07/01/2014 by scheong

The Long Slow History of Fast Food

Sweet, sugary, salty, greasy, filling, sinfully delicious and atrocious for your waistline.

Yeah, whatever…

Fast Food doesn’t have a good reputation. And ever since the 1950s, it’s been blamed for everything from heart-attacks, strokes, diabetes and an increasing global girth.

Delightful.

But just how long has fast food been around? Where did it come from? And how did it take on the form which we know today? Put down your milkshakes, pick up your burgers, and let’s find out…

What is “Fast Food”?

Fast food, by definition, is any food which can be prepared quickly, cheaply, and eaten on the go. Generally, such food ain’t too good for you, on account of the fact that it’s usually full of crap that you probably shouldn’t eat.

…but it tastes so good.

Given this definition, how far back can we trace fast food? Fifty years? A hundred? Two? Three? A thousand or more? Hmm.

The First Fast Food

Fast Food as we might know it today has ancient roots. Literally. Places where you went for quick, cheap bites to eat, which were open to the public, and which provided prompt service for a paltry fee are surprisingly old. Ancient, in fact.

The first people who we know for certain operated fast food outlets were the same people responsible for underfloor heating, sports stadiums, running water and Rent-A-Chariot services – The Ancient Romans!

The Romans were busy people. And when you’re a busy Ancient Roman, going out conquering ancient lands, bringing back animals for the Colosseum or trying to invade Germania, you need cheap, filling meals. Enter fast food.

We know the Romans had fast food because such fast-food establishments have been found in Ancient Roman settlements, most notably, the wonderfully preserved city of Pompeii. So, what did the busy Roman eat?

Forget burgers and fries, Roman fast food was far simpler, and far more alcoholic.

Staples of Ancient Roman fast food included fried fish (but no chips), sausages (but no hotdogs), fried eggs, and bread rolls. To add flavour to their food, the Romans used…ketchup!

No, not really.

Instead, they used a festering fish-based sauce called garum. Garum (which is, shall we say, a matured fish sauce), was added to almost anything. It was incredibly potent and the ancient Romans loved it. And like Heinz Ketchup today, it was carted all over the Empire.

Ancient Romans didn’t have soda or milkshakes to quench their thirsts. Instead, they had…wine! And they loved it!

If you should find yourself suddenly transported to Ancient Pompeii and looking for a quick feed, these fast-food establishments were called cauponae, and in case you couldn’t find any, just look for the signs.

No, not the Golden Arches, this dude:

Anyone who is a connoisseur of fine wine ought to know who this is. And for those who don’t, meet Bacchus. Roman God of Wine! Along with his buddy Mercury (God of Commerce), paintings of this dynamic duo were often found in, or directly outside fast food joints in Ancient Rome. Praying to these Gods was seen as a way to ensure good business and fine wine.

Sadly, the glory days of Roman fast food died with the Empire. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 400s, almost everything that they had created was swept under the rug. Running water, paved roads, fancy robes, tiled rooves, central heating, indoor plumbing…even apartment-blocks! And for centuries, mankind had to survive on what he could grow, catch, kill or create. No quick and easy meals here.

At least, that was the case if you lived in the country.

If you were fortunate enough to live in a major city, such as London, Paris, Venice, or Rome, during the Middle Ages, you could still get fast food.

Don’t forget that during this period, cooking at home was relatively rare. If you were poor, you probably didn’t have a kitchen. Most people only had a fire, and a pot, and cooked whatever they could chuck into it. Actual kitchens were rare, and reserved for the wealthy. The money spent on building brick or clay stoves, the expense of firewood (which had to be bought if you couldn’t get it free), and the price of ingredients often made cooking at home prohibitively expensive.

The Increase of Fast Food

Fast Food of a sort has always been around in one form or another, because there will always be people who can’t, or won’t, cook for themselves. What constituted fast food depended on where you lived.

Coastal regions sold foods such as oysters. In fact, until the end of the 19th century, oysters were considered cheap, filling snacks in the United Kingdom. They were sold on the streets to working stiffs, or sold in public houses and taverns to the drunks. It wasn’t until uncontrolled pollution and over-fishing destroyed Britain’s oyster-beds that they started becoming the sought-after luxury item that we think of today.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, something happened called the Industrial Revolution. The massive increase in urban populations caused by the need for cheap labour to run factories and mills meant that suddenly, lots of people needed food! And most of these people couldn’t afford to cook at home. They either couldn’t, because they lived in tenements (which rarely had proper kitchens), worked long hours and slept whenever they could, or wouldn’t, because they didn’t know how.

To stop the masses of great cities like London from starving to death and dropping dead in the streets, fast-food vendors popped up all over town. People realised that a quick shilling could be made by selling cheap food to the masses. Welks, baked potatoes, oysters, sheep’s trotters, bowls of pease pudding, or pea soup, and other quick, cheap, hot, delicious, albeit, questionable delights were soon all over the place.

Questionable being the key word here. There were absolutely no food-safety laws in existence, and in 19th century Europe and America, a large amount of food sold to the unsuspecting public was adulterated, to make it last longer, increase bulk, or yield, or to make it look more appealing. Building-plaster was added to bread to increase its bulk and make it look really white. Paint was added to clumps of candlewax…toffee, anyone?

The Industrialisation of Fast Food

With the spread of railway networks in the 1800s, fast food got even faster, and cheaper. One of the most significant examples of this is Britain’s national dish – Fish and Chips.

For a long time, fish was rather expensive. It was expensive to catch, it was expensive to transport, it was expensive to store. But with the growth of railways, it was now possible for a fishing-boat to offload its catch, pack it into crates of ice, and send it to London by rail, where it would arrive within 24 hours!

This meant that the price of fish dropped significantly, and in 1860, England’s first fish-and-chip shop opened!

Once considered a poor man’s meal or a working stiff’s lunch, fish and chips gradually became acceptable fare for all classes of British society during the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, by the 1900s, fish and chips were SO popular, that they were one of the FEW things UNRATIONED during the Second World War (other unrationed foods included vegetables). That said, fish was pretty hard to get during the war. So even if it was off-ration, it wasn’t easy to find. Chips, on the other hand, were freely available – you were limited only by the number of potatoes that you could grow in your ‘Victory Garden’.

It was during the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution that many of our most favourite and desirable fast foods were created. More about that, later…

The Fast Food Restaurant

The notion of a fast-food restaurant, of the kind that we might recognise today, did not arrive until the early 20th century. Most would trace its origins back to about 1902, with the opening of the first “automatic restaurant”, in New York City.

The ‘automat‘ served fresh, hot meals in glass-fronted cabinets. The hungry diner simply walked up to the case, selected the dish he wanted, and fed coins into the slot next to the door. Once the price was paid, the door fell open, and the meal could be retrieved. The door was then closed, and the slot was marked for refilling. The empty slot in the cabinet was refilled with another meal, prepared fresh in the kitchens behind the display-cabinets.

A typical automat setup from the early 20th century

The automat remained one of the most popular forms of fast-food service in the United States until the 1960s. They eventually died out when it was no-longer economical to pay for full meals using loose change. Could you imagine trying to pay for a burger, fries, coke, chicken-nuggets and a slice of chocolate-cake by constantly feeding dimes or quarters into a machine, over, and over, and over again?

Branching off from the automat came the more familiar styles of fast-food restaurants which we know today.

The Burger Kings!

Fast-food restaurants which are familiar to us today had their origins in the early 20th century, and starting in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, many famous names were established, mostly in the United States.

In 1921, White Castle burger-restaurants opened their doors in the United States. The original Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its doors in 1930…in…Kentucky! But it would not become a franchise until 1952.

The most famous of all fast-food restaurants was opened in 1940. Originally run by a pair of brothers named Richard and Maurice McDonald.

I wonder what their restaurant was called?

The First McDonalds

Burger King was opened in 1954. Taco Bell and Subway followed in 1962, and 1965, respectively.

The Main Ingredients

Ask anyone the main components of a typical fast-food meal, and they’d probably say a burger, with fries, or a hotdog, or wedges, or pizza, or something of that nature. But where do they come from?

The Hamburger

The Hamburger comes from…Hamburg, Germany.

Or at least, the word itself does.

Originally “Hamburger” referred to someone from the German port city of Hamburg, just as how Londoner refers to someone from London, or Berliner, a person from Berlin.

The ancestors of the hamburger-sandwich date back almost to antiquity, but one of the first dishes to share the name, and not just some vague similarity, might be the “Hamburgh Sausage“. A recipe for this sausage is mentioned in a book written by English cook, Hannah Glasse, in her famous tome: “The Art of Cookery (Made Plain and Easy)“, from 1763. However, the resultant dish is more of a large sausage, rather than a meat-patty sandwich.

It’s believed that the hamburger may have another ancestor – the Steak Tartare! In this form, ground up, or minced beef recipes immigrated from Russia to the German port of Hamburg during the 1600s. However, neither England, Germany, nor Russia can lay claim to being the birthplace of the hamburger-sandwich.

No. The prize goes to the Americans.

Hamburg was a major port during the 19th century, and large numbers of German and European immigrants to the New World would board steamships departing from Hamburg, bound for ports such as New York. To make a quick buck off hungry German sailors who docked in America, American cooks started making “Hamburg-style” steaks, using the ground-up beef patties which the Germans had inherited from the Russians. They’re similar to the more familiar Salisbury Steaks, but with slightly different ingredients.

From a Hamburg Steak to a hamburger-sandwich was the simple step of…sandwiching…the ground up steak between two slices of bread, or in later years, two halves of a bun.

Exactly WHO created the hamburger as we know it today is unknown. There are loads of conflicting stories, but its creation in America is the one thing that we do know for certain.

French Fries!

Aah. French Fries! Viva La France!

Idiots…can’t have a burger without fries! But to get the authentic thing, you should go to Paris…right?

Wrong.

Sorry folks. French Fries are not actually French! They never were! French Fries actually have their origins in that little country just to the north of France. It’s called Belgium. Most people think that the Belgians only make chocolates, but no, they make fries, too!

But if they originate in Belgium…why are they called French Fries?

It’s believed that they received this name due to the manner in which thin slices or sticks of potato were prepared. They were fried in the “French Style”, meaning that they were cooked in a vat of hot, bubbling oil. Today, we’d call that deep-frying. Originally, they would’ve been “French-fried Potatoes”, meaning potatoes fried in the French manner. In time, the ‘potatoes’ was dropped off, and the term shortened, leaving us with just ‘French Fries’.

However, if you go to France, or Belgium, for that matter, and asked for French Fries, there is still a chance that people wouldn’t understand you. French Fries aren’t called French fries in Belgium. Or Belgian fries, for that matter. They’re called Flemish fries! Try getting your head around that mess…

Hotdogs!

Mustard? Ketchup? Onion-rings? Cheese? Relish?

What do you put on your hotdogs? Or do you eat them plain? Have you ever wondered where they came from?

Who invented the hotdog, a sausage wedged inside a bun, is unknown. But the sausages which make up the meat in these tubular sandwiches, like the Hamburger before them, came from Germany.

Not for nothing are sausages also called Frankfurters, or Wieners. That’s because the varieties of sausages used in hotdogs came from the German city of Frankfurt, or from the capital city of Austria, Vienna. Vienna also gave us another delicious nibble – the Wiener Schnitzel!

Although it is unknown who invented the hotdog, historical records tell us that they have existed since at least the last quarter of the 19th century, and were first sold in New York City, starting in the 1870s.

That said, hotdogs were not called hotdogs in the 1870s. Although ‘dog’ had been a common nickname for sausages since the 1880s, the complete phrase ‘hotdog’ did not make its first appearance in the English language until the 1890s. Fred Shapiro, the editor of a number of publications detailing the histories of famous quotes, words and phrases, could trace the word ‘hotdog’ back no further than 1892.

Milkshakes

I don’t care who you are. Everyone loves milkshakes! But where do they come from?

Milkshakes in their present form, being a drink made of milk, ice-cream/cream, sugar, fruits and other delicious additives, date back to roughly the same time as the hotdog, the 1880s-1900s. They received the name ‘milkshake’ because prior to the spread of easily-accessed electricity (and the subsequent invention of the electric blender/mixer), milkshakes were quite literally shaken by hand. The ingredients were added into a metal cup, which was then sealed. The whole concoction was then shaken up, much like a cocktail-shaker, and then the drink was served.

With the invention of proper milkshake blenders in the early 1900s, milkshakes became wildly popular, and there were (and still are) countless varieties out there. Peak time for milkshakes was during the postwar “Long Boom”, of the 1950s and 60s. Teenagers flocking to drugstores, corner shops, and cafes, theatres and drive-in cinemas made the drink extremely popular – a popularity that has never waned.

Ketchup!

Mmm, ketchup! Rich, sweet, tangy, slightly sweet sauce, that goes well with almost anything.

But what is it?

The word ‘ketchup‘ originally referred to any sort of slightly-thickened, slightly sweet table-sauce. It could be made out of almost anything! Mushroom ketchup, oyster ketchup…How about Banana ketchup? That was invented in the Philippines during the Second World War, when rationing made it impossible to obtain the necessary tomatoes. Sauce-makers simply removed the crushed tomatoes and added pureed bananas to the mix, instead!

Ketchup as we know it today, tomato ketchup, or tomato-sauce as it’s called outside the ‘States, is generally made of crushed tomatoes, vinegar, salt and sugar, thickened or flavoured with the addition of other spices or herbs.

But where does the word ‘ketchup’ come from?

Believe it or not, it’s Chinese.

‘Ketchup’ was originally a sauce used for flavouring fish-dishes. It was called “Gui Zhi“, in Chinese, or more familiarly – “Gwai-Zap“, in Cantonese. Eventually, the Cantonese pronunciation (from the south of China) won out, and the words eventually morphed from the Canto “Gwai-Zap”, to…Ketchup.

Ketchup was invented in China sometime in the 1600s. It migrated across Asia and Europe thanks to the Silk Road, arriving in England by the end of the century. Originally, it was called “Catchup”, but the more familiar ‘ketchup’ had replaced this spelling by the early 18th century.

Ketchup used to be homemade. And indeed, even after commercial varieties were available, some people continued to make it at home. There’s a memorable scene in the 1944 film “Meet Me in St. Louis” (set from 1903-1904), where Mrs. Smith and Katie the cook are trying to make up a batch of ketchup in the family kitchen – only for every other member of the Smith family to find some reason to suggest altering the recipe!

The most famous brand of ketchup is of course, Heinz Ketchup. 57 varieties of it! Heinz started making ketchup in 1876, and it became wildly popular. By the start of the 20th century, it was being exported all over the world.

The Rise of the Fast Food Restaurant

The “Long Boom” of the 1950s and 60s saw the number of fast-food restaurants rise dramatically, and spread around the world. Everything from corner drugstores and diners, to large, purpose-built fast-food outlets. The rise of institutions like drive-in cinemas and increased movie-watching also spurred on the rise of fast-food. Sales of pizza, fish-and-chips, burgers, fries, soft-drinks, ice-cream and hotdogs all shot up in popularity, all gradually contributing to the fast-food culture which we have in the 21st century. Whoever complained that fast food was a scourge of modern living, however, would be very wrong indeed. Fast Food in one way or another, has always existed, and probably always will.

Hungry for More?

http://www.globusjourneys.in/fast-food-in-pompeii.aspx

http://ancientstandard.com/2007/08/11/mcroman%E2%80%99s-happy-meal-fast-food-in-ancient-rome-1st-c-ad/

19/12/2013 by scheong

Check the Lyrics #1 – Cultural References in Classic Songs

I’m a big fan of vintage jazz and classic pop. Everything from the rowdy days of Tin Pan Alley in the 1880s up to early rock and roll in the 1950s. I love listening to these songs and I love playing them on the piano, or even singing them in the shower.

What? Everyone sings in the shower.

These songs, written by greats such as Cole Porter, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller and Irving Berlin, are in most cases, approaching 80, 90, and 100 years old. The tunes are as enjoyable as ever. But the lyrics often make reference to cultural elements long-since obsolete or out of date. Ever wondered what something was, which was mentioned in an old jazz recording? Let’s find out together.

Song: “The Glow Worm” (1902)
Line: “..You’ve got a cute vest-pocket Mazda,
which you can make glow slow, or faster…”

Originally published in German, and then English, during the Edwardian era, this love-song about a glow-worm’s light enabling a man and his girl to spend time with each other, became wildly popular during the 1950s, when it was recorded by the famous vocal quartet, the Mills Brothers. Although more famous for their music recorded during the 1930s, ‘Glow Worm‘ was an unexpected hit, and was one of their later successes.

The original lyric was: “you’ve got a cute vest-pocket lighter“, referring to a pocket cigarette-lighter. But the Mills Brothers’ version of the song changes that to “pocket MAZDA”.

What is a ‘Mazda‘?

It has absolutely nothing to do with cars.

A ‘Madza‘ was a trademarked name for a type of lightbulb produced by the General-Electric company, starting in 1909. Produced until roughly the end of the Second World War, Mazda lightbulbs were supposed to be more energy-efficient and were meant to burn for longer than conventional lightbulbs of the era.

