found.
Printers, 8; 75c. per 1000 ems, $30 per week, $60 per month, and found.
Quartz-miners, $40 to $60 per month. (For Klamath and Kern.)
Quarrymen, 35; $40 to $50 per month.
Sack-sewers, 4; one cent each.
Salesmen, 3; $35 to $50 per month.
Sawyers, 37; $40 to $90 per month; (3 for Washington Territory.)
Sheep-shearers, 21; 6c. per head, $2 to $2.50 per day, $40 per month (18 Colusa, 3 Los Angeles.)
Shepherds, 30; $25 to 30 per month.
Shipsmiths, 5; $4 per day; (1 Puget Sound.)
Shoemakers, 63; piece, and $35 and $45 per month.
Sign-carriers, 3; $1 to $1.50 per day.
Smelters, 2; $60 to $150 per month, and found.
Soap-makers, 2.
Sole-leather cutter, 1; according to ability. (Shoe Factory.)
Stewards, 12; $30 to $40 per month.
Stocking-weavers, 3; according to ability.
Stove-men, 3; $30 to $35.
Sugar-packers, 2; $80. (Sugar Refinery.)
Speeder-hand, 1; according to ability. (Oakland.)
Street-sweepers, 2; $35 per month.
Tailors, 18; piece.
Tanners, 4; $35 to $45 per month.
Teamsters, 340; $30 to $65.
Tin-roofers, 2; $4 per day.
Tinsmiths, 48; $3 to $4 per day.
Tracklayers, 36; $2 per day and found.
Trunk-makers, 1; $2.50 per day, and found.
Turners, 12; $3.50 to $4 per day.
Undertakers, 1; $80 per month. (Sacramento.)
Upholsterers, 3 to $4 per day.
Varnishers, 11; $2.50 to $3.50 per day.
Visemen, 1; $2.50 to $3.
Wagon-makers 45; $3 to $4 per day; $50 to $80 per month.
Waiters, 122; $20 to $40 per month.
Warehousemen, 36; $2.50 per day; $60 to $70 per month.
Watchmen, 4; $50 to $75 per month.
Well-diggers, 24; contract and $2.50 per day.
Wheelwrights, 51; $3 to $4 per day; $60 to $80 per month.
Whip-makers, 1; $3 per day.
Whitewashers, 4; $3 per day.
Wood-choppers, 367; $1.25 to $2 per cord; $40 to $60 per month.
Wood-sorters, 4; according to ability.

Statistics of Human Life, 1870

2007-10-24T06:03:00.001-07:00

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER May, 1870
According to a French statistician, taking the mean of many accounts, a man 50 years of age has slept 6000 days, worked 0500 days, walked 800 days, amused himself 4000 days, was eating 1500 days, was sick 500 days, etc. He ate 17,000 pounds of bread, 16,000 pounds of meat, 4600 pounds of vegetables, eggs, and fish, and drank 7000 gallons of liquid, namely, water, coffee, tea, beer, wine, etc., all together. This would make a respectable lake of 300 square feet surface and 3 feet deep, on which a small steamboat could navigate. And all this solid and liquid material passing through a human being in 50 years! Verily, there is after all some truth in the story of the ogre who drank a lake dry, to catch the fugitives that were sailing over it. Any man can do the sameonly give him time!

This estimate is, however, made for a Frenchman; for an American we have to modify it, by lessening the number of days he devotes to amusements, and in place of this substitute 1000 days for quietly speculating how to get more of the almighty dollar, 1500 days fortraveling by steam and horse power, and 200 days in waiting for means of transportation. The latter number is by no means over estimated for the inhabitants of New-York, Philadelphia, or other large cities of the Union.