Song: “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (1929)
Line: “…High hats and ‘Arrow’ collars,
White spats, and lots of dollars…”

‘Arrow‘-brand detachable collars were manufactured by Cluett, Peabody & Co. starting in 1905. This was in an era when shirts came with adjustable sleeves, and removable cuffs and collars for separate washing. Although still used for more formal dress such as Black or White Tie, by the 1920s and 30s when this song was written, ‘tunic-shirts’, without attached collars, were going out of fashion. Cluett, Peabody & Co. ceased manufacturing Arrow collars soon after, and expanded their lines of men’s shirts and garments to make up the loss from falling shirt-collar sales.

During the era when detached collars were popular, however, Arrow collars were advertised using the “Arrow Collar Man”, as recognisable in his day, as Rich Uncle Pennybags, or Colonel Sanders is, today. In the 1920s, Cluett, Peabody & Co. used the ‘Arrow Collar Man’ to increase sales when they made the transition from tunic-shirts to the more familiar collared shirts which we have today. The company is no-longer in business, and closed down in the 1980s.

Song: “From Here to Shanghai” (1917)
Line: “…And I’ll have Ching Ling Foo,
Doing all his magic tricks!…”

This song from the era of the First World War is one of the lesser-known songs produced by the famous songwriter and composer, Irving Berlin. It celebrates the exoticism and cultural diversity of the Shanghai International Settlement (1843-1943), that existed in the heart of China for a hundred years, between the First Opium War, and the end of World War Two. This expatriate enclave hosted the high-life of China, boasting bars, casinos, brothels, race-courses, lavish hotels and grand department stores. Drugs, sex, gambling, corruption and vice reigned supreme.

Ching Ling Foo was a real person, and in his day, he was as famous a stage-illusionist as David Blaine, Penn & Teller, Harry Houdini, or Criss Angel. His act involved everything from conjuring up live babies from seemingly impossible places, to decapitations, to shock and amaze his audience.

A picture-postcard of Ching Ling Foo, from 1898.

Born Zhu Liangkui, Ching Ling Foo was his stage-name, and he gained international fame at the turn of the last century after he traveled to the United States with his acting-troupe, and toured the continent. He lived from 1854-1922, and was the first Chinese magician to gain widespread fame and acceptance in the West.

Although virtually unknown today, Ching Ling Foo’s one-time fame lives on in this Irving Berlin classic.

Song: “Anything Goes” (1934)
Lines: Numerous

“Anything Goes” is one of Cole Porter’s most famous songs. Like another of his famous songs, “Let’s Misbehave“, “Anything Goes” was a commentary on the relaxed social and sexual attitudes and changes experienced around the western world in the 1920s and 30s, after the disaster of the Great War.

The song is full of references to many people who were as famous in their day as Donald Trump or Bill Gates would be, today. So, who were they? Some of them you may recognise. Others have faded into obscurity…

The people, terms or companies mentioned in this song (in order of appearance) include:

Mae West, the famous Hollywood star of the 1930s and 40s, who created scandal where-ever she went due to her risque, double-entendre movie-lines. “Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” is one of them.

Mrs. Ned Mclean is Evalyn Walsh Mclean (1886-1947). She was a prominent socialite and mining-heiress of the early 20th century. She was also, incidentally – the last owner of the Hope Diamond, before it was put on public display. Although she maintained that the famous Hope Diamond Curse never affected her family, it still remains fact that her husband broke up with her, that her grandson died in Vietnam, she lost one son to a car-crash, a daughter to a drug-overdose, and the family-owned newspaper, the Washington Post, went belly-up!

Rockefeller is the famous billionaire, John D. Rockefeller. He once said that he had two aims in life: To earn $100,000, and to live to 100 years of age. He surpassed his first aim by leaps and bounds. And, dying at the age of 98, in 1937, came within two years of achieving his second!

Max Gordon was a New York theatre and film-producer, who lived from 1892-1978. During the Depression, when a quarter of all Americans were out of work, Gordon still managed to put on theater-shows, something which was almost impossible to do without wealthy patrons…like Mr. Rockefeller!

Jitneys, ‘Bilts, and Whitneys. A ‘Jitney’ is another term for a jalopy, a cheap, battered old automobile. The ‘Bilts’ are the illustrious Vanderbilt family. The ‘Whitneys’ were another prominent, old-money family, on-par with the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, although they’re not as well-remembered today. They were famous for their philanthropy.

Sam Goldwyn, of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fame.

Anna Sten was a Russian-American actress (1908-1993), who was under contract to Sam Goldwyn during the 1930s. She was most active from the 1920s-1940s, and from the 50s until the 60s, only acted occasionally, retiring from acting entirely by 1965. She died in 1993 at the age of 84.

Mrs. R. and Franklin are of course, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor. ‘Simmons‘, is a mattress manufacturer. Established in 1870, it’s still kicking today.

Song: “Hop, Skip, Jump” (1936)
Line: “…I don’t want to sail through the seven seas,
Even if the boat were Normandie…”

The S.S. Normandie was the pride of the French Line back in the 1930s. A floating, Art Deco palace, it was sadly lost to fire, and capsized while being fitted out for military service in New York Harbor, during the Second World War.

The S.S. Normandie photographed at sea

Song: “Pack Up Your Troubles” (1915)
Line: “…As long as you’ve a Lucifer
To light your fag, smile boys, that’s the style…”

Anyone who’s ever studied the First World War will be familiar with this song. And anyone who’s ever had grandparents who lived through it will probably have heard them singing it. My grandmother was born in 1914, and she used to sing this song all the time.

‘Fag’ in this context refers to the British slang-word for a cigarette. Most people know that today. ‘Lucifer’ refers to a brand of friction-matches manufactured in the 1800s. By the time of the First World War, it had become rather generic. People asked for ‘Lucifers’, not matches. Like how you might ask for an ‘esky’, instead of an ice-chest.

Song: “Hooray for Hollywood” (1937)
Line/s: Numerous.

If you’ve ever seen a film-industry awards ceremony on television, you’ve probably heard this song. Written for an obscure film (“Hollywood Hotel”) back in 1937, this song celebrated the golden age of Hollywood and the American filmmaking industry, that lasted from the 1920s up to the end of the 1960s. It’s packed with all kinds of obscure references to people and machines that have faded into history. On top of that, the lyrics have themselves, changed with the times. The original lyrics from 1937 said that, “…any shop-girl can be a top-girl, if she pleases a tired businessman…”, would get raised eyebrows even today! Forget the conservative 1930s! Let’s go through the lyrics…

A “good-looking pan” means a good complexion or a handsome appearance. ‘Pan’ was an old slang-word for your face!

The lyrics referenced many famous Hollywood actors or institutions of the 1930s. Among them, child star Shirley Temple, and evangelist Aimee Semple. Later versions also mentioned Donald Duck. More obscure references include Max Factor, who was a noted makeup-artist and cosmetics salesman of the 1930s, and Tyrone Power, the Hollywood pretty poster-boy of the 1930s, comparable to someone like Brad Pitt today.

One of the most obscure technological references in the song is “Rotos“. Obsolete today, the Rotoscope was a revolution in enhancing film-making back in the early 20th century.

In layman’s terms, rotoscoping was the process of tracing animated cartoons into film, so that cartoon characters would appear in live-action scenes. This was incredibly laborious work – it had to be done frame, by frame. But the results were amazing. The process was pioneered by the Fleischer Brothers (of “Betty Boop” fame). The process was also used to trace and draw out animated characters over the movements of an actor in a live-action film (to imitate running, or dance-moves, for example, in a realistic manner).

Rotoscoping survived into the late 20th century (the earliest Star Wars movies still used rotoscope technology to create the classic glow of the light-sabres), but it’s now mostly obsolete, with most of its work being done by computers.

Song: “Chicago” (1921)
Line: “…The town that Billy Sunday could not shut down!…”

William Ashley Sunday (1862-1935), was an American athlete and baseballer. But he’s most famous today for being an evangelical preacher, who spoke strongly in support of Prohibition in the United States during the 1920s.

Remember those guys who went around going on and on about the “evils of drink” and how whiskey was the “Devil’s Poison” and how it was “sacrilegious to drink on Sundays” (or any other day of the week)?

That was Billy Sunday. And needless to say, while some people supported his views, folks who were fighting Prohibition’s stranglehold on the United States, saw him as the Antichrist.

Chicago, being well in the grip of Al Capone and his fellow Mafia gangsters, was floating in booze, thanks to illegal rackets, speakeasies, moonshine and bootlegging. The Chicago Police Department was one of the most corrupt in the nation. Everyone from the mayor to the chief of police, the police commissioner, down to your friendly neighbourhood patrolman pounding his beat, was a bent as a broken fish-hook. It really was one of the towns in which Billy Sunday’s Fire and Brimstone preaching had no effect.

Song: “Doin’ the Raccoon” (1928)
Line/s: N/A

One of my favourite novelty jazz-songs of the 1920s, ‘Doin’ the Raccoon’ was all about college boys who were all into the latest fad fashion of the 1920s – wearing coats made of raccoon-fur. Raccoons, a huge pest-problem in big American cities, were hunted and trapped for their furs, which were sewn together into coats. Before the days of animal rights, this was considered the best scenario out of a bad situation.

The fad for raccoon coats lasted from about 1926-1930. Only about four years, five at most. But long enough for there to be a pop-song made about it. Could you imagine someone making a song about designer-stressed sagger jeans today? Urgh. The song captured the nature of college education in the United States in the 1920s, when a much smaller percentage of the population went to university. Granted, the song concentrates on the famous “Ivy League” universities such as Harvard and Yale.

12/12/2013 by scheong

New Bobbins! Yay!

About a year or so ago, I got my hands on a very nice interwar Singer V.S. 128 sewing machine…

The machine had a number of issues. To begin with, it did not have both slide-plates. Fortunately, I managed to pick up a slide-plate at my local flea-market, along with a box of loads of other things and bits and pieces.

The machine also lacked the classic bentwood base-lid…and the key that went with it. I managed to pick those up at an antiques wholesaler outside of town.

But the biggest problem with these antique vibrating-shuttle sewing-machines is finding bobbins. These machines are not like Singer 15s, 99s or 66s. They do not use conventional flat, spool-shaped bobbins, which you can still buy today. They use what are called “long bobbins” or “Shuttle bobbins”, which look like free-weights for mice.

This machine did come with its original shuttle, and two bobbins, but that was it. I also had to source an attachments box…and attachments to fill it!

The machine could now be used, carried, locked and stored without any issues, but it still had only two bobbins. And with machines this old, extra bobbins are hard to find.

That’s why I got so excited when I found more bobbins yesterday afternoon, at a local thrift-shop. Granted, there were only two, but two is better than nothing!

The two bobbins on the bottom are the originals which came with the machine. The two lying across the top are the new ones I managed to find. It’s a small triumph, but it’s a triumph nonetheless. And even better – they were free!

And it beats having to pay for them on eBay. You can buy reproduction long-bobbins on eBay, for your V.S. machines, but it’s better, and safer, to try and find the originals – those, you know for certain, will fit into the shuttle properly, and will work correctly when you run them through the machine.

29/10/2013 by scheong

The Ultimate Book of Mysteries: The Voynich Manuscript

This posting marks the 4th Anniversary of my blog, which I started on the 29th of October, 2009.

This is a blog about my biggest passion – History. And in this posting, I’ll be writing about one of history’s greatest, most amazing and most puzzling, and still-unsolved mysteries: The Voynich Manuscript.

What could be written and said about the Voynich Manuscript is extensive, despite the fact that nobody has read it in 600 years. This posting won’t cover the manuscript in exhaustive detail, but will cover all the main facts, deductions and inferences made about it and its contents. If you want to know more, read the links and videos at the end of this posting. Maybe one day, someone will figure out how to read this amazing book. But until then, we can only guess as to its true contents…

The Mysterious Manuscript

Imagine if you will, that one day you found a book.

It’s an old book. Very old. Centuries old. It’s filled with colour illustrations, and strange, nonsensical text, written in a language, and using an alphabet known to no culture or nation on earth. It’s enormous, it’s mysterious, it’s methodically and carefully written and illustrated.

But it’s impossible to read.

It’s impossible to read because it’s not written in any known recorded language in the history of mankind which had a written system. It’s not German, Italian, Chinese, Latin, French, Old English, Russian or Greek.

The text may possibly be encoded, but all attempts to break the code have been in vain. It’s impossible to find out who wrote the book, and for what purpose. What would you do with such a book?

Such is the puzzle that surrounded American antiques and rare books dealer Wilfred Michael Voynich, when he stumbled across a mysterious volume in an Italian villa in 1912, during an antiquing trip to Europe.

This is the story and mystery of one of the most famous and mysterious historical artefacts ever found: The Voynich Manuscript.

The Discovery of the Manuscript

So, what is the Voynich Manuscript?

The year is 1912. American-Polish antiques dealer and book-collector Wilfred Michael Voynich (1865-1930) is in Italy, seeking out rare books and manuscripts to add to his collection, or to flip on the American antiques market back home. He visits the Villa Mondragone, where local monks in financial difficulties agree to sell off some of the villa’s priceless antique volumes to the American book-dealer.

The Villa Mondragone, Italy

They allow him to inspect the contents of an ancient trunk. It’s loaded with books taken from the library of the late Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), a famous German scholar and scientist.

Voynich eventually purchases thirty books from the Villa’s monks. One of them is an approximately 240-page codex, handwritten in an unknown language or code, and filled with dozens of colour illustrations. Voynich soon realises that this document is not written in ANY known language, and neither does it fit any known code, broken or unbroken, then in existence. Voynich struggles to solve the mystery of his amazing discovery, but he dies in 1930 having almost no clue about what it is that he has found. Today, this mysterious tome is given a title that bears the name of the man who saved it for the world: The Voynich Manuscript.

The Voynich Manuscript is about 240 pages of parchment, bound together in a codex. It’s not a ‘book’ as such, it’s a manuscript, something that is entirely handwritten, using iron-gall ink and a quill pen. Using the manuscript’s illustrations as a guide, experts believe that it contains chapters or sections related to botany, medicine and astrology, as well as a number of pages on recipes related to plants and flowers, and how to prepare them for medicinal use.

Investigating the Manuscript

Nearly a century later, and the top scientific and historic minds of the 21st century are not much closer.

Through inscriptions in the book, and carbon-dating, it’s clear that the book has had at least four previous owners:

Anathasius Kircher (1602-1680)

Who was given the book by…

Johannes Marcus Marci (1595-1667)

Who said, in a letter dated 1666, found in the manuscript, that it was written by…

~~Roger Bacon (1214-1294)~~ Struck off, for reasons explained below.

Before this, the book was owned by…

Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor (1552-1612)

After the emperor dies, one of his creditors is given the book as payment of his debts. It now passed into the hands of Jacobus of Tepenec (1575-1622).

Some believe (although this is contested) that the book was also once owned by famous English astrologer, John Dee, royal adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England. And that it was Dee who sold the book to Emperor Rudolf, who was a patron of arts and sciences. Dee lived from 1527-ca.1608, so he certainly lived at the same time as Rudolf. But whether or not Rudolf received the book from Dee is not known.

Therefore, as far as its ownership can be determined, the Manuscript can only be dated back reliably to the late 16th century, between about 1590-1610.

However, carbon dating shows that the book is almost 200 years older, going back to about 1405-1440. Who owned the book in that gap of almost two centuries? Where did it go, what became of it, what was it used for, and how did it end up in the hands of its first confirmed owner?

No-one knows.

Right off the bat, one owner is automatically removed from the list. Roger Bacon lived and died a full century before the book was thought to have been made. And none of its confirmed owners could possibly be the author. What clues do we know about it?

Manuscript Facts

We do know, thanks to carbon-dating carried out in 2009, that the manuscript dates from the first half of the 15th century, somewhere in the fifty-year window between 1400-1450.

We know that the book’s pages are made of parchment. But parchment, especially of the quality used to make the manuscript, is expensive

Judging by the illustrations and pictures found within its pages, many have surmised that the Voynich Manuscript, rightly or wrongly, is a book about botany, medicine, herb and plant-use, astronomy and/or astrology, and possibly, natural history. But not being able to decipher the curly, unreadable script which makes up the entirety of the book’s text means that these suppositions are mere conjecture.

Although not a ‘fact’ as such, some have theorised that the manuscript was written in Italy. Not just because it was found there, but because of one of the book’s illustrations. On one page of the Manuscript, there is a clear drawing of a castle, or walled city. The castle walls are topped with what are called “Swallow-tail” battlements, or to use the correct term: crenelations.

The castle illustration in the Manuscript.
Note the split crenelations on the walls

Actual ‘swallow-tail’ crenelations

Swallow-tail crenelations were found in various places in Europe, but in the early 15th century when the Manuscript was produced, they’re only found in one country: Italy. The author’s knowledge of this style of crenelations points strongly to the manuscript, or at least its author, coming from Italy.

The Voynich Hoax?

Unsurprisingly, some people have suggested that the Voynich Manuscript is a hoax. Whether or not this is true is impossible to determine, but it is an idea entertained by some, nonetheless.

A Modern Hoax

Some have suggested that the Manuscript is a modern hoax, concocted in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Possibly even by Voynich himself, as a way to make some quick and dirty money. Create a phony document, and then claim it’s a centuries-old mystery-book that nobody can read! Ooooh…

Unfortunately, this falls down flat. The problem is that the parchment of which the book is composed does not support this claim. The parchment is from the 15th century. To get that amount of parchment together, and for no better reason than a hoax-document, would’ve been prohibitively expensive. And to create something so long ago that would be able to stand up to carbon-dating, decades before it was invented in the late 1940s, must show incredible foresight…

Yeah it doesn’t work out.

A Medieval Hoax

People have been faking things for years. Decades. Centuries. Like how there were only 10 Commandments…

Could the Voynich Manuscript be a really, really, really old hoax?

Now let’s consider a few things here…

The Manuscript is entirely handwritten. Entirely hand-drawn and painted. This would take months, possibly even years to complete. Whoever wrote it obviously had a lot of time on his hands, and a lot of education, or creativity. Who had the time and money to waste on something like this?

The Manuscript is made of parchment. Admittedly, rather large sheets of parchment, in some cases. The expense of the parchment and ink, to say nothing of expense of time, must’ve been considerable.

To what purpose was the Manuscript written, if it was so incredibly expensive and laborious to produce? Who would buy an obvious fake? Or who would fund the production of a fake?

The book was written during the time of the Italian Renaissance, a period from the late 1300s until the 17th century. The Renaissance literally means the Rebirth. The rebirth of culture, science, art and learning, after the apocalyptic disaster of the Black Death of the 1340s.

The Renaissance was all about new ideas, and old ideas. Studies of ancient texts and languages, alongside amazing new inventions, like the Gutenberg Press. New texts and books were being eagerly snapped up by the aristocracy, the literate trading and merchant classes, by kings, queens and emperors.

Anyone who could produce a book written in one of these “ancient languages”, and which seemed to contain important information about botany, medicine and nature, could possibly make himself a fortune!

Is this what happened?

It is a possibility. An extremely expensive and risky possibility, but a possibility nontheless. It may be what happened, it may not be. And we may never know.

The Contents of the Manuscript

Assuming that the Voynich Manuscript is not a hoax, then what on earth is contained within this amazing document? Unable to decipher the text, our biggest clues to the book’s contents are the dozens of colour illustrations found throughout its pages. So, what’s inside the Voynich Manuscript?

Using the illustrations as a guide, the book is thought to be divided into…

Botanicals. Concerning plants and flowers, their properties and uses, although even here, there are illustrations of flowers and plants which researchers are not convinced, are found in nature.

Astronomy and Astrology. Concerning the stars. We see stars, maps of the Heavens and so-forth, in intricate sketches and diagrams. We see drawings of the sun, the moon, and various Zodiac starsigns.

Biology. Mostly showing the female form. There’s numerous drawings of pregnant women in the Manuscript.

Pharmacy. There’s plenty of drawings of herbs, flowers and plants.

Recipes. There is a section in the Manuscript which many believe to be a series of recipes, relating to the flowers and plants mentioned in earlier sections, and how to prepare and use these for medical purposes.

Deciphering the Manuscript

The greatest puzzle of the Voynich Manuscript is not who wrote it, or who owned it, or when, where or how it was written, what it was made of or what the paints in the pictures are made of.

It’s what it says.

The Manuscript is written in a language, or code, or cipher, using an alphabet which nobody can read. Everyone from WWII, enigma-cracking cryptographers to the brightest codebreaking minds of the past fifty years have seen the manuscript, and nobody can figure out what it means!

The script of the Voynich Manuscript is so unique, it’s even got its own name: Voynichese

The script of the Manuscript does not conform to any known patterns of language, or to any known patterns of any writing-system known to man, either existing or extinct. So what is it?

There are three different theories…

1. The manuscript is just jibberish made up by someone 600 years ago, which may support the ‘ancient hoax’ theory.

2. The manuscript is code. Although if it is a code, it does not conform to any known method of encoding, or decoding known to mankind. In 600 years, it has never been broken.

3. The manuscript is written in a dead language, with the writing-system of that language, which has been lost to history.

Given the implausibility of theory #2, theories #1 and #3 are most probable. But if the Manuscript is a legitimate document, and not a hoax, then the answer is most likely #3: That it’s written in a dead language which nobody has read, written or spoken in nearly 1,000 years.

Recent research in the 21st century has suggested that theory #3, that the entire document is written in a dead or unknown language, may be the most likely one. Scientists and scholars who published their findings and theories as recently as June, 2013, believe that the script in the Manuscript follow specific patterns. Although these patterns do not seem to conform to any known language, it would suggest that the script is in fact a language, and not just plain jibberish!

Where is the Manuscript?

The Manuscript is held at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, in Connecticut, U.S.A.

Interested in trying to solve the mystery of the manuscript yourself?

There’s a freely accessible scanned copy of the manuscript available at the library’s website. Here’s the link.

There, you can examine every single page of the Manuscript in enormous, high-definition scans.

More Information?

If you want more information…not that there is much…you can look here…

The Voynich Manuscript

This is the most exhaustive website I could find on the Manuscript.

“The Book That Can’t Be Read” (History Channel documentary).

“Key Words and Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript”

BBC News Article on the Voynich Manuscript

24/09/2013 by scheong

Tinkering with a Typewriter – The Underwood No. 5 Standard – POST NO. 2.

“There’s so little to see and so much time!…Wait! STOP! Strike that! Reverse it! Thank you! Follow me…”

– Willy Wonka.

This machine is a marvel and a headache at the same time.

Since my last posting, I’ve glued the spacebar back together, and it’s holding fine:

Before…

…and after!

I replaced the paper-bales, somewhat inelegantly, with strips of rubber-band, cut and stuck to size. The way these things are constructed, I can’t actually use rubber tubing like I wanted to. The rollers are riveted on, not screwed. I can take them off the machine, but I can’t take the rollers out of their housings.

The next step was to remove the platen. What a damn nightmare.

To remove the platen, you take off both side top-plates (the decorative things at the top). Then you remove the right platen-knob. Then you remove the detent mechanism and carriage-release lever on the LEFT side of the platen. Then you unscrew the platen-shaft screws.

Add a bit of oil.

THEN you pull the whole rod out, from the left. Then, you push the paper-bales back, and fish the platen out.

Now you can remove the old rubber from the platen and the rollers.

Resurfacing the Feed Rollers

The Underwood No. 5 is possessed of TWO SETS of feed rollers. Front rollers and back rollers, held in place by the steel PAPER DEFLECTOR.

The paper-deflector clips into place on the typewriter. Just tug it up and slide it out. Once it’s removed, you can turn your attention to the feed-rollers.

The front rollers sit on a pair of forks inside the machine. Just lift them out and they’ll come out in one long rod.

Removing the rear feed rollers, or the back feed rollers, from an Underwood Standard No. 5 typewriter is a real lesson in patience, research, observation and lateral thinking.

Heed me now: There are NO INSTRUCTIONS AT ALL on how to do this ANYWHERE on the internet, and NO INSTRUCTIONS on how to do this in ANY of the antique typewriter manuals that I have read – not even Underwood’s official repair-manual from 1920, produced specifically for this machine.

THIS is how it is done…

To Remove the Rear Feed-Rollers on an Underwood No. 5 Standard Typewriter

1. RAISE the paper-release lever (on the RIGHT SIDE of the carriage).

2. The rear feed-rollers are CLAMPED between two sets of forks. One pair goes over the TOP of the roller-rod, one pair goes UNDERNEATH the roller-rod. How to remove them, you ask?

In this photograph, you can clearly see the two “claws” that lock onto the roller-bar, between the two feed-rollers (the two clumps that look like antique liquorice).

There are two of those sets. One on the left side, one on the right.

The claws that hold the rollers from the UNDERSIDE are tensioned on SPRINGS.

3. Once you have raised the paper-release lever, the upper claws will move. NOW, push DOWN on the lower, supporting claws (which are on springs and therefore, movable). This will allow you to wriggle the feed-rollers out, to replace the rubber.

To replace them, simply wriggle them back in again on both sides, and then drop the paper-release lever, to lock them back in place.

Resurfacing the Feed-Rollers

Having extracted the feed-rollers, it was then necessary to resurface them. As you see in that picture up there, they are in an atrocious state. A typewriter without functioning feed-rollers is like a car on blocks. It just don’t do what it’s supposed to.

Using a very sharp knife, I hacked off all the dead rubber on both sets of rollers. This was a very long, fiddly process. The rubber is probably as old as the typewriter.

Having removed the rubber, it was then necessary to resheath the rollers in fresh rubber.

To do this, I used HEAT-SHRINK TUBING.

Easily purchased at any hardware shop or electronics supplies shop.

Heat-shrink tubing is normally used for sheathing electrical cables and wires. But it’s excellent for this purpose. You cut off the length that you need, and then slide it over the rollers. Get a cigarette-lighter (or use a low setting on your gas stove), and watch the magic!

The heat causes the rubber/plastic tubing to shrink, and form TIGHTLY around the rollers. It’s a simple matter of doing this to each roller, until you have uniform thickness around each one.

I recommend using two different widths of tubing – a thinner one for the front rollers, and a wider one for the back rollers (which are significantly larger).

Behold:

Up the top, the crumbling, hardened, swollen rear feed-rollers. Below, the cleaned, and resurfaced front feed-rollers. Spot the incredible difference.

Once the rollers have been resheathed…

It’s time to put them back inside the typewriter…

The next step is to resheath, and replace the platen. To do this, I shall be using bicycle inner-tubing. For future reference, the diameter of the Underwood 5 platen with rubber sheathing is: 44.5mm. You can round that up or down as necessary.

16/09/2013 by scheong

Staples of Village Life – Craftsmen and Professions of Old

Most of us will have heard this old nursery-rhyme:

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?

The butcher!
The baker!
The candlestick maker!

And they all set out to sea…

For centuries, most people did not live in cities. Mostly because it wasn’t practical and wasn’t safe. Crime, disease, overcrowding, the absence of sanitation and low employment made cities generally undesirable places to live. And the majority of people lived in the country, either on farms, in castles, or in villages or towns nearby. And for centuries, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 400s, right up to the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s, life carried on like this, virtually unchanged for over a thousand years.

But no matter whether you lived within stone’s throw of a castle, in a country town somewhere, or in one of the few cities of any significant size, no civilised settlement at all was possible without certain tradesmen, craftsmen and professionals setting up shop first.

In this posting, we’ll have a look at some of the staple occupations in society which were necessary, for hundreds of years, for any community to flourish, grow, or even to just survive!

The Blacksmith

What’s the most important craftsman of all? The baker for the bread? The butcher for meat? The carpenter? Stonemason? The chandler? Farrier? Farmer? Miller?

None of the above.

Not for nothing is the Blacksmith known as the King of Craftsmen.

For centuries, until the 1800s, civilised life was impossible without the aid of one man. The blacksmith. On his broad, muscular shoulders rested the trades and crafts and services of all others. A lumberjack could fell, split and carve no trees without an axe and saw. A farmer grew no vegetables without a fork and shovel. The carpenter sawed no wood, screwed no screws, and couldn’t nail two planks together without the blacksmith. The blacksmith made the nails!

Ever since antiquity, the blacksmith, or the ‘village smithy’ was the hub of any community. He made everything from gates, to candlesticks, nails, screws, chains, axeheads, swords, saws, hammers, chisels and horseshoes.

The Forge

The blacksmith’s home was his FORGE. A forge is not only the building where he works, but specifically, the enormous firebox which is the heart of his world. Fueled by charcoal and powered by bellows, a blacksmith could not do a thing without his forge.

The forge was required to heat metal (usually iron) until it was hot and soft enough to be worked by the smith. Red hot iron was not good enough for anything. For it to be malleable enough, it was usually heated until yellow hot. White hot metal was usually too soft and sparkly to be of any use when working.

The Anvil and Vice

Every good blacksmith needed an anvil. Originally made of stone, most later anvils, of the kind used by Wil-E-Coyote for everything apart from smithing, were made of iron.

An Annotated Anvil

The picture above is of a typical blacksmith’s anvil. The horn and shoulder were used for bending, curving and curling metal. The step or table was also used for bending metal. The face was a general-purpose working-area, used as an impact-surface for hammer-blows.

On the face are the Hardie Hole and the Pritchel Hole. These two holes are used for slotting in various smithing-tools, such as wedges or splitters, over which the hot piece of iron was hammered and split, broken, cut or otherwise modified during its transformation. The heel, just like all other sharp edges on the anvil (the step and the edges of the face) was used to bend and shape the hot metal.

The Anvil and Vice

Accompanying the anvil was its little brother, the lesser-known blacksmith’s tool called a vice. The vice is like any other vice that you might have bolted to your workbench at home. The only difference here is that it’s designed to put up with extremely high temperatures!

The vice was used to hold a piece of metal in a particular position while it was being worked on or modified in some way. The vice was most commonly used in the process of twisting.

The elaborate twisting patterning on this fireplace poker would’ve been achieved by heating the iron yellow-hot, before clamping it in the vice and twisting it around with a pair of tongs to achieve the spiral effect.

The Hammer and Tongs

Every blacksmith needed these two basic tools. The hammer, for pounding out the metal and shaping it, and the tongs, for holding the metal and twisting and bending it. Because smithing is seen as such hard, heavy, dangerous work, done with speed and brute-force, we still have an expression that survives today – going at something “hammer and tongs“.

Seven Skills of Superior Smithing

The Blacksmith was the keystone and hub of the community for centuries. Without him, nothing could happen. He held the entire place together, and every other profession, craft and trade relied on his ability to work his magic on metal for them to do their jobs.

But to be a good blacksmith required a lot of skills. Seven in total. All major projects undertaken by a blacksmith generally involved some or all of these skills.

Skill No. 1. Splitting

The ability to punch and split a hole through bar-stock and pull it apart. You couldn’t get pitchforks without the ability to do this effectively.

Skill No. 2. Punching

Every good blacksmith had to be able to work a punch. That is, to take a punch (block) and drive it through hot metal with his hammer, to create a hole in the metal. This is how the holes in axeheads were made for the shafts, and how sword-hilts were punched open, to slide onto the ends of sword-blades.

Skill No. 3. Curling

No. Not that Canadian thing. Curling is the ability to bend and curl metal into a spiral. This doesn’t serve any practical purpose as such, and is mostly decorative.

Skill No. 4. Jumping Up/Upsetting

The ability to compact one end of bar-stock to make it thicker and denser than the other end. Nail-heads and screw-heads were made this way.

Skill No. 5. Drawing Out/Tapering

Blacksmith nails

Drawing something out involved flattening it and thinning out one end of an item, to literally draw it out and make it longer and thinner. Nails were made this way for centuries.

So far, all these skills can be seen in one common, everyday tool which most men are likely to have lying in their garden sheds.

The crowbar:

One end must be jumped up, then punched and split. Then curled over. The other end must be flattened and drawn out. And both ends must be bent and twisted to give the bar its distinctive crook-shape.

The other two skills are…

Skill No. 6. Twisting

Curling and twisting are more decorative than practical, but they’re still considered essential smithing skills. This is achieved by clamping iron bar-stock or rods (heated to a malleable temperature) in a vice and twisting them around to create the spiral shape. To open up the spirals into the cage-like appearance of the candlesticks above, the top of the twist is beaten down with a hammer, to force the spiral to break and spread apart. The whole item is then left to cool to hold the shape.

While the candlesticks above do look very pretty, there is one serious side to the smithing skill of twisting iron…where do you think all those pretty spirals in your screws used to come from?

Skill No. 7. Fire-Welding/Forge Welding

Blacksmith chain. Every link has been fire-welded shut,
to prevent breakage under heavy strain

Prior to electrical welding and blowtorches, the only way to weld anything at all was to send it to the blacksmith. And welding was a fiddly, tricky and extremely dangerous undertaking.

Welding is literally melting two pieces of metal and fusing them together by heat. Prior to the introduction of modern blowtorches and electrical welders which were capable of extremely accurate, high-temperature precision welding, the only way to do this was to fire-weld or forge-weld something together.

Let’s say you broke your sword. Or the tine on your gardening-fork snapped off. To weld it back on, the broken element, and the main body, had to be heated at the break-points, until they were literally white-hot. Once this phenomenal temperature had been achieved, the broken piece was attached back to the main body. The blacksmith then bashed away at the join with his hammer, melding the metal back together. The extremely high temperatures melted the iron, causing it to run together. Once the temperature dropped, the entire piece would be one whole item again.

The Butcher

Meat was rarely eaten by most people in medieval times. But nevertheless, the village butcher was an important man to have around. But the butcher of old was expected to know a lot more than how much to charge per-pound for sausages. He was expected to know how to make the sausages, how to get the meat, how to clean it, preserve it, sell it and store it!

Meat and the Butcher

A butcher typically handled three types of meat, which would come from cows, sheep, or pigs. From this, you would get…

Pork, bacon, and ham, from a pig.

Various cuts of steak and veal from a cow.

And lamb or mutton from a sheep.

Veal and mutton are not the same as beef and lamb. Veal is taken from young cows, beef from older cows. Mutton is taken from older sheep, lamb from younger sheep. You might be familiar with the expression: “To sell mutton dressed as lamb“, meaning to pass off an inferior product (mutton) as lamb (which was considered a much more expensive product).