What One Eats in a Lifetime, 1869

2007-10-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER, July, 1869
A calculation of what an epicure, or bon vivant of 1869 would have eaten by the age of 70
10 oxen, 200 sheep, 100 calves, 200 lambs, 50 pigs, 1200 fowls, 200 turkeys, 150 geese, 400 ducks, 260 pigeons, 1400 partridges and quail, 600 woodcock, 1400 snipe and other small game, besides 500 hares and rabbits, 40 deer, 120 guinea fowls, 10 peacocks, and 260 wild fowls.
In fish, 110 turbot, 140 salmon, 220 cod, 260 trout, 400 mackerel, 400 flounders, 202 eels, 150 haddock, 400 herrings, and 10,000 smelts; also 20 turtles, 30,000 oysters, 1500
lobsters and crabs, 300,000 prawns, shrimps, sardines, and anchovies.
In fruit, about 1500 pounds of grapes, 50 pine-apples, 2000 peaches, 1400 apricots, 240 melons, and some hundred thousand plums, green-gages, apples, pears, and millions of cherries, strawberries, currants, walnuts, chestnuts, figs, almonds, etc.
In vegetables of other kinds 25,475 pounds weight;
about, 2334 pounds of butter, 684 pounds of cheese, 21,000 eggs. Bread, 14,000 pounds; of salt, pepper, 1000 pounds; of sugar, 4500 pounds.
In liquids, he would have imbibed 14,670 gallons, which, for a man accustomed to the use of strong drink, might be subdivided into 49 hogsheads of wine, 1394 gallons of beer, 584 gallons of spirits, 5394 gallons of coffee, cocoa, and tea, 1304 gallons of milk, and 2736 gallons of water.
The quantity of food consumed by one man in the course of his lifetime, as estimated above, astounding as it appears, is based on an authentic scale of the regular average meals of the day of an epicure for sixty years

A Poor Prospect for the Year 1900, from June 1869

2007-10-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER
THE Boston Journal of Chemistry lately gave us a
glowing account of the wonders which were to be
brought to light ere the year 1900 shall appear as the
date of our letters and periodicals. All our old sys-
tems of lighting, heating, and producing power are to
be modified, or superseded by different and far supe-
rior methods. And yet, in a recent number, the editor
gravely tells us that “there is not, nor can there be”
any oil or liquid substance devised, suited to house-
hold illumination, which is cheaper, safer, or better
than well manufactured kerosene of legal standard.
The italics are his own.

Cleaning a Wooden Floor, 1869

2007-10-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

Wooden Floors
How to Cleanse them.
This is a very important matter in a country like the United States, where there is so much change of domicile, and that particularly in a city like New York on the first of May. Floors dirty enough to make housekeepers desperate when they think of the bare possibility of being able to clean them, are first scrubbed with sand, then rubbed with the aid of a stiff brush with a lye of caustic soda, and washed with hot water. Then, after the lapse of an hour or so, and before the floor is dry, it is moistened with very dilute hydrochloric acid, and then with a thin, uniform paste of bleaching powder that is, hypochlorite of lime. After having remained over night, it should be washed off in the morning. Housekeepers are then astonished at the beauty of the floor.
When no grease spots are present, the application of the caustic soda may be omitted.

Note: May first was the traditional moving day in old New York. All leases were up on the same day!
You can read an article from the New York Times archives from 1871 about the custom of Moving Day.
Below is a painting done around 1840 depicting the May 1st melee in New York.

Woodem Floors, How to Clean Them from
The Manufacturer and Builder

Dining while on the Railroad, 1869

2007-09-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ten Minutes for Refreshments.
How much longer shall we be condemned to hear
this horrid cry upon our railroads? That it brings
pleasure to any but a few hungry fellows, with long
legs, hard cheeks, and ready digestion, we have always
doubted. The miseries and costliness of railroad re-.
freshment-rooms have long been a proverb; and it did.
not need that Dickens should show us how badly these
things were managed in England that we should ap
preciate our peculiar national grievances in this line
They manage these things better in Europe. On cer-
tain German railroads, for instance, you may be
travelling about the ordinary hour. At a certain station a
man gets on the train and takes the orders of all pas-
sengers who desire dinner. At another station, about
half a mile distant, the said dinners are placed before
each passenger; the number of orders having been
telegraphed from the station where they were taken.
For half an hour or thereabout the passengers are at
liberty to enjoy their meal, and then, at another sta-
then, the empty plates and baskets are taken away.
It need not be supposed that there is any inconveni-
ence or possible discomfiture in these railway dinners.
One does not hold a plate on his knees and a cup of
coffee in his hands. Upon the arrival of the train at
the dinner-station, each passenger ordering the meal
is furnished with a tall, round basket, about as high
but of not as great a diameter as a flour-barrel. This
basket has a flat top, with a rim around it, and a door
in the side, which, opening, shows shelves within, with
hot soup, meat, vegetables, perhaps dessert, and a bot-
the of wine, bread, etc. A depression in the top of the
basket holds the drinking-glass; and all tIme passenger
has to do is to take out his plates and eat at his leisure.
The cost of this meal is something like a half-dollar.
The value to a hungry, tired traveler is at least five
dollars. Are the American people so stupid that they
would not appreciate some improvement of this kind?
Let an enterprising company try them.