Meat and Class

In older times, social status determined not only IF you ate meat (which was rare for the poor), but also WHAT type of eat you ate, if you could get it.

Not only could the wealthy eat meat more often, but they could also get the better cuts of meat. And they could also eat such prized meats as lamb, veal and venison, which were generally out-of-reach of lower classes.

Lamb is the meat of…lambs. Baby sheep. Since sheep were FAR more important as producers of WOOL, to kill a lamb for its meat was considered extremely wasteful, when it could live for years and give you tons of wool. Only someone who could sufficiently compensate the farmer for the loss of his lamb (i.e., someone rich) could afford to eat lamb. Most people ate mutton, which was from the meat of much older sheep, which had been producers of wool (the backbone of the British economy for much of the Middle Ages) for several years.

Similarly, veal was the meat of young cows. Since cows were far more important as producers of milk, killing a cow before it could produce milk was considered extravagant and wasteful. And only someone who had enough money to recompense the farmer for his extremely expensive loss, would be able to eat it.

Butchering an Animal

These days, most butchers just sell meat. But in older times, a butcher had to be able to do all kinds of things with meat, and had to be familiar with the entire butchering process. Let’s use a pig as an example.

Once a pig had been sent to the Great Pigsty in the Sky…the one with the solid gold slops-trough and diamond-encrusted hog-oiler…the butcher had to get to work.

A pig is a good example because virtually every part of a pig can be eaten, apart from its squeal. Here’s how it’s done…

First, the hog is sliced open. And all the innards are removed. This stuff is typically called “pluck”, because it’s literally the first part of the animal which is “plucked” from the body. Don’t throw that away. It’s good eatin’. You’re gonna find out just how good, later on.

Next, pork comes off. Pork comes from the belly of the pig, nice and close to the ground. The fatty, juicy meat that tastes so damn good when you roast it.

Further up on the sides and on top of the pig is…bacon! Good for breakfast, and good for EpicMealTime (baconstips’n’baconstrips’n’baconstrips…)

Then, you have the hams! Made up of the hindquarters of the pig, specifically its butt and its gigantic thunder-thighs…otherwise called legs of ham!

Everything on a pig can be eaten. Even the head. Even the ears!

Ever heard of the expression “Brains and Brawn“?

“Brains” are…Pig’s brains.

“Brawn” is the meat which is boiled off of a pig’s head. Mmmm.

Now back to them innards. Delicious, warm innards. Here, the intestines are flushed out with hot water and gotten nice and clean. What for?

Well, among other things – sausages.

And, until the invention of rubber – Condoms!

Remember folks. Prevention is the best cure. Next time you pick up that roast for dinner, ask your butcher for a pack of organic, all-natural pig-gut condoms!

Treating the Meat

The animal has been dispatched, disemboweled, and dissected. Now what?

Unless a butcher had a huge family, or was throwin’ a block-party, it was unlikely that an entire pig was eaten before it went bad (after roughly a week or so).

To ensure a pig was good for eatin’ for a long, long time…it had to be preserved or treated. There were a number of ways to do this.

1. Freezing

If the weather was right, you could pack the carcass with ice and freeze it. Freezing kills microbes and preserves the meat.

2. Salting

If the weather wasn’t right, but you had a lot of money, you could salt your pork, and bacon, and ham, by coating it in huge amounts of salt, or soaking it in brine (salt-water solution). But you needed a lot of money to do this – salt was expensive. Even today, we still have the word ‘salary‘. Salting dries out the meat, which prevents rotting. Ever wondered why bacon is so damn salty?

3. Smoking

You don’t have money? Perhaps you can smoke the meat? Stick it on a hook and hoist it up the nearest chimney (usually in the kitchen fireplace). The smoke from the wood burning far below would coat and cure the meat and give it a nice, smoky flavour. It also dries it out, which prevents rotting.

4. Candying

Can’t kindle a flame? You could try candying. Candying is a bit like pickling. But instead of drenching the food in vinegar, you smother it in…HONEY! Honey is a natural preservative, and it lasts literally for centuries…provided that it’s not contaminated. Archaeologists have dug up jars of Egyptian honey which are thousands of years old…and still good for eating!

Caution: Honey is also a natural laxative. After eating that candied ham sandwich, you better have a toilet nearby.

What about the Rest?

When food was so scarce and hard to preserve, literally no part of the animal went to waste. The butcher would’ve saved the hog’s hairs to make brushes (the first toothbrushes were made of pig-hair). He would’ve fried the ears and eaten them for dinner. Even the pig’s FEET were good for something! Boiled over, and over, and over again, strained, refined and reduced, they produced gelatin. Flavour it with fruit-juice, and you got…jelly!

Anything else that was left over was ground up, chopped up, minced, and forced through the intestines, twisted up, boiled…and sold as sausages!…or condoms.

Soon, the only thing left were the bones. And you might even use those for something if you wanted to be really thrifty. How about soup?

The Role of the Butcher

As you can see, the butcher was an important fellow. Every village had to have one. Or, a farmer had to learn how to do his own butchering. And as you can see, there was a lot to learn! Butchers didn’t just work on pigs. They worked on cows, chickens, and sheep as well. Geese, ducks, swans even! And for the extremely wealthy – deer. Only the king, and those who had earned his majesty’s good favours, were permitted to hunt and eat deer. Anyone else was charged with poaching – and faced the death penalty. And for centuries, a person’s ability to eat deer was considered a GREAT privilege.

Who wants venison?

The Baker

Throughout the western world for centuries, bread was THE staple food. Made of oats, rice, barley or wheat, when you could get it, you’d eat up to five pounds (about 9.75kg) of the stuff every day. But then, you spent that day spliting wood, furrowing fields, planting seeds, felling trees, herding sheep, milking cows, smashing away in your forge, weaving, grinding, sewing, dipping…you certainly needed the calories!

The baker was the fellow who made the bread, in his bakery.

Bakers were important staples of village life for centuries. In the days before imported food from around the country, which didn’t happen until the 1800s, everything you ate was made locally. Including the bread.

Bakers had all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. Flour was purchased from the village miller. And flour was expensive. So the baker did absolutely EVERYTHING to get the most out of his expensive flour that he could.

Bread dough was stretched (adulterated) with everything from the horrific (building-plaster!), to the mundane (sawdust), to the everyday (rice-grains).

To make bread rise, brewers yeast was used. Or if yeast was not available…apple-trees. Apples have natural yeast in them. Sticking a rising loaf of bread under a tree meant that the yeast in the apple-skins seeped into the dough, causing it to rise.

Bread wasn’t just made from wheat-flour. Wheat, especially in the Middle Ages, was expensive! It was usually taken by the lord, or the king, as part of his taxes. So most bread was made of barley, rye, oats or rice.

But even here, the baker tried to squeeze every last penny out of every loaf.

To ensure that nobody could accuse him of being dishonest (yeah, right…), the baker always baked thirteen loaves of bread (the ‘baker’s dozen’). That way, nobody could accuse him of cheating them, or shortchanging them. Which is probably just as well, because his conniving ways didn’t stop there.

Baking Bread

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,
Baker’s Man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with a B,
And put it in the oven for Baby and Me!

For centuries, you couldn’t bake at home. Most people had fireplaces at home. But not ovens. If you wanted to bake bread, you took it to the village baker, who baked it for you, and marked it with your initials, as in the rhyme, so that you would be assured of getting your loaf or cake, or pie, returned to you.

But how do you bake without temperature-control?

First, the oven (which is a huge, brick cave), is filled with wood and set on fire. The oven is allowed to get really hot, and the fire must fill the entire oven. Then, once the fire is burned down, the ashes are raked out, the pies and loaves are stuffed in, and a door, soaked in water (so that it swells and creates a seal, and so that it doesn’t burst into flames) is stuffed over the entrance of the oven. Spare bread-dough is used to further seal the entrance and prevent the escape of heat.

A medieval-style oven heating up, with the door open

The bread is now left to bake. It’s done when the dough on the door is also baked. There’s no temperature control, but at least you have a timer, of sorts!

Once the bread is ready, it’s removed from the oven.

But ovens aren’t very clean. A baker wasn’t going to spend all day sweeping the ashes out of his oven, before he shoved in the dough. By the time he did that, he’d lose all the heat, and the bread wouldn’t bake properly.

As a result, fresh bread always had a slightly burnt, black, crusty underside, from where it contacted the bottom of the oven.

The loaves were cut horizontally. The cheaper, burnt undercrusts were sold to the poor and the peasantry who considered themselves lucky to have them. The upper crusts were given to the the lord and his friends up at the manor house.

Another way that the baker made the most out of his flour.

To make up for his bad reputation, it probably helped that the baker had a good sense of humor. Or perhaps, it was better for his customers to have a good sense of humor. Because the baker liked to play practical jokes on people. Like filling trick-pies full of live animals and having them explode out of the crust, and fly and run and scamper all over the dinner-table!…like four and twenty blackbirds…

The Candlestick Maker

While it was the blacksmith who made the candleholders, it was up to the village chandler to make the actual candlesticks, an essential component of life for hundreds of years.

Candles were typically made in one of two ways: Dip-candling, and mold-candling.

The typical, long, slender candlesticks which we all know and love are made by the chandler using one of three different materials:

Beeswax.

Paraffin wax.

Tallow.

Paraffin wax or beeswax produces the best candles. Clean-burning and bright. Tallow is a cheap, fatty byproduct, used to make cheap, fatty candles. They don’t burn very well and they smoke like an opium-addict. Remember how the butcher had to get the most out of every animal he slaughtered? Any leftover fat (tallow), would’ve been sold to the village chandler.

Candlesticks are made out of cotton or woolen wicks constantly dipped in and out of pools of wax or tallow, and left to dry momentarily after every dipping. Usually, whole racks of wicks were dipped at once – an early form of mass-production. Once the candles had achieved an optimum thickness, the wicks were trimmed and the candles were put on sale.

Fatter, thicker pillar-candles were made by sticking the wicks into molds, and pouring molten wax into the molds and letting the wax cool and harden. Then, the mold was opened and the finished candle was removed.

Ever burnt yourself with molten wax? It hurts. A lot.

Being a chandler could be a hazardous business.

Nevertheless, the village candle-maker was an extremely important person. Although he also had to be experienced – wax was expensive and could not be wasted. But fortunately, wax is also infinitely recyclable.

The Brewster

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker, blacksmith…all jobs done by men.

Perhaps surprisingly, brewing beer was one of the few jobs carried out solely (or at least, chiefly) by women!

Remember how I said that most people lived in small communities and avoided big cities?

One of the reasons for this was because there was nothing to drink! Water was often far too polluted to even bathe in, let alone drink! So instead of drinking water, most people drank ale, or beer. And the lady who made this beverage was the brewster.

Believe it or not, beer is responsible for large gatherings of people. And not just for drunken school and university parties. But beer was often the only beverage that was safe to drink, for centuries! The “legal drinking age” was whenever your kids stopped sucking on breastmilk! Yep – even kids drank beer. There was even a low-alcohol beer made specifically for them!

The brewster was responsible for making ale and beer for her menfolk and kiddies. Brewsters could often make a tidy little business out of this. While hubby worked at the smithy, or the butchery, or felled trees, she supplemented the household income by supplying the village pub with its staple beverage! And because brewing doesn’t require any serious exertion of force, unlike a blacksmith, butcher or baker, it was ideal for older women! Yep – in the old days, social security for widows meant brewing beer!

The main ingredients of any beer are water, malted barley, yeast and hops, all things which were readily available to people living in small villages surrounded by farms.

But why drink beer?

Well, one of the key components in making beer is boiling water. Water has to be heated before it can be used to make beer. Unknown for centuries, heating water kills off bacteria – that’s why beer was safe to drink! And why straight water, often unboiled, was unsafe to drink.

Although this connection between boiling water and killing bacteria was not made until the 1800s, people back then knew that there was something about the brewing process that meant that it was a damn sight safer to drink beer than water!

Or, if you wanted to be real safe – drink wine, which has no water in it at all.

The Miller

The village miller, cooped up in his windmill, or watermill, was the chap in town who ground your wheat, oats, barley, dried corn, rye or other grain into flour.

And he was loathed as much as he was loved.

At best, people would tolerate a miller. At worst, he was a social outcast.

The reason for this was because the miller controlled the village mill. And the mill was the only place for miles around where grains could be ground to flour. And if you didn’t like the rates that the miller charged per-sack for grinding up your wheat – Tough!

Try and find someone else! We dare you!

Ah. You couldn’t, huh? You come crawling back, huh?

Yeah.

That’s why nobody liked the miller.

Of course, this wasn’t always the case, but in the days of feudalism, when the only mill in a given community was owned by the Lord of the Castle, millers were certainly not going to win any popularity contests held on the village square anytime soon. On top of everything else, he was allowed to keep a percentage of any quantity of grain that he milled!

The miller was also one of the wealthier men around town, for rather obvious reasons. And he had the house with the riverside views. And fresh water.

As much as people tended to have love-hate relationships with their local miller, if he was a decent sort of person, for a reasonable fee, he would take a load off your back, and speed up one of your most boring, mind-numbing, backbreaking chores – the “daily grind” – which was literally where the term originated from – the boring, monotonous grinding of quern-stones (milling-stones) to crush wheat into flour.

27/08/2013 by scheong

Oh God! More Origins of Common English Phrases

“Separating the Wheat from the Chaff”

Meaning: To Single out Good Stuff from the Bad or Useless
Origin: Farming.

The saying, to separate the wheat from the chaff is a very old idiom, meaning to single out or separate something good from a mass of something that was bad, or useless. It comes from the age-old profession of wheat-farming.

Farming wheat goes through several different stages – Ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, and then winnowing.

Threshing and winnowing separates the grains of wheat from the stalks, and then the grains from the husks, leaving behind pure grains of wheat, which are crushed and ground up into flour. Everything that’s left behind is chaff, which is generally used as animal feed. To separate the wheat from the chaff was to separate useful parts of the crop from the less useful parts of the crop.

Traditionally, this was a slow, backbreaking process which took weeks to do. A harvested wheat-crop was first threshed (beaten repeatedly with a flail to separate the wheat from the stalks), and then winnowed, where the gathered wheat-grains were put into a basket and then tossed repeatedly into the air. Winnowing worked by having wind blow away the husks, and leaving the pure wheat-grains left in the basket.

“Making Hay while the Sun Shines”

Meaning: To get the most work done when the situation is best.
Origin: Farming.

Hay is dried grass, and a traditional feed for farm-animals. As grass would not grow through winter months, it was essential for farmers to make as much hay as possible during warmer months, to store in their barns and hay-lofts so that their animals would not starve during wintertime. As hay was often the only thing that the animals had to eat, it was vital that there was an abundant supply of it. So any and all opportunities to make hay ‘while the sun shines’ were taken advantage of.

Good hay can only be made out of grass that has been sun-dried. Wet grass just rots because of the heavy water-content, and it’s useless as animal-feed. So making as much hay while the sun was shining (and therefore, drying the hay) was essential.

“Keep several irons in the fire”

Meaning: Give yourself some options.
Origin: 18th Century.

You’ve probably heard your parents, or grandparents tell you to keep several irons in the fire, which is an idiom meaning to give yourself options.

This phrase comes from the 18th century, when people used to iron their clothes with heavy, cast-iron…irons! Made of solid lumps of iron, heavy antique flatirons were used to iron out the wrinkles and creases in clothing, well into the 1900s. They were usually sold in sets of three, four or even more, depending on how much ironing was required.

These irons were placed on top of the coal-fired range-stove in the kitchen, or around a special flatiron stove, to absorb the heat from the fire and to warm up.

An antique ironing stove, used to heat up old-fashioned cast-iron flatirons

The heat in the irons would only last for a certain amount of time before it cooled off and had to be replaced on the stove to reheat. To have ‘several irons in the fire’ meant that you didn’t have to wait for ages and ages for the same iron to heat up again before continuing with your housework – you simply put down one cold iron, picked up the hot iron next to it, and went back to your work!

“To Strike while the Iron is Hot”

Meaning: To act while the best results can be obtained.
Origin: Blacksmithing.

Not to be confused with the other ‘iron’ one above, this refers to taking advantage of something when it is the easiest to do so. It comes from the craft of blacksmithing.

To shape metal, blacksmiths would heat iron-stock in a furnace until it was yellow-hot. At that heat, the iron is malleable and could be beaten into shape using the smith’s hammer and tongs. As the heat would only last a few seconds, to ‘strike while the iron is hot‘ was to do as much work as possible in the time allowed, and to take as much advantage of the situation as possible, before the iron had to be reheated for further working.

“Beyond the Green Baize Door”

Meaning: To go beyond a certain boundary.
Origin: England, 18th Century.

If you go ‘beyond the green baize door’, it means that you’re entering a place, or have crossed a boundary which few people are allowed to go beyond. But what is baize? And what’s the door? What does it all mean?

This term dates back to the Regency era of the early 1800s. The green baize door was the traditional dividing line in a household with masters and servants.

Servants quarters, such as the butler’s pantry, kitchen, servants’ hall, store-rooms, larders, pantries and servants’ bedrooms were usually at the bottom of the house, or housed in a separate wing of a larger house. Dividing the servants quarters from the rest of the house was a door with green baize cloth tacked onto it. Baize was used to the muffle sounds and absorb smells created by the servants, which might irritate the family of the house.

Being allowed to go beyond this barrier meant being allowed to meet and mix and mingle with those of a higher social status or standing. Therefore, to go ‘beyond the green baize door’ meant to be given privileged access to an exclusive world.

“Up to Scratch”

Meaning: Up to standard. Quality-control.
Origin: England, 1700s.

If something is “up to Scratch”, it means that it has passed quality-control tests and that it is ready for the open market. But why would you want to scratch something that you want to sell?

In England, the centers of the English silverware trade, London, Birmingham and Sheffield, had the tasks of ensuring that all the silver products they produced – cutlery, silverware, plates, flagons, pots, candlesticks, trays and anything else made of silver – were certified as being made of real silver.

Having a bunch of pretty hallmarks punched onto the bottom of granny’s silver teapot was not considered sufficient to pass the test. All items had to be tested for silver content before hallmarks were hammered onto the item.

This was traditionally done using an acid touchstone test.

It still works today.

It’s done in the following manner:

An item made of silver is scratched against a touchstone. The mark left on the stone is then treated with nitric acid. If the mark on the stone is silver metal, the acid reacts with it, turning the mark creamy white.

If the item passes this test, it has literally said to be “up to scratch”.

“Drawn Out”

Meaning: Extended or prolonged.
Origin: Blacksmithing

We’ve all experienced instances where something has been ‘drawn out’. Some long, boring, mind-numbing, brain-melting event which just seems to go on, and on, and on. And you end up falling asleep because it’s just so damn boring!

But why is it ‘drawn out’? Where does this come from?

‘Drawing out’ or to be ‘drawn out’ was originally a blacksmithing term. Metal which is heated and then beaten out longer and thinner, is said to be ‘drawn out’, to increase its length, or to decrease its thickness (usually both).

“Jumped Up”

Meaning: Inflated, arrogant, bigger than he really is.
Origin: Blacksmithing.

If someone’s said to be ‘jumped up‘, like some jumped up bastard, we generally mean that someone’s an arrogant, show-offy prick. Trying to make himself look bigger, or more important than he really is!

This is another term which has its origins in smithing.

Also called ‘upsetting‘, the process of jumping something up meant to compact or compress a piece of metal, to give it a thicker profile. This was usually done by heating up the piece of iron, placing the hot end against the anvil, and then beating or ‘jumping’ (due to the vibrations) the cold end with a hammer.

The force made the hotter, softer end of the iron-stock (pressed against the anvil) more compact. This made it look thicker or larger than the rest of the bar. Hence, one end of iron bar-stock which was made thicker (through compacting) than the other, was said to be ‘jumped up‘.

15/08/2013 by scheong

55 Days at Peking: The Siege of the Peking Legation Quarter

For purposes of continuity, the Chinese capital shall be referred to by its old name of ‘Peking‘ throughout this posting.

Anyone who’s seen the 1963 film “55 Days at Peking”, may think that they know all about the events depicted in this legendary epic, starring such names as David Niven and Charleton Heston. But in actuality, as with most historical films, the details and broader picture of the inspirational event have been swept aside, dulled or diluted in the name of dramatic license.

So what really happened during those fifty five days, and what is the wider picture?

The Events in the Film

“55 Days At Peking” is a historical film about the infamous siege of the Foreign Legations in Peking, China, in the year 1900. It is a fictionalised version of a pivotal and groundshaking event in Chinese history.

What really happened? Why were the legations put under siege? What led up to this, and what happened after the siege was lifted? Let’s find out…

China at the Turn of the Century

Chinese history in the 19th century is filled with conflicts and struggles. Two opium wars, foreign invasions and occupations, drug-trafficking, Christian missionaries, Western interventions, humiliating trade and concession-treaties…the list goes on.

Between the legalisation of opium, the opening of the Treaty Ports, and the loss of Hong Kong, China was steadily being carved up by each of the great powers of the world – Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and the rising power of the Empire of Japan.

This famous French cartoon from the turn of the century depicts China as a great pie being carved up by the foreign powers. From L-R: Queen Victoria (Britain), Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany), Tsar Nicholas II (Russia), Marianne (France), and the Emperor of Japan. Behind, a Chinese Mandarin looks on in horror as his country’s fate is decided and divided

By the 1890s, the foreign powers have set up enclaves and concession-zones in almost all major Chinese cities. Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, Nanking, and the ancient imperial capital city of Peking. Each has its own foreign concession-zones held by the Western powers and by the Empire of Japan. In Shanghai, it is the infamous Shanghai International Settlement, which would become notorious for fast living, gambling, drugs, racing, prostitution, gangsters and expensive lifestyles. In Peking, it is the walled citadel of the Peking Legation Quarter, where foreigners live in isolated splendor, immune and untouchable from and by the Chinese who dwell from without their confines.

In previous generations, the idea of “Barbarian” legations, concessions and embassies within China was unthinkable, and certainly not in the ancient Imperial capital of Peking! But China, weakened and humiliated by defeat after defeat, was forced to allow the Western powers to set up their quarters just miles from the Forbidden City, the seat of Chinese imperial power for centuries.

Foreign presences in China were deeply resented. Christian missionaries desecrated Chinese temples and shattered Chinese belief-systems, insulting centuries old traditions and customs. Chinese ports were run by Western merchants, particularly in Shanghai and Canton. Soldiers, marines and guards from all nations were stationed in and around foreign settlements to protect the civilians and diplomats who worked in or near to their concession-zones.

The foreigners enjoyed diplomatic immunity in China – They could not be prosecuted under Chinese law, another injustice which the Chinese were infuriated about. And they imported opium into China, which had previously been illegal. Despite all the stereotypes about doped up Chinks lying on beds huffing away at their pipes, the Chinese themselves had long fought to REMOVE opium from China – it wasn’t even grown there! It came from British India in trade-ships sailing for the foreign-controlled treaty-ports.

The Peking Legation-Quarter

Established in the 1860s after the Second Opium War, the Peking Legation Quarter was originally a hodge-podge of European consulates, legations and embassies, established and built within an area east of Tienanmen Square, partially divided from the rest of Peking by enormous and ancient defensive walls. Over time, it grew and became the heart of foreign, mostly Western life, in the middle of Imperial Peking.

The Peking Legation Quarter, 1912. Click the image for a higher resolution to read the text beneath the map

The Quarter held the embassies and diplomatic missions of many of the most prominent Western powers, along with several smaller ones. Housed within the compound, or on the land immediately outside it, were embassies and legations belonging to…

– The United States.
– The Kingdom of Belgium.
– The French Republic.
– The German Empire.
– The Russian Empire.
– The Japanese Empire.
– The British Empire.
– The Kingdom of Spain.
– The Kingdom of Italy.
– The Austro-Hungarian Empire.
– The Dutch Empire.

Showing the extent of foreign interest in China, there was even a Mexican Legation within the Foreign Legation Quarter!

Also included within, or immediately without this partially-walled community was a power-station, two hospitals, post-offices, shops, banks, a telegraphic office, the offices of the Peking-Hankou Railroad, the offices of the Peking-Mukden Railroad, two hotels, houses and villas, one church, and an English-style men’s club. Even the Peking branch of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation was located here. Sound familiar? Today it’s called HSBC.

The Legation Quarter, Peking

For thirty-nine years, Westerners and foreign Asians lived within the walled diplomatic compound, ignorant and uncaring of China. But at the turn of the last century, everything went pear-shaped.

The Boxer Uprising

Growing resentment of foreign influence, control and abuse in China was beginning to cut deep. China had been defeated in war, humiliated by treaties, and corrupted by the introduction of opium. Chinese were getting fed up of their ways of life, and their culture being attacked, fed up of their cities being overrun by Western barbarians, and were tired of having to trade with Western merchants on their terms.

In 1897, a society was formed. Officially, it was called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists! To the Western press, it was simply called ‘The Boxers’.

The Boxers were a loose gathering of groups, which all shared the beliefs and goals that Western domination in China had to end, and that Westerners themselves had to be driven out of China, to preserve a way of life that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Foreign imperialism and colonisation, the settting up of concession-zones and other Western activities had ruined the lives of these people – they could no longer visit certain parts of their own cities and towns, which were under foreign control – they could no longer do business on their own terms.

They had their lives disrupted by Christian missionaries who were actively moving through the Chinese interior, setting up churches, monasteries, and destroying traditional Chinese belief-systems centuries old. Ancestor-worship, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were out. Jesus, God and the Holy Cross were in. Imagine being raised to believe one thing for generations, only to have strangers from across the seas show up and tell you overnight that your entire way of life was backwards, heathen, immoral and above all…UN-CHRISTIAN!!

And you can’t do anything about it. You can’t complain to imperial officials or village elders or city politicians – these priests and missionaries all have diplomatic immunity – they can show up, destroy everything – and there’s absolutely NOTHING you can do about it.

These attacks infuriated the Boxers, and they resolved to put an end to them.

All these grievances finally exploded in the late 19th century, resulting in targeted raids on any and all Christian missionaries in China. No heed was paid to which country they came from, or which denomination they preached of, they were attacked and slaughtered without pause or mercy.

Word by letters and telegrams spread around China’s coastline, from Nanking to Shanghai, Canton to Peking. Western refugees flooded the population-centers of China. Telegrams were cabled across the Atlantic and Pacific to foreign governments in London, Washington, Paris, Moscow, and Tokyo, to name but a few. By the close of the 19th century, the situation is going increasingly desperate.

German, Russian and French governments were quick to act, sending detachments of troops from their South Pacific colonies to China. From Indochina came French soldiers, from Port Arthur came the Russians. In the United States, any sense of panic and fear is dampened, the government doesn’t think that there is any reason for undue alarm.

The Chinese Reaction

From the famous Forbidden City in Peking…nothing.

The Qing Government does not actively support the Boxers…but on the other hand, they don’t really want to STOP them, anyway. As Boxers go from town to town, local government officials do not bother to halt their advances, or to arrest their leaders. There are no prosecutions of the Boxers in courts of law.

Ruler of all China, the Empress Dowager, Cixi (“See-Chee“) begins to see that the Boxers may actually be of help to her. If she can harness their anger and rage towards the foreigners, she might be able to drive out the devils and restore China for the Chinese! She gives the order that the Imperial Army is to back up and actively assist the Boxers in driving out the Western powers!

Eventually, the Boxers reach and occupy many major cities, including Peking and the city of Tientsin. Here, they lay siege to the foreign communities within the city boundaries.

The Start of 55 Days

On the 19th of June, 1900, the Imperial Court issues a decree – All westerners and foreigners MUST leave Peking and its legation quarter within 24 hours. They are to pack their bags, trunks, furniture, whatever they can push, pull or carry, load it onto the nearest railroad train, and leave the capital for Tientsin by 4:00pm the next day. If, by that time they have not complied, the Boxers, with Army support, are given permission to open fire against the Legation Quarter and start an all-out assault against the foreigners.

Legation Street, Peking

The foreign powers decide not to leave by majority vote. To set foot outside the walls of the Legation Quarter is almost certain suicide, as proved by the murdering of the German foreign minister, Baron Von Ketteler, as faithfully depicted in the film, ‘55 Days at Peking‘. They do not wish to tempt fate.

At 4:00pm on the 20th of June, 1900, the deadline expires. From this point on, all foreign diplomats, their families, their friends, businessmen, religious missionaries, civilian expats, and Chinese Christians holed up inside the Legation Quarter can be attacked at any time from any side, by the Boxers and the Imperial armed forces of the Qing Empire.

The legations are woefully unprepared for surviving the trap they’ve caught themselves in – Of 3,700 people, there are only 409 soldiers. Of 409 soldiers, most do not have weapons. Those which have weapons have only the ammunition which is loaded into it. Only the United States Marines, recently arrived, have sufficient ammunition for any serious engagement.

Their heavy armaments include three machine-guns and two cannons. Just like in the film, there really was a cannon nicknamed “Betsy“, and just like in the film, it was quite literally made from bits and pieces found all over the compound, from older firearms. Because of this, it also had the nickname of “The International”, because its various components of barrel, ammunition, carriage and wheels were taken from all corners of the Legation Quarter!

The Siege of the Peking Legation Quarter

Initially, nobody knew what was going to happen – defenders had no clear idea on how they would defend themselves against an attack that might never come, and the Chinese had no clear plan on how to attack the legations and what sort of resistance they might encounter.

Within the Legation Quarter, certain strongholds developed. The British Legation, as the largest structure, became an unofficial headquarters of the siege. Some legations which were too isolated from the others were abandoned, and their civilians and diplomatic staff moved into legations which were closer to the others.

Of crucial importance was protecting the walls which surrounded the Legation Quarter, in particular the Tartar Wall, which formed the southern boundary of the bulk of the Legation Quarter. If Boxers or Qing army forces scaled the wall, they could fire straight down into the streets, having an unobstructed field of fire running the entire length of the compound. The wall is shown at the bottom of the Legation Quarter map, further up in this posting.

U.S. Marines stationed within the Legation Quarter, 1910. The huge structure behind them is the Tartar Wall. The tower to the right is the Chien Men, one of the gates into the Legation Quarter

The Situation with the Legations

The Quarter had sufficient food and water, but nowhere near enough medical supplies, ammunition, fighting men, or weapons. Anything and everything that could be pressed into service was used. Women filled sandbags, 15 bags an hour, 360 bags a day. Chinese Christians constructed barricades along the streets, bridges and crossroads within the Quarter in the event of a hostile breakthrough. Throughout the siege, constant Chinese attacks forced the defenders to retreat back from their eastern barricades several times.

The British Legation was heavily fortified and hospitals and sickrooms were improvised in basements of major buildings.

Roughly half the Legation Quarter had walled boundaries. To the South, the Tartar Wall, To the north, walls which made up the ancient Imperial City also served as a boundary. To the east and west, there were no such walls. In the event of an attack from these directions, buildings were fortified and barricaded, and roads had blockades built across them made of sandbags and furniture.

The Start of the Siege

In the beginning, nobody really knew what was going on. There were divisions within the Chinese government about what to do with the foreigners. Force them to evacuate? Storm the Quarter? Orchestrate a ceasefire? Sign a truce?

Everything was up in the air.

The real fighting did not start until three days later. Trying to smoke the foreigners out, the Boxers and the Qing set fire to many buildings within the Legation Quarter. One of them was the Hanlin Academy. Housed within were several priceless and irreplaceable books and other records. Their destruction infuriated both sides, and at the same time, neither side agreed to take responsibility for the library’s destruction.

From then on, fighting was almost nonstop for nearly a month. From the 23rd of June until the 17th of July, battles were almost daily occurrences, despite attempts on both sides to quell the violence.

Fighting was particularly brutal around the Chien Men (modern Pinyin: “Qianmen“), or ‘Front Gate’ of the Imperial City, the walls of which made up some of the Legation Quarter’s boundaries, such as the Tartar Wall.

The ‘Qianmen’ today, in the background

Explosives and cannons were used to try and breech the massive gatehouse. The photograph below, taken shortly after the siege, shows the sheer level of destruction wrought upon it. The entire top third of the structure has been blasted away in the fighting. Compare it with the photograph above to see the full extent of the damage.

After the Siege. Destruction to the ‘Qianmen’ of Peking

Fighting around the gate and the nearby Tartar wall which it punctuated, was intense. It was defended by a mix of Americans and Germans trying to drive off a force of thousands of Chinese who used scaling-ladders to climb the walls and push the defenders off. The Boxers and Qing did temporarily occupy the wall, but before they could do any serious damage, they were driven off and never again managed to retake this position.

The International Response

For over a month, until late July, no word got in or out of the Legation Quarter. Telegraph lines to the coast and other cities had been cut by the Boxers, preventing electronic communications. On the 28th of July, the first message from the outside world entered the besieged Legation Quarter. The message: Help was on the way!…eventually.

The First Relief-Attempt

The first attempt to break the siege of the Legation Quarter came just days after it started – On the 26th of June, 1900, Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour tried to break the siege using a combined international force numbering 2,000 men, from Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan, France, the United States and Austria-Hungary.

This was not the famous Eight-Nation Alliance, it was a small band, a mix of soldiers and sailors from various nations all with a common purpose, up against a force more than twice their number (5,000 Chinese strong).

This relief-attempt came at the request of British Minister to China, Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald (1852-1915), who sent a telegram for help, informing the outside world that the situation within Peking was deteriorating by the hour, and that soon, the whole situation could go up in flames.

The Seymour Expedition, as it was called, was a failure in every sense of the word. They were attacked every step of the way to Peking, and then attacked every yard they retreated. Railroads were sabotaged, bridges blown up, and the Expedition itself was running out of food – they hadn’t brought enough to last them there AND back! – They assumed that, once their mission was successful, they could restock their supplies and head home. The idea that they would have to make their supplies last twice as long as they needed to, or to bring extra supplies, never crossed their minds.

The Second Relief-Attempt

While the soldiers of the Legation Quarter had been fighting for their lives, the governments of the foreign powers represented within the Quarter had been organising military relief for the besieged. This came in the form of the Eight Nation Alliance.