from the Manufacturer and Builder, Oct,1869

Bread Making, 1869

2007-09-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

from
THE MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER, Feb 1869

THE bread-making business has undergone great
changes since the days of our fathers and mothers.
Fifty years ago bakers bread was a comparative
rarity; and the purchase of the article by a well-to-do
Yankee family was rather the exception than the rule
in domestic economy. The family yeast-pot was as
common in those days as the pork barrel in the cellar.
And at all the little corner variety shops, where were
sold clay-pipes for old men, and maccaboy snuff for
old women, and gingerbread men and horses and
chaises, and candy and chestnuts for children, a
cents worth of yeast, too, might be bought by those
whose pets had unexpectedly failed them, or whose
poverty or huprovidence compelled them to live from
hand to mouth. But now, how changed is every thing
of this kind! A very few old-fashioned people still
keep up the habit of making family bread ; but they
are very few and very far between in our great cities
and towns especially. And even these old-time people
now depend very much on patent yeast-cakes, or some
other modern invention, for raising their bread; or
upon soda or saleratus, or some such stuff; to make the
bread eatable when made; while the great mass of
families look to the professional baker for the staff of
life. And we rather think that, on the whole, the
community are gainers by substituting bakers bread
for what can ordinarily be got from their own kit-
chens; for bread-making is almost one of the lost
domestic arts of America. Girls are taught astronomy
and algebra, philosophy and physiology, German and
French, music and dancing, embroidery and every
thing else that can be crammed into them even to
cake-making sometimes; but bread-making good,
light bread-making many of their mothers know
nothing about; and how can the children be taught
the lost art?
Good home-made bread is doubtless more economical
and healthful than the general run of bakers bread.
But bakers are so improving in the manufacture of
bread, that their leaves and rolls are now preferred by
many, even of those who can have family bread if they
wish it. This certainly would be a fair inference from
the number of bakers who find remunerative employ-
ment in this community, if we had no other means of
knowing the fact. This city alone supports no less
than one hundred and thirteen baking establishments,
and many of them large ones too. Some of them, to
be sure, are shipbread and cracker bakers; but the
vast majority of them bake bread of various kinds for
family use ---fine flour bread, coarse flour bread, biscuit,
and rolls. A few bake occasionally --once or twice a
week, or daily---brown bread, or rye and Indian bread;
and not a few supplement their bread-making with a
great variety of cake and pastry, some of it of a very
superior quality.
In nothing has there been a greater change among
bakers than in the method of heating their ovens.
These are now made broad and low, say from fourteen
to eighteen feet square, and from thirty-six to forty-
four inches high; and instead of being heated with
fagots, or finely split wood that would burn freely
with a good deal of flame, a fourteen-foot oven is now
heated, and kept for any length of time at any re-
quired temperature, by the use of some two or three
bushels of anthracite coal, placed in one corner of the
oven on a movable grate, which can be easily handled
and regulated from with out the oven, and which can
be kept burning during the process of baking, and
diminished or increased in violence as tile contents of
tile oven may require. This invention not only saves
an enormous amount of hard, hot, and dirty work,
which was required of the old-fashioned bakers in pre-
paring their oven wood and supplying the oven after
tile fire had been made, and in clearing and cleaning
the oven when sufficiently heated; but it saves, also,
the annoyance occasioned by the differerent heating pow-
ers of different kinds of wood, and enables the baker to
keep up a steady and unvarying heat for any length of
time, whether the oven is in use or not. In fact, it
gives a baker a perpetual oven, always ready for use,
without the trouble of filling or cleaning it; simply
by the easy process of throwing into one corner a
shovelful of coal occasionally.

Paper Houses, 1869

2007-09-14T03:36:00.000-07:00

The following article was printed in The Manufacturer and Builder in June, 1869.
It says it was originally printed in the Des Moines Register, Wisconsin. I was intrigued by the idea of Victorian era paper houses, but found nothing else about them so far. I did, however find a Rev.W.W.King in Des Moines in 1868. There's a problem though. This is what I found in a history of Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1868 the first Universalist Church was organized, with Rev. W. W. King pastor. Its first meetings were held in Moore's Opera House, until a church edifice was erected on the corner of West Sixth and Cherry streets. This building was removed to Ninth street in 1879, and is occupied by the Temperance Reform Club.
At that time, however, as far as I could tell in my research, there was no Des Moines Register. There was, however, a paper called the Iowa State Register in Des Moines. Iowa and Des Moines used to be part of Wisconsin Territory til the mid 1830's.
Is it all coincedence, or did someone at The Manufacturer and Builder print some facts incorrectly? In any event, It's still interesting to know that at least a few people were trying out paper as a building material.