In this alliance, between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, America, the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy, the collected countries pooled their colonial military resources and resolved to send a relief column to China to break the siege.

Coming from India, Hong Kong (British), Indochina (French), Port Arthur and Vladivostok, (Russian), the Philippines (American), Japan, Port Athur (again!, this time, Austria-Hungary), Tsingtao (German), and finally, Italy, the various military detachments converged on the northern Chinese coastline in July of 1900.

Among the people who came to answer the call of distress from the Legation Quarter was one Capt. Georg Ludwig Von Trapp, as an officer of the German Navy. Sound familiar? The life of his family was immortalised in the film ‘The Sound of Music‘.

If the Eight Nation Alliance thought that ploughing through China to Peking was going to be easy, they had another think coming. Landing on the Chinese coast in an assortment of naval vessels, the military detachments marched through China.

First, they had to blast through Teintsin. Here, the Boxers and Imperial Chinese forces held back the Eight Nations for an amazing…24 hours, from the 13th-14th of July.

Even after making their way through Teintsin, the Eight Nation Alliance would not reach Peking for another month. On the 13th of August, they were still five miles away, and fighting for every yard.

The End of the Siege

The Eight Nation Alliance finally reached Peking on the 14th of August. At the time, Peking was still an ancient, walled city. There was a wall around Outer Peking. Then another wall around Inner Peking. Then a wall around the Imperial City. And another wall around the Forbidden City. Peking was a gigantic Russian nesting-doll with the Empress Dowager as the tiny dinky toy in the very center.

To break the siege, the Eight Nations divided their forces and they each attacked a gate leading into the Outer City or Inner City. The Legation Quarter was between the two cities, so this strategy would ensure that the Qing and Boxers would be attacked from both sides.

The British got there first at 3:00pm. The Americans arrived two hours later.

The French never did reach their objective – they got lost on the way.

With such a show international military might, the Chinese forces retreated. The siege was officially lifted and ended on the 14th of August, 1900.

It had lasted fifty-five days.

The Aftermath

Military casualties of the siege were appalling. The Foreign powers within the Legation Quarter had not collapsed to Chinese aggression, but they had just about exhausted their ammunition supplies, and had lost 45% of their total fighting-force. Their original lines had fallen back on the Eastern side, and there were thirty-seven civilian casualties and injuries.

To ensure no repeat performance of a similar kind, the Foreign Powers occupied Peking. Cixi, the Empress Dowager, fled from the Forbidden City with her entire court. She wouldn’t return until 1902!

What happened after the ending of the siege is not recorded in the famous 1963 film…probably because it isn’t very pleasant.

Prior to the lifting of the siege, false news-reports were somehow telegraphed to the Western world. How is uncertain, due to the fact that electronic communications had been severely interrupted by the siege. But the information claimed that the Chinese had forced the entrances of the Legation Quarter, stormed in and had shot, beheaded, bayonetted or otherwise killed every man, woman and child within the Legation Quarter.

By the time this news-report was discovered to be nothing more than a Chinese hoax to piss off the Western powers, it was too late.

Filled with hatred over the apparent atrocities, the assembled Western powers and the Japanese, raided, robbed, raped, burglarized and trashed Peking. They even forced their way into the Forbidden City, something unheard of in the history of China, and ransacked the palace buildings, stealing priceless antiques and artifacts centuries old, and shipping them back to Europe.

When the Chinese newspaper hoax was finally proven, the Europeans and Americans found themselves doing a lot of soul-searching. Famous American novelist, Mark Twain, was just one of thousands who forced the Western powers to consider their motives and actions in China, and the morality of forcing their cultures and religions upon a country which not once had raised a hand in war against them, except to protect their own way of life.

More Info?

In Search of History: The Boxer Rebellion

“55 Days at Peking”

Trove.nla.gov.au – Sydney Morning Herald – Thursday, 22nd Nov., 1900.

22/07/2013 by scheong

Famous Books Which Changed the World – And Why They Did

What are among mankind’s greatest achievements? Greatest inventions? Greatest triumphs of intelligence, science, technology and innovation? The telegraph, telephone, radio, television, the moving picture, the camera and photograph, the typewriter, the internet, the sewing-machine, automobile, steam-engine, the Industrial Revolution, the cotton gin, lightbulb, flashlight, fleshlight, dynamo-torches and microwave dinners…?

Mankind has had as many high-points in the history of the world as it has had depressingly low points. But of all the things that man has created, probably one of the most important is the book.

The Book??

This whole posting is gonna be about…books?

Yes.

Books.

First, a general history, but then, a deeper look at some of the most famous books in the history of books, and how they have shaped, influenced or otherwise affected the world and modern culture today.

Before Books

It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when books were unknown. But in a dim and distant past, before Justin Bieber ever existed, there was a time before books.

Slates and Tablets

When writing was first created in the Middle East and Mediterranean during the time of the ancients, writing was first produced on clay or stone tablets. This was due to the form of writing, known as cuneiform, which was made up of wedge-shapes, arranged and pressed or chipped into damp clay, or sheets of stone.

Obviously, just a few of these tablets or slates would be extremely heavy, and carrying around a whole heap of them would be a serious pain in the ass. So the idea of binding them together never occurred due to sheer impracticality. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, we’ve come full-circle, and people still carry around tablets today, albeit, ones supplemented with electricity.

Scrolls

Oooh, scrolls! Fancy!

Scrolls, made of vellum, parchment or papyrus (the ancestor of modern paper) had certain advantages over tablets. Scrolls could be rolled up and were relatively portable. They were lighter and could hold much more information than tablets. But scrolls were not without faults.

Imagine going to the famous ancient Library of Alexandria, in Egypt. This famous institution, the Ancient Roman equivalent of Google, housed innumerable thousands of scrolls, tablets and books on almost every subject imaginable – Science, mathematics, medicine, engineering, great inventions, and the works and researchers of countless great ancients. Great men such as Euclid and Archimedes (who honoured us with the first streak in history) studied, wrote and worked here.

But imagine what a huge pain in the ass it would be, to go to the library and try to find a particular scroll.

As organised as everything might be, in pigeonholes, shelves, cases and on tables, one issue now becomes apparent – With all the documents rolled up, it’s not easy to find exactly which document you want, without unrolling it, first. There’s nowhere to put a title or author’s name on the outside of a scroll. Frustrating, huh?

But on top of that, scrolls could have many, many pages. Could you imagine having to unroll scroll after scroll, page after page, to find one particular document, and having to roll them all up again…IN ORDER…when you were done?

Clearly, something more efficient had to be found.

The First Books

The first books ever created, or more properly called, ‘Codices‘, (sing. ‘Codex‘) were invented by those smart Italians – The Ancient Romans! Originally, books were made out of wooden tablets onto which information had been written. To keep things neat and tidy, holes were hammered or drilled down one side of each tablet, and they were then threaded and tied together with string, to form…a book! It was much easier to read something simply by turning a page, instead of having to unroll, roll, unroll, re-roll, separate, twist and turn scrolls all day long.

The problem was that with so much writing around, if everything was compiled into a scroll, it would be so large and cumbersome and fiddly to use, most people would give up!

A book is a collection of writing split into pages, which are bound along one side, with a front cover, a back cover, and a spine to hold everything together. Strictly speaking, while all codices are books, not all books are codices. As to be defined as a codex, a book must have hardback covers! Ooh, fancy.

The book had other advantages over the scroll. Apart from compactness and ease of access, a book was also much more efficient. A scroll is only ever written on one side of the paper or parchment. The result is that yards and yards of parchment is wasted on the other side, which is left blank. This could make scrolls expensive! A book, on the other hand, used both sides of the paper or parchment for writing, making everything more efficient and compact.

Books, ca. 700.A.D.

Soon, everything was written in book-form. It was just so much more convenient. But there were other issues – until the mid-1400s, all books, save a very slim minority, were handwritten. Every single letter, stroke, page, paragraph and sentence. This made books phenomenally expensive! When a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg showed up and created the first movable-type printing-press, suddenly, books became cheaper and faster to produce! And this is where things really started to change.

The Impact of the Press

With the printing-press, more books could be produced faster and cheaper. This meant that more people could buy them, own them and read them. This meant that literacy improved, and that learned people with ideas and information could write and produce even more books!

…What books?

Famous Books Throughout History

Let’s have a look at some of the most famous, important or influential books ever to be written, or to come off the press, and how and/or why they have impacted the world. These are not presented in any chronological order, or order of importance.

Book: The Gutenberg Bible
Author: Numerous
When Published: Ca. 1455
Where Published: Mainz, Germany.

The Gutenberg Bible is the first book of significance ever to be mass-produced. Ever to be printed!…But NOT the first book which Gutenberg produced.

Contrary to what you might think, Gutenberg, the famous inventor of the printing-press, did not start out printing the bible. The poor fellow only just got his new toy working! He wasn’t about to risk it printing something as ambitious as the BIBLE!

Instead, he tested his machine first, printing smaller, less-ambitious books, leaflets and other documents. The printing-press was finished by the 1440s. It wasn’t until at least a decade later that Johannes Gutenberg attempted something as ambitious as printing the Bible!

But printing such a famous book as the Bible proved to the doubters that printing-presses were the way of the future. The written word was out, the printed word was in! And every book which came thereafter, has been a child of that great moment in history.

Book: De Mirabilibus Mundi (“The Wonders of the World”). AKA: “The Travels of Marco Polo
Author: Rustichello da Pisa, Marco Polo
When Published: 1300
Where Published: The Republic of Venice (modern Venice, Italy).

De Mirabilibus Mundi. Copy as owned by Christopher Columbus; annotations in his own hand

In an age when travelling anywhere at all was extremely slow, dangerous and uncertain, legendary Italian explorer, Marco Polo, traveled to the far and distant Orient. While in prison, Marco Polo related his adventures to fellow prisoner and Italian, Rustichello Da Pisa (“Rustichello of Pisa”). Rustichello wrote down Marco’s tales, and when they returned to the city-state of Venice, they had the book published.

A printed copy of the book, owned by Christopher Columbus, was one of his driving forces which encouraged him to sail westwards across the Atlantic Ocean in search of Asia, but finding the Americas, instead.

Book: Inventarium sive Chirurgia Magna (“The Great Inventory of Surgery”)
Author: Guy De Chauliac
When Published: 1363
Where Published: Avignon, France.

Chirurgia Magna, by Guidonis De Cauliaco (Guy De Chauliac)

Guy De Chauliac, physician and surgeon to Pope Clement VI during the late 1340s, was the author of a great medical textbook which would become little less than the Surgical bible for the next three centuries.

In the 1340s, Europe was ravaged by the Great Plague. Countless thousands of people died each day, from as far afield as London to Rome to Constantinople.

At the time, the Catholic papacy was centered in the French city of Avignon (“Avinyon“), and Clement VI was the pope. Clement was one of the lucky survivors of the Black Death of the 1340s, possibly aided by his personal physician, Guy de Chauliac. De Chauliac advised the pope to remain in isolation, to see as few people as possible, and to have raging fires burning around him day and night, to cleanse the air and drive away pestilence.

Whether or not the fires helped, by following his doctor’s orders of quarantine, Clement survived the plague. De Chauliac was not so lucky. He was himself struck down by the disease. Without other physicians around to help, De Chauliac was forced to treat himself, and to lance his own buboes, the nasty, bloody boils which gave the “Black Death” its name. De Chauliac knew that the ‘pestilence‘ was contagious, and could be spread from person to person, or so it seemed, but like everyone else, he had no idea how it was spread, other than that it could be.

Ever the careful and methodical doctor, Guy de Chauliac wrote down everything that happened to him and everything that he did. He survived the plague, and afterwards wrote his great medical masterpiece, “Chirurgia Magna“, or “The Great Surgery”.

This enormous work, comprising seven volumes, covers everything, from bandaging, anatomy, drugs, anesthetics, bloodletting, and several diseases, symptoms and treatments – almost everything known, or unknown about medicine during the Middle Ages. It remained one of the preeminent works on medicine until the 1600s.

Book: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Author: Henry Fielding
When Published: February, 1749
Where Published: London

By the 1700s, increasing literacy, and faster turnout of books thanks to the printing-press, allowed for more and more varied types of literature to be produced. Stories which were once impossible, were now possible! Forms which were once impossible, were now possible! Everything was changing.

Previously, stories, works of fiction and fancy, and suchlike, were of necessity, short. Without the ability to write stories down, most people kept stories short and swift. Fairy-tales and such. But even those people who wrote down their stories had to keep them short, since paper and ink was expensive, and copying out stories was even more expensive!

But with the printing-press, it was suddenly possible to crank out copy after copy of a document in relatively quick succession. This meant that even longer works of fiction could be shared with greater audiences. This gave rise to the modern “novel”.

Without the novel, most writers today would probably have starved to death long ago, or moved onto some other profession. And certainly, no novel such as “Tom Jones” would be possible without the printing-press!

Written by Henry Fielding in the 1740s, the book chronicles the childhood and life of the fictional “Tom Jones”, a boy who was found abandoned by a wealthy landowner. The book tells of his upbringing, and of his on-again-off-again romance with neighbour Sophia Western. Tom’s status as a foundling (and therefore, presumably, a bastard) causes all kinds of frictions and tensions throughout the story, as well as affecting Mr. Western’s willingness to let his daughter marry a man of questionable past.

Sounds straightforward enough. Except that the novel is EIGHTEEN BOOKS LONG!

Try copying THAT out by hand. You’d break your wrist before you got halfway.

The advent and spread of the printing-press was what made enormous works such as this possible for the first time in history. And as certainly one of the largest works of its kind, Tom Jones deserves a place on this list.

Book: Anatomy. Descriptive & Surgical
Author: Henry Gray
When Published: 1858
Where Published: England

Written in the 1850s, Henry Gray’s “Anatomy” is one of the most famous medical textbooks in the history of medical textbooks. If you mentioned De Chauliac’s “Chirurgia Magna“, most people would blink. But everyone has heard of “Gray’s Anatomy”.

Yes, most people know the term from the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy“, but it’s a lot more than a medical drama.

In the early 1800s, medical understanding is at a crossroads. People are shaking off the old beliefs and yearning to embrace a new, scientific study of medicine and the human body. But to treat the human body, you first need to understand the human body. And to do that, you need a body.

During the Georgian era, medical students learned about the human body from studying corpses provided by the state, or from body-snatchers. The demand for human bodies was so high that people were digging up freshly-buried corpses to sell them to anatomy schools…and anatomy schools asked no questions at all about where the bodies came from.

This was a serious problem for the British Government. It was a problem because stealing dead bodies is illegal! To try and fix this, in 1832, they passed the Anatomy Act. This allowed for a wider range of dead bodies to be available to the medical community. Previously, only the bodies of executed criminals could be used for dissection. Now, for the first time, you could chose to leave your own body to the medical community when you died!…Something which had not been allowed in the past, even if you put in your will!

Although this was a step forward, it wasn’t a very big one. Because bodies have this thing where they break down and rot and decompose. So they don’t last very long. Something better was required.

Photography in the 1830s and 40s was in its infancy. It was slow, unreliable and tricky. So having a photographic album of the human body was not a practical way of teaching students about their innards. What was needed was some cheap, effective textbook which would gather all the information about the human body into one neat package, along with some lovely, detailed and above all, accurate illustrations!

Enter Henry Gray.

Mr. Henry Gray was born in 1827. As a young, ambitious surgeon in his twenties, Gray studied anatomy in medical school. As a surgeon, having as best an understanding of the human body as possible was absolutely essential. And to ensure that all other budding surgeons had the best chance possible to study and perfect their profession, Gray wrote up an exhaustive text on the human body.

One of the most famous aspects of Gray’s “Anatomy” is not what he wrote, but rather, what was drawn. Gray had the good fortune to be acquainted with Henry Vandyke Carter, a fellow surgeon, but more importantly, an anatomical artist, or a person who drew scientific illustrations.

Together, Carter and Gray put together their masterpiece. With Gray providing the written matter, and Carter providing all the necessary illustrations of the various parts of the body, their book becomes a bestseller. As soon as they published their work in 1858, Gray and Carter started work on a second edition. It comes out in 1860, but Gray doesn’t live to see what a change his book makes the world of medicine. Three years after it’s first published, he dies of smallpox in 1861, at the age of just 34.

But his legacy lives on. And to this day, over a century after its publication, Gray’s “Anatomy” remains one of the most widely respected and widely-read medical textbooks in the world. It’s still published today, and comes in hardback, paperback, e-versions, even condensed copies for medical students. It’s latest run was in 2008, when the 40th edition was published.

Book: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Author: Mary Shelley
When Published: 1818
Where Published: London, England

The year is 1816. The famous “Year without Summer”, so-called due to the eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Dutch East Indies the year before.

In a lodge on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Switzerland, the literary greats of the Regency Era are gathered. Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and a teenaged girl: Mary Godwin, with her first child.

The girl, introducing herself as Shelley’s wife (although they were not yet married), entered into a storytelling competition with the other authors. The challenge was for each writer to tell a horror story! Mary Shelley struggled. And thought. And struggled. Wracking her brains. But nothing came. And she had plenty of time to think – the weather was so bad (Shelley herself recalled, it rained almost nonstop) – that they didn’t leave the house for days! But then one night, she had a nightmare about a scientist who created life! And Mary Shelley’s horror story, “Frankenstein” had been born!

“Frankenstein” is widely considered one of the first proper science-fiction novels, influenced by the burgeoning desire of the Georgians to understand their world through rational, reasonable means. The subtitle of ‘the Modern Prometheus’ refers to the Greek titan who created mankind by molding him from clay, just as Dr. Frankenstein created life by reanimating dead bodies through electricity.

Book: A Dictionary of the English Language
Author: Dr. Samuel Johnson
When Published: 1755
Where Published: England

Imagine that you were writing an essay, or an article, or a story, or a report. And you needed to know how to spell a word, or needed to know its meaning, or its correct usage. You have been taught your letters and numbers and penmanship in school, but do not have any reference-texts to learn from; only what your schoolmaster might have taught you.

How would you find out if what you’d written was correct? Who would you ask? How would you know if the answer you received was correct? How would you know if it was incorrect?

Such was life before the dictionary.

With more people able to read and write, and with the spread of newspapers, books, novels, magazines, pamphlets and other reading-material in the 18th century, with the help of the printing-press, the English language was growing. But it was growing in a messy, erratic fashion. There existed no standards of spelling, punctuation, grammar or any other guidelines. If people were to become more literate, and if others were going to understand them, a standard form of written English was required. But this would not be possible without at least one, widely-accepted text, which compiled the entire language into one place, and which could serve as a reference for everyone.

Dictionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries were poor excuses for reference-material. They were often incomplete and poorly written. In the 1740s, a group of London booksellers got so frustrated by this, that they decided to do something about it! They contacted a man named. Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Samuel Johnson was a scholar. The son of a bookseller and from a well-to-do family, he seemed the perfect sort of fellow to do what these booksellers had in mind – a complete compendium of the English Language. They wanted every single known word in the English language to be entered into a dictionary, and for it to be published for the whole world to read.

Starting in the mid-1740s, Dr. Johnson boasted that it could be done in three years. It took him nine! But it was eventually published in 1755, and was, for the next 150 years (until the Oxford English Dictionary of 1884), the preeminent dictionary of the English language. It was considered the first complete book on the English language, and contained all the words known at the time.

So monumental was this feat, in an age before instant communications, online researching and several tomes of reference, that famous biographer James Boswell, a contemporary of Dr. Johnson’s, immortalised him in his volume “The Life of Samuel Johnson“.

Although the dictionary did have issues with it (as any text of the period was bound to have), it was, nonetheless widely received, and Johnson’s formatting and layout of his dictionary set a model for all other lexicographers to follow in the decades and centuries which came after. Lexicographer Simon Winchester, who produced the next most famous dictionary, the Oxford English, said of Johnson’s work, that it became the most important book in the homes of any person of letters, learning or intelligence, rivaling the bible in popularity and importance. By the time Dr. Johnson died in 1784 at the age of 75, there were already five editions printed, with more on the way!

Book: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or preservation of Favoured Races and the Struggle for Life
Author: Charles Darwin
When Published: 1859
Where Published: England

Got your tongue untied yet?

More commonly just called “The Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin’s most famous publication remains one of the most important books ever written on the subject of biology, and even after the passage of over a hundred years, it continues to shape and influence our understanding of the natural world.

Famously controversial, even today, Darwin’s theory of evolution showed how animals adapt and change to suit their environments, in order to survive, and how those species which do not change, or cannot change fast enough, are left behind, and eventually die out. This has become a cornerstone of modern science and natural history, and gave birth to the study of eugenics.

Book: Dracula
Author: Abraham Stoker
When Published: 1897
Where Published: United Kingdom

As far as world-changing books go, a classic of Gothic horror isn’t something that jumps to the top of most people’s lists, but this late-Victorian classic has remained popular for over a hundred years, and its significance in literature is difficult to ignore.

‘Dracula‘ is the source-material for much of popular culture’s understanding or beliefs regarding the abilities, skills and limitations of the mythical vampire. Everything from turning into bats, wooden stakes, drinking blood, and general immortality, comes from this book.

Inspired by Eastern European folk-tales, Dracula is a strange mix of the modern and the medieval, a Victorian equivalent of a Dan Brown novel. You have the ancient mysteries and folklore, and all the latest technology of the age, with which to combat evil – typewriters, steamships, railroads, telegrams, repeating firearms, audio-recordings, even blood-transfusions. Few other novels have so defined a particular genre or subgenre of fiction.

24/06/2013 by scheong

Flaming Hell! A History of Fireplaces and Fire

Ooooh, burny…

My fireplace in winter.
It’s nice to sit and tapper away on the Underwood in front of a big blazing inferno

Fire: Primal. Essential. The key to human survival. Used to describe everything from boiling passion and flaming love, to burning hatred and searing vengeance. What is the history of fire? How has it shaped the world? And how has the world shaped fire? Let’s find out together.

The Essence of Fire

There are innumerable milestones in the history of mankind, from walking upright, to using tools, to hunting, gathering, farming and the waging of war. But few inventions in history are as important as the creation, understanding, and use of fire. For thousands of years, fire was an essential to life. It heated homes, it gave us light, it cooked our meals, and gave us warmth and protection. Without fire, human migration and settlement would’ve been next to impossible. And human progress and creativity would’ve been greatly hindered. This posting will look at man’s use of fire, as well as the advancements of fire technologies and tools.

The Three Elements

A fire requires three things to burn:

Air. A fire cannot burn without sufficient oxygen.

Fuel. A fire cannot last without additional fuel to keep it going as it consumes its current supply and turns it to ash.

Heat. A fire does not burn and does not last without heat to get it going, and to keep it going.

It was early man’s understanding of these three components of fire that allowed him to use and control fire. Control it for heat, light and cooking. And control is vitally important – improperly used, fire can destroy as much as it can delight. But how do you get a fire?

To start a fire, you first need fuel. Small fuel at first – Tinder. Tinder is anything small, dry and extremely combustible. Cotton-wool, old thread, shredded cloth, dry straw, moss, grass and finely torn paper will all suffice for tinder.

On top of tinder, you require kindling, which is small pieces of wood to encourage the fire to burn and grow. Kindling wood needs to be small and dry – branches, off-cuts of planks, scrapwood, bark, etc, will all suffice.

On top of kindling, you require fuel-wood. Fuel-wood or firewood, are the larger logs, or segments of logs, which you load on top of the kindling once it’s burning sufficiently. As with the others, it needs to be dry. Start with small pieces of fuel-wood first (like thick branches) and then work your way up to larger logs or branches.

There are a million and one methods of building fires – Upside down fires, Teepee fires, log-cabin fires…the methods are endless – and so are the arguments for each one and why A is better than B. So I won’t cover that. Everyone has their own method that works for them.

But how do you LIGHT a fire? This, for centuries, was one of the hardest things to do…

Lighting a Fire

You have your kindling, tinder and firewood. Now you just need it to burn. A fire won’t burn without heat to get it going. To get heat, you need a concentration of energy. Before the advent of matches in the 1800s, fire-lighting was a laborious and at times fiddly task, and was achieved in one of two ways: Concentration of light-energy, and concentration of friction-energy.

Ever stolen grandpa’s magnifying glass and used it to burn ants? That’s starting a fire through concentrating light-energy. Specifically, concentrating the rays of the sun until they are focused on one spot for long enough that the intense heat generated causes your tinder to catch fire through solar energy!

The other method of creating fire, if the sun was not available, was to use friction. This is much more unpredictable and requires quite a bit of skill and patience, but it does work.

One of the most common ways of lighting a fire through friction was through the use of the bow-drill:

A piece of wood with a hole in it is placed on the ground over a piece of kindling-wood (the top piece of wood is used to provide stability). In the hole, a piece of tinder is placed. A wooden stake (the ‘drill’) is placed over the tinder. The bowstring is then looped around the drill, and the bow is drawn rapidly back and forth and up and down the drill.

Driving the drill back and forth at high speed over the tinder creates friction, which creates heat. At 300 degrees Fahrenheit a spark is generated from the friction, which catches the tinder. Once the tinder is lit, the bow, the drill, and the top piece of wood are removed, and the tinder is fed with kindling to start a fire.

Placing the Fire

Gathering tinder, kindling and fuel-wood for a fire and drying it out was relatively easy. So was starting a fire, given the right tools and sufficient practice. The next thing for early man to conquer was the placement of a fire.

Fires had to be built and lit with careful consideration. Failure to light a fire in a safe place could result in catastrophic, uncontrollable infernos that could destroy grasslands, forests and settlements.

Controlling Fire

The first fires were simply built and lit inside ‘firepits’. A fire-pit was an area of land cleared of grass and wood, where a hole was dug. The hole had stones placed around it to create a fire-ring and hearth, and then the fire was simply built inside the ring and let to burn. And for centuries, this was the main method of fire-control and placement.

Having an open fire in the middle of your house or room or hut or cottage or cave had its advantages and disadvantages. First – the heat was all over the place – Lovely!

The problem was…so was the smoke! Although fireplace smoke can smell beautiful and tangy (which is why we love smoked foods and wood-fired pizzas so much), uncontrolled smoke could be deadly to the people around the fireplace.

To control the smoke, or to clear it out of the building, A simple solution was just to cut a hole in the roof of the building and let the smoke shoot up there. This worked…kinda. The smoke would leave the house through the hole in the roof…eventually. It would waft up there, not flow up there. So it took a while. And if the wind was against you, then you had real strife!

The chimney, followed by its companion, the fireplace, was invented in the 12th Century (1100s), although for a long time, they were considered features found only in wealthy homes and castles. Care had to be taken in their construction of stone, or brick, and this made them expensive. But by the 1500s and 1600s, fireplaces were slowly becoming more and more commonly found in the homes of regular people.

The Fireplace

Starting in the Medieval Period, houses of varying levels of grandeur were constructed with chimneys and fireplaces. Fireplaces were built out of stone or brick, and a typical fireplace setup involved…

The Chimney or Flue

The long stone, or brick pipe or vent which channeled the smoke up and out of the building.

The Smoke-box

The chamber at the bottom of the chimney-pipe, which acted as a buffer against downdrafts.

The Fire-Box/Fireplace

This is directly under the smoke-box, and it’s where the fire itself would be located.

The Hearth

The stone or brick platform on which the firebox and chimney is built. Sometimes extends outside of the fire-box into the room, to provide extra protection against rolling logs.

The Advantages of the Fireplace

The fireplace had numerous advantages over the everyday hole-in-the-ground fire-pit. The fire was now safely contained in its own little box, with a stone chute to carry away the smoke. A sliding or hinged shutter above the firebox, the damper, allowed you to close off the fireplace chimney in inclement weather, to prevent cold drafts and rain from coming down the chimney and into the room below. A big improvement on the hole in the roof which was a permanent opening to the weather outside!

In smaller dwellings, a fireplace was used as both a heater, and as a cooker. The fire kept the room and house warm, but also provided heat for cooking. Pots hung on hooks, or placed on trivets or stands over the coals and ashes of the fire, could hold food (usually soup or stew or some variety of pottage) which could be cooked, or kept warm over the coals and flames.

In and Around the Fireplace

As the fireplace started becoming more and more accepted and more a part of people’s homes and lives, a whole industry sprung up supplying equipment and accessories that the discerning homemaker could purchase for the fireplaces that were likely to have dotted the average home during the period from the 1600s up to the majority of the 20th century.

Andirons

Also called ‘fire-dogs’, andirons (sold in pairs) are iron (or in more expensive models, brass) stands used to support burning logs above the hearth of the fireplace, to encourage air-flow and improve a fire’s chances of burning more completely.

Brass andirons in a fireplace

Andirons could be simple iron bars or frames, or they could be elaborate, decorative stands made of brass. Some andirons had additional bars and hooks which could be attached or removed as required, so that buckets, pans and pots could be hung over or near the fire, to allow water to boil, or to cook a simple meal.

Andirons at work, supporting a stack of burning firewood

Fireplace Grate

The grate in my fireplace

Invented in the 1600s, fireplace grates were a big advancement on andirons. While andirons could hold large logs and chunks of firewood, a fireplace grate could contain the entire fire, kindling, charcoal, fuel-wood and all, and keep it off the floor of the fireplace, improving airflow. Made of wrought iron which was forge-welded together, grates varied in size, from smaller, coal-burning grates, to much larger wood-burning grates, which could be several feet wide and several inches deep.

Fenders

Typically made of brass or iron, a fender is a wrap-around fire-guard placed on the hearth in front of the fire. It’s designed to prevent ash, coals or rolling logs from entering the room and creating a mess, or starting any unintentional fires.

A brass fireplace fender. Fenders are freestanding, and they can be moved to more easily clean the fireplace between uses

Fire-Irons

Fires were originally tended to using whatever utensils were close to hand, usually improvised. Old swords, iron bars, tree-branches and such. Eventually, pokers were created to give a person a permanent fire-tending tool. Ash-shovels, brooms and fire-tongs soon followed, and it’s these four items that typically make up the average set of fire-irons, usually stored on their own little iron or steel stand. Fire-irons are made of iron, or in more expensive sets, brass.

Fire-irons, stored on their own racks, became staples of homes around the world, and every household was likely to have at least one set. Smaller and shorter ones for coal-burning fireplaces and stoves, and larger, longer ones for wood-burning fireplaces.

Log-Cradle

Placed next to the fireplace, or directly outside the front/back door, a log-cradle (and it’s relation, the log-bin) became a necessity during very harsh winters.

When it became impossible to make the trek out to the wood-shed in the middle of the night, or when snow or rain proved too heavy, wood had to be stored near to the house. Log-cradles were designed to hold enough wood for anywhere between one night’s burning, or up to a week or more. These cradles are always held above the ground on legs, to stop moisture from gathering and allowing the wood to dry more effectively.

Dustbin

These days, a ‘dustbin’ is just another word for a rubbish bin or a garbage-bin. But in the days when wood and coal fires were a part of everyday life, a ‘dustbin’ was a separate and distinct entity. Specially made of metal with tight-fitting lids, carry-handles, and with raised bottoms, dustbins were constructed specifically for the task of holding household dust and fireplace ash and soot.

Storing ash from the fireplace in the dustbin was done usually only temporarily. When the bin was full, the ash would be dumped into the garden compost-heap. In large cities where this wasn’t possible, the dustbin was collected by the dustman in his dust-cart on a regular basis. The ash and dust in the bin was used for fertiliser out in the countryside.

Bellows

Fire was an important part of life for centuries, especially in places like the kitchen. Where-ever possible, man created instruments which improved and sped up the creation and maintenance of fire. You could continually blow on a fire, or fan it, to give it more airflow and oxygen, but blowing is exhausting, and fanning is imprecise.

Bellows are much more precise, regulated and forceful, which is why they’re preferred over other methods of giving a fire oxygen. Giving a fire oxygen like this causes faster combustion and therefore, greater heat output.

Fireplace Reflector/Fireback

It may surprise some people, but fireplaces are not especially efficient. Crackling flames and wafting plumes of smoke give the impression of great energy and heat, but actually, only a small amount of that heat and light is projected into a given room. A fireplace is only open on one side, so only a quarter of the fire’s energy is projected into the room. The rest of the heat which the fire generated is absorbed by the iron grate, the floor, the three walls of the fireplace, or else goes up the chimney.

To improve fireplace heat-efficiency, a fireback is generally recommended. A fireback is a metallic panel placed behind the grate, between the fire and the back wall of the fireplace.

Firebacks come in one of two styles: Solid cast iron panels, or reflective steel, copper or aluminium panels (this latter called fire-reflectors). They both do the same thing, but in different ways.

An iron fireback absorbs the heat from the fire, and radiates this captured heat outwards. This increases the amount of heat that the fire produces, which would otherwise be wasted by being absorbed by the brickwork on the back wall.

Antique cast iron fireback

A reflective fireback or fireplace reflector works by reflecting the heat and light of the fire out into the room. This not only increases the heat output substantially, but also reflects a lot more light into the room, creating a brighter fire.

The reflector placed behind the grate in our fireplace. A homemade affair easily fashioned out of sheet-metal, a few screws and some metal bars

Fire Screens

The Great Fire of London Screen!

Along with fenders, fireplace screens started being used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Originally just a way to cover up the fireplace when it was not being used (to hide the unsightly vision of burnt charcoal and ashes), modern fireplace screens (made of copper or brass) serve a double-purpose of also protecting the room from sparks, flying embers or rolling logs.

Chimney-Sweeping

Chim-chimney-chim-chimney-chim-chim-cheree,
a sweep is as lucky as lucky could be…

Apart from giving us possibly the worst Cockney accent ever in movie history, the otherwise wonderful Dick Van Dyke furnished those living in the 21st century with another falsehood about the history of the fire – that chimney-sweeping was a jolly old lark full of fun and games!

If only t’were true.

A fireplace that is used for the majority of the year, every year, or one which is used every day for years on end, needs to be swept regularly. The rosy-cheeked fellow who does this is the humble chimney-sweep.