Paper Houses.
THE Rev. W. W. King thus relates in the Des
Moines (Wis.) Register his experience in building
one of these paper houses. We have no doubt that
our readers will extract from Mr. Rings communica-
tion, hints which may be valuable under some
circumstances. His story runs as follows:
I want to give such information as I possess touch-
ing a matter of interest to some people, especially to
those who desire to build comfortable houses, and whose
pecuniary resources are limited. Anxious to secure a
house for my family, and avoid paying one dollar a
day rent, I began my preparations for building the
1st of last October, and the 1st of December moved
into very comfortable winter quarters. After consult-
ing with reliable parties and examining the material,
I concluded to use the Hock River Company’s build-
ing paper, and it is of this experiment and its result
that I desire more particularly to speak. I have used
the paper on the outside instead of weather-boards, or
siding, on the roof instead of shingles, and on my in-
side walls throughout instead of plastering, and with
results more than satisfactory. I have a home warm-
er than any plastered house I ever saw, and I have
saved more than one third of the expense of the old
method. The erection of my building was in all re-
spects an experiment, but I learned continually by
trial, and could now improve on that experiment in
many respects. I think I can give practical advice to
those who desire to use this material.
In the first place, as all the walls inside and outside
are covered with common surface-dressed sheeting,
the studding can be placed at least three feet apart,
and the frame be stiffer than that of an ordinary
building. Here there is a large saving of about one half of
the dimension-lumber required in a plastered build-
ing. I covered the outside walls and roof with -
sheeting. On the roof, I used the plain paper, commencing
at the eaves, and bending over the edge of the paper,
and fastening to the edge of the roof-board with
common headed ten-ounce tacks, driven about one inch
apart. The next course of paper was lapped over the
joint four inches, taking pains to join the lap before
laying with a heavy coat of mineral paint, then tack-
ing as before, near the lower edge of the second course
and through both. Care should be taken to tack the
ends carefully. When the roof is thus laid, it should
be covered with a heavy coat of mineral paint. Then
have common inch lumber cut into strips half an inch
thick, and these strips laid up and down the roof from
eight to ten inches apart, and fastened with shingle
nails ; then cover all with mineral paint, and you have
a roof that no wind or rain can penetrate, and which I
am confident, if kept properly painted, will last an
ordinary lifetime. On the outside walls, put the paper
on perpendicularly, laying the edges of the courses
together and tacking once in four inches, and following
with mineral paint. Then take common battens,
paint them on the back side, lay once over the joints,
where the courses of paper meet, and once in the
centre of each course; then paint as on the roof. Care
should be taken outside and inside to lay the paper
close to the window-frames and door-frames before the
casings are set, so that the casings may cover all joints.
On the inside, I use common sheeting laid close from
the floor to the top of the back of a common chair; and
from that point to the top and overhead I use strips of
lumber from two to four inches wide and two feet
apart taking pains to have the edges of the paper
meet the centre of a strip. The paper should be laid
lengthwise on the strips, and the edges tacked each
inch, with occasional tacks here and there through the
centre of the paper. Then, when all is done, use for
walls and ceiling any wall-paper to suit the taste.
The walls and ceiling of the kitchen and pantry should
be painted with mineral paint for a ground-work, and
then any color to suit. Strips of paper or thin muslin
pasted over the joints in the paper before painting, to
hide the heads of tacks, will improve the appearance.
For floors, use common surface-dressed lumber, and
then cover with paper before carpeting. These plain

directions will insure comfort and economy. The
paper can be laid at a cost of from ten to twelve cents
per yard. This includes every thing, labor and mate-
rial. Let us look at the net results of advantages:
First. You can build at any season of the year,
finish your rooms to-day and move into them to-mor-
row.
Second. You save a large expense in hauling lime
and sand.
Third. You save largely in the amount and qual-
ity of labor required, as there is far less work, and it
can mostly be done by common laborers.
Fourth. You save one half of your dimension-lum-
ber; and after the frame is up and the partitions set,
it is less expense to prepare the walls for the paper
than for plastering.
Fifth. You have a warmer house than can be built
with lumber and mortar.
In conclusion, I believe the Paper House is a
success, and will prove a great blessing and improve-
ment in this climate, and especially to the thousands
who must study economy.