Every time you light a fire in your fireplace, soot and ash is drawn up the chimney by the updraft of smoke. Over the course of years, this soot and ash builds up inside the chimney, forming black, crumbly deposits called creosote. Just like how grease in your kitchen drain prevents water from going down the pipes effectively, buildups of ash in the chimney prevents smoke from going UP the pipes effectively – in this case, your chimney-pipe, or flue.

For this reason, it’s necessary every now and then to get your chimney swept. By a sweep. With a broom and a brush.

Men of the Stepped Gables

If you’ve ever been to Europe, you may have seen buildings with rather odd-shaped rooves, such as this:

At the peak of the roof, you can see the chimney-stack with the pots on top. Sloping away on either side is the roof. See how it’s staggered down like a staircase?

Called crow-step gables, this roofing-style was popular from the Middle Ages up to the 1700s. Although it looks very pretty and geometric, it actually serves a practical purpose: It’s a built-in chimney-sweep staircase!

In an age when ladders rarely went right up to the roof, buildings were constructed with crow-stepped gables to give the poor chimney sweep somewhere to stand and climb in relative safety, as he made his way to the chimney-top to sweep down the ashes. And it was just as well, because chimney-sweeping was rife with dangers! Rather ironic then, that chimney-sweeps are supposed to be symbols of good luck!

Up until the late 19th century, chimney-sweeping was an extremely dangerous and even lethal profession. But not always for the reasons you might suspect. Laws in the United Kingdom and the United States had to be passed, and then strengthened, before the practice of shoving boys up chimneys was finally abolished in the 1870s.

Child Chimney Sweeps

“It’s a nasty trade!”

“Young boys have been smothered in chimneys before now”

“That’s a’cause they damped down the straw afore they lit it in the chimbly to make ’em come down agin! That’s all smoke, and no blaze; whereas smoke ain’t o’ no use at all in making a boy come down, for it only sends him to sleep, and that’s wot he likes. Boys is wery obstinit, and wery lazy, gen’lemen, and there’s nothink like a good hot blaze to make ’em come down with a run…It’s humane, too!”

– “Oliver Twist”, 1837

No write-up about chimneys and chimney-sweeping could possibly be complete without a part dedicated solely to the trials and tribulations of unfortunate apprentice-sweeps. Since the earliest days of chimney-sweeping, up until the last quarter of the 1800s, children were used to sweep chimneys. It was indeed a nasty trade, to say nothing of being extremely dangerous and lethal. But what made it so?

In England especially, but also in the United States, children, usually young boys between the ages of four and ten, were sent up chimneys with small brushes to sweep down the ashes inside the chimney-flues. It sounds harmless enough, but was actually phenomenally dangerous.

Imagine the following…

It’s 1830. You’re an orphan-boy, maybe six years old. You’re apprenticed to a Master Sweep. A typical assignment had you following your master to a well-to-do house somewhere in London, to sweep the chimney.

Now understand please, that it was NOT in most cases, the master sweep who did the sweeping – It was usually the job of his apprentice-boy to do that. The youth would be given a brush, and then he would literally have to crawl into the fireplace, and then climb up the chimney from the inside! In this dark, extremely cramped environment (usually less than 1ft square), the boy had to crawl up the chimney and stop every few inches to brush down the ash inside the flue, while the master sweep down below had the cushy job of sweeping the fallen ash into sacks to be removed from the building. In the most extreme of cases, boys were forced up chimney-flues which measured just NINE INCHES BY NINE INCHES! Measure that out with your ruler and see if you could get your son, or your nephew, or grandson, to squirm through a hole that size.

Now imagine a chimney-shaft 15 feet long, and getting him to crawl up that all the way to the top, and then crawl all the way back down again. Then imagine crawling up the chimney…and losing your footing…and falling two storeys down in the dark, and breaking your ankle on the hearth below. Or even worse, imagine getting your knees jammed up against your chest inside the pitch-black chimney, and being completely and utterly wedged into the chimney-pipe. You would choke on the ash, or die of asphyxiation from the smoke or from compression-injuries from the tight squeeze.

This did happen. And frequently. The ways to get boys out was either to drag them down with a rope, or to smash the chimney-flue open with a sledgehammer to break him out – before he either suffocated due to his cramped position, or choked to death on the falling ash.

Most chimneys were not large. Usually, one chimney was shared by two or three fireplaces, all stacked up on top of each other. So the bends, crooks and corners could very easily trap a child if he lost concentration, or panicked, and got himself wedged into the brickwork.

Young Master Oliver Twist was fortunate not become a “climbing boy” as chimney-sweep apprentices were called, and the British Government was genuinely concerned about the plight, and deaths of climbing-boys, but very little was ever done. The first act of parliament to try and regulate the chimney-sweeping trade was in 1788, but had little effect.

As early as the 1790s, longer, mechanical chimney-sweeping brushes had been invented, to try and replace climbing-boys, but due to the vast array of flue-types, the brushes were not always practical. Another act regulating chimney-sweeping came out in 1834, and another in 1840! But still the practice of sending boys up chimneys continued.

In the 1800s, the modern chimney-brush (still used by sweeps today, with big bushy brush-heads and segmented, screw-on handles) was invented. But its introduction was met with ignorance by chimney-sweeps. The new brushes were expensive and burdensome to carry around. It was much easier to pay a poor, starving peasant family, or a pauper family living in the East End of London ten shillings, or five shillings, to take their children away and make them climbing-boys.

Armed with scrapers and brushes, and usually stripped naked, these children were shoved up chimneys to clean them from the inside out. And not just for cleaning chimneys, but also to put out chimney-fires! Imagine being a 10-year-old waif, crawling up a chimney with a flaming hot blaze inside it, with a wet towel to extinguish it!

Although presented in a comical fashion, mocking the chimney sweep’s accent in his book, Dickens’ description of the working-conditions of climbing-boys was incredibly accurate, and some master sweeps really did light fires in fireplaces with the climbing-boys still up the flues! Unsurprisingly, some kids were literally roasted alive.

It was not until 1875, and the disaster attending a boy named George Brewster (aged 12) that sending boys up chimneys was finally outlawed in England! Poor George crawled up a chimney at the Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridgeshire, England.

Like so many hapless boys before him, he got hopelessly jammed in the flue. Sledgehammers and picks had to be brought out to smash the entire chimney down to get him out. He was dragged out alive, but died shortly after. The hospital staff were so appalled that they brought the incident to the attention of the police. George’s master sweep was given a sentence of six months’ hard labour on a charge of Manslaughter as a result.

George’s death in 1875 resulted in the passing of the Chimney Sweeper’s Act of 1875, which finally ended the practice of sending boys up chimneys.

Modern Chimney-Sweeping

After the 1875 abolition of child chimney-sweeps, sweeps had to rely on brushes to do their job for them. Or at least, in the United Kingdom. The practice of climbing boys continued in the United States, even after it had been abolished in England.

The standard chimney-sweeping brush has a round or square head, with stiff-bristles made out of wire for added abrasive action. The brush is fed up (or down) the chimney, and additional extension-rods are added to the brush to push it further up or down the chimney to scrape down the ash and soot.

These days, chimney-sweeps also use vacuum-cleaners and video-cameras to clean and inspect chimneys, but it remains a dirty, dusty job even today.

Like a Tinderbox

For centuries, the only way to light a fire was to do it the old-fashioned way – either through friction or concentrated sunlight. Eventually, mankind discovered that by striking certain materials together, sparks could be generated easily, and a fire could be started much more quickly.

To do this required three things: Flint, steel, and tinder.

Flint is a rock which can be easily chipped and fractured. When chipped to an angle, and struck or scraped down a piece of steel (such as a disc or a rod), sparks are generated by the friction, or the impact of stone and steel. These sparks, (shavings of steel, in fact), landing on a piece of tinder, would start a fire. Usually, flint and steel were kept together, along with a small, tightly-sealed container which held the tinder. This became known as a ‘tinderbox’. Tinderboxes had to be tightly sealed to keep the tinder as dry as possible so that it would catch fire instantly when sparks were showered upon it after flint and steel had been struck.

Even today, we have an expression about how something catches fire “like a tinderbox”, or how a potentially volatile situation is “like a tinderbox”, echoing the extremely combustible contents of these little metal boxes.

Striking a Light

For centuries, starting a fire was a fiddly, imprecise business. It was something which took skill and practice. Things improved when people realised that they could use steel and flint, but the absolutely best, idiot-proof way to light a fire came with striking matches.

Matches have a long history, and it goes all the way back to Ancient China. But modern striking matches, of the kind we purchase and use today, were invented in the 1800s. The first of this kind came out in 1816, and was invented by Frenchman Francois Derosne. Early matches were tipped with sulphur and white phosphorus.

These early French matches were fiddly to use and unpredictable. An improved version by Englishman John Walker, a chemist, was invented ten years later, in 1826, and is the basis of all matches we have today.

Walker’s early friction-matches were improved in 1829 by Scottish inventor Sir Isaac Holden (1807-1897), and were sold under the brand-name of ‘Lucifers’. Although they were an improvement, ‘Lucifer’ matches didn’t last, but the brand-name became a common nickname for matches during the 1800s and early 1900s, and matches were commonly referred to as ‘Lucifers’. The war song ‘Pack up your Troubles’ immortalised them with the line:

“So long as you’ve a Lucifer to light your fag, smile boys, that’s the style”

By the 1830s, more reliable friction-matches had been invented, these matches were stored in smart, silver or gold cases called vestas, which were commonly worn on pocketwatch chains and carried around with a gentleman, since one never knew when one might need a light. These vesta-cases often had corrugated striking-plates on the sides or bottom, so that a match could be retrieved and lit from the same container.

An antique silver vesta case. Note the striking-ridges on the bottom

Matches continued to be phosphorus-tipped, strike-anywhere friction matches until the last decades of the 1800s. Although convenient in the fact that these matches could catch fire after being struck against any sufficiently rough surface (even the sole of your shoe!), their convenience came at the price of being a fire-hazard in that they could be too-easily ignited.

On top of that, white phosphorus matches were extremely poisonous. The unfortunate ‘match-girls’ who made these things, by dipping the matchsticks into phosphorus solution developed a crippling infection called ‘Phossy Jaw’. In essence, the phosphorus fumes seeped into the body and rotted out your jaw-bone, resulting in bone-infections, gum-infections, losing your teeth…eugh.

This was stopped in the later 1800s when white phosphorus was replaced with safer red phosphorus, which is still used today.

Starting in the mid-1800s, poisonous, dangerous, white-phosphorus friction-matches were gradually replaced by safer red phosphorus matches. These were less poisonous, and also much safer because instead of having the phosphorus and sulphur on the match-head at the same time, these matches only contained phosphorus, and the sulphur striking-compound was painted onto the sides of new cardboard matchboxes. Behold the modern safety-match!

The safety-match which we know today works because when you strike a match against a box, the sulphur and phosphorus combine, while at the same time creating friction, which is what causes the match-head to ignite. With the two components of a burning match now separated from each other, it is impossible for a friction match to be lit purely by being struck against an abrasive surface. This made them safer to handle and store than traditional strike-anywhere matches.

Mankind Roasting on an Open Fire

For centuries, heating, lighting and cooking was done with an open flame and fire, using candles, lamps and fireplaces. The Industrial Revolution of the 1700s saw the first practical iron stoves being built in Europe. Made of cast iron, these stoves were able for the first time to allow people to do more of their cooking at home.

Previously, cooking on an open fire was fiddly and tricky – You were limited by what you could hang over the flames or sit on the hearth. The first stoves allowed mankind to fry, bake, steam, boil and roast a much greater variety of foods than a simple open fire would have permitted. This greater control of fire vastly improved home comfort.

Prior to the invention of the cast iron range stove, baking was a specialty art. The only people who could bake were the people who had ovens. And ovens were huge brick and stone structures which were expensive to build and took up a lot of precious space. Not everyone had them, and most people didn’t. To bake your pies, cakes and loaves, you had to take them to the village bake-house to be baked.

With the stove, it was now possible to bake at home! And with a much better fuel, too.

It was at this time that people started switching from wood as a fuel-source to coal, instead. Coal had advantages, but also disadvantages. Coal burns hotter than wood, and so produces much more heat for the same amount of fuel. The problem is that coal burns and produces nasty black smoke! Eugh!

Wood-smoke is lovely. Everyone loves wood-smoke. It smells wonderful. People have smoked meat, cheese, fish and all other sorts of things in wood-smoke for centuries. It preserves the food and gives it a lovely flavour! Yum! But mixing coal-smoke with your food was apt to put you off your appetite, and to prevent this, coal-burning stoves and fireplaces did everything to channel the smoke away from the rest of the house.

Fires in the 21st Century

In the Developed World, the wood or coal-fueled fire is no-longer the primary source of heat or light anymore. Most of us cook on gas or electric stoves and heat our homes with heaters or central heating or split-system air-conditioners. But in other places around the world, fires continue to burn bright. But what should you do if you want to get a fire going?

Using your Fireplace

Perhaps you live in an older house with a fireplace and you would like to start using it to warm the house in winter? What to do, what to do, what to do??

The first thing to do is to ensure that your fireplace is a working fireplace. By this, I mean that all the fittings are functional and undamaged. The chimney should be clear and undamaged, and the damper should open and close smoothly. If you are unsure about the condition of your chimney, then you should have it checked by a professional chimney-sweep. Or you can do it yourself – All you need is a ladder, a flue-brush (and extension-rods) a few drop-sheets and a vacuum cleaner (or a shovel and bucket).

Whenever a chimney is swept, you’re scraping out all the soot and ash which has caked onto the inside of the chimney. It’s called creosote. Here’s a picture:

Scraping this crap out of your chimney-pipe ensures that the air moves smoothly up the flue and that the smoke has an unimpeded passage to the outside world.

To prepare the fireplace, you need to ensure that you have all the right bits and pieces. The necessary bits and pieces are listed and illustrated earlier on in this posting.

Lighting a Fire…

There are a dozen methods for building and lighting a fire. Here are just two methods, and the bare essentials.

To light a fire, you will need a source of ignition – matches, a cigarette lighter, or flint and steel if you want to do it the old-school way.

You will also need tinder. Tinder is anything small, dry and shriveled. Grass. Straw. Shredded, scrunched or twisted paper. Old cloth. Tinder goes first, at the bottom of the fireplace grate.

On top of the tinder, you set up your kindling. Kindling is any small dry pieces of wood. Usually old branches or larger pieces of wood split into smaller pieces. Kindling should be small enough that you can grab a whole bundle of it in one hand. If you can’t, it’s probably too big.

Light the tinder and wait until the kindling is going. Once it is, you can lay on your pieces of fuel-wood. Start with smaller pieces and work your way up to progressively larger pieces.

Waiting for the kindling to light before going further is important. It allows the fire to get a foothold. But it also allows your chimney a chance to warm up. You can’t light a fire in a cold fireplace (trust me, I’ve tried. It doesn’t work). Letting the kindling burn for a bit sends hot air up the chimney. This drives out or warms up any cold air in the chimney, and establishes an updraft – a current of air that draws more air into the fireplace below, which stimulates the fire and encourages it to burn more intensely.

With this going, add on your fuel-wood in increasingly larger segments and logs. You have a fire!

As always, keep an eye on your fire. And if you’re not going to, then make sure that the safety-screen is across the fireplace to prevent accidents – Rolling logs do happen, and you don’t want to come back to your living-room to find one burning a hole in your carpet. You might want to keep a small bucket of water or a fire-extinguisher nearby, in case the unforeseen should occur.

Fire-Building Methods

The two most common fire-building methods are the Upside Down Fire, and the Tepee Fire.

The Tepee Fire works on the age old rule that fire always burns UPWARDS. So any extra fuel should be placed above and outwards, from the fire’s point of origin. You put your tinder in a little pile in the middle of the fireplace, then lean kindling sticks against it, like an American Indian tent, or ‘tepee’. Then lay fuelwood around it in the same manner with a little door open at one side, to stick a match into it to light the kindling.

The other fire-building method which has gained a lot of popularity is the Upside Down Fire.

While the Tepee fire works best with almost any size of wood, the Upside Down Fire works best with smaller, thinner pieces of wood. It’s built in the following method:

Get your fuel-logs and stack them in a criss-cross pattern, building up a tower of wood. At the top, build your fire-tepee with tinder and kindling, and a small amount of fuelwood. Then light the fire at the top.

The reason it’s called an UPSIDE DOWN fire should now be apparent – It goes AGAINST the rule that fire burns from the bottom up. The Upside Down Fire works in that the flaming materials burn DOWNWARDS through the tower of fuel-wood. As it does so, any unburned portions of the tower collapse inwards, further fueling the fire, until it reaches the very bottom, and burns out. Upside Down fires are meant to be maintenance free – Build it, light it, forget about it. Ideal for camping. Or lazy people.

Both methods work. It’s just a matter of which one is best for you in your situation.

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The Long Slow History of Fast Food

Check the Lyrics #1 – Cultural References in Classic Songs

New Bobbins! Yay!

The Ultimate Book of Mysteries: The Voynich Manuscript

Tinkering with a Typewriter – The Underwood No. 5 Standard – POST NO. 2.

55 Days at Peking: The Siege of the Peking Legation Quarter

Flaming Hell! A History of Fireplaces and Fire

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