Children's Toys, 1869

2007-09-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

From THE MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER, vol 1 issue 1, Jan. 1869

By far the larger class of toys are those which appeal only to the imagination. Children like to make believe; therefore, mamma buys little horses and carts, little cups and saucers, little chairs and tables, little dolls and doll-houses. These things are all well; but a child should not be confined entirely to them, since they stimulate but one part of the mind. Especially should the mistake be avoided of buying expensive, ready-made toy apparatus of this class, such as is imported from Europe, and giving it to children, who find in a few hours that there is nothing left for them to do but to admire that which has been done for them. The children of Nuremberg or the Black Forest, who make these elaborate toys, get all the good out of them; for they are educated to skill in their pretty handiwork. But the pampered city boy or girl who receives one of those marvelous complete sheepfolds, or baby-houses, or trains of cars, with passengers and conductor and baggage complete, and an engine which papa must wind up before it will go, can do little with it except to smash it; and this healthy instinct, we are glad to say, is generally followed.
Children are popularly said to be destructive. So they are; but in many cases their destructiveness is famished and hungry constructiveness. Your boy would make a whistle if he had a chance; but you buy him a whistle, and he breaks it. Among the toys for the imagination, to which we have alluded, there are many which call into activity what might be called the practical application of imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, etc.
For girls, no dolls are so instructive, and amusing too, as paper dolls. When girls can sew, it is almost a wicked waste of their time to leave them sewing clothes for those great monstrosities of dolls which require as much labor and care as real babies, and are horribly ugly after all. But paper dolls give larger dividends of entertainment, beauty, and education, both in taste and dexterity, than any others.

Let us say just here, that we do not believe arbitrary distinctions should be made between boys and girls. Nature causes their tastes to diverge quite easily enough; and while they are unconscious of such a difference, it is unwise to force it upon them. For girls to engage in out-door sports, and for boys to find pleasure in quiet play, even with dolls, is beneficial to both. Besides, the only way to discover what may be the bent of any mind is to open all the avenues of activity to the child, and see into which it naturally enters.
Marbles, tops, kites, and all games of dexterity, especially when accompanied with healthy exercise, are admirable. But children should be allowed to assist at least in making their own kites and balls. Pinewood and a jack-knife are better than all manufactured toys put together; and even before the age when these may be employed, it is possible to begin to educate children in the direction of making things.

But still more important and easy is it to provide entertainment which trains the powers of observation. Lead-pencils and paper, slates and pencils, give pleasure to very young children, and should be furnished them freely. If a child scrawls on the leaves of books, the remedy is to provide it with plenty of fair white paper, or with a pretty blank-book, and to praise its free use of the pencil there. A small magnifying-glass is a wonderful pleasure to a child. Nor is it difficult to interest very young children in the various natural objects around them. The youngster who is painfully taught, at three years, the difference between A and B, should rather be learning how to distinguish an oak from an elm, or a cricket from a grasshopper. In those cases (unhappily rare, as yet, among us) where the parents themselves are familiar with nature and natural science, it is astonishing how rapidly the children imbibe the& knowledge and the love of it.

Philosophical toys, so-called, are of no great benefit. Either they are quite incomprehensible to the young, or they demand reflection, without particularly stimulating observation. Their proper function is in the school-room.

To recapitulate in better order the hints thus given, we subjoin a list of toys which we would recommend as at once the most agreeable and the most profitable to children. The list is arranged in the order of advancing age, beginning with the time when the child is first able to play by itself. No account is made of sex ; but it is evident that the articles mentioned are not equally appropriate to both sexes. A proper choice should be made. Here is our catalogue : Soft ball, of bright color; blocks, not all of one size, but of various shapes and sizes, and with pictures; books containing pictures of animals, trees, and other familiar objects; a little toy cart, which can be loaded and unloaded, a pair of reins for playing horse ; a rocking-horse; paper dolls; lead-pencils; slate and pencils ; a magnifying-glass; marbles and tops; nine-pins; mineral specimens, and other objects illustrating natural history. All these may be given before a child learns to read. As soon as possible, the all-important jack-knife should be added, and, after that is done, the question of toys will take care of itself.

The prevailing evil at present is, that too many toys are given to children. A few well-chosen ones susceptible of varied use, are better than many costly but cumbrous and unfruitful contrivances. The children of the last generation, who grew up on one picture-book and a basketful of chips, got as much amusement, and more profit, than do the pampered little innocents of to-day.

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