One Hundred Years Ago

[gabrielle]

Why?  Why why why?

[albrecht]

Cool!  Sounds like an early day version of the Theremin.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin  Also, Louis and Bebe Barron had a similar pc. of tube driven hardware that made eerie space tones that were actually used in the movie Forbidden Planet.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebe_and_Louis_Barron

I have a Theremin app on my phone. Haha. Reminds me of this (invented by Ben Franklin)
http://www.glassarmonica.com/

[albrecht]

Why?  Why why why?

Bizarre, and competition in that second-hand false teeth market! Sounds nasty but if cleaned? Why not? I'm sure dental devices were expensive as they are now and likely, as many now, didn't have insurance (if that even existed back then.) Then again it could be argued that insurance helped the prices become more inflationary, so?

100 years ago a spy was shot, which I find a bit interesting because I though back then normally the Brits hung people.
Ludovico Hurwitz Y Zender
Age: 37
Sex: male
Crime: spying
Date Of Execution: 11 Apr 1916
Execution Place: Tower of London
Method: shot
Executioner: unknown

[gabrielle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01rjc33


check this out Albrecht....interesting. 

[K_Dubb]

Why?  Why why why?

Well, a hundred years before it was Waterloo teeth.  So things have come some ways.

[gabrielle]

Well, a hundred years before it was Waterloo teeth.  So things have come some ways.

Good point.  Do you think they ground down the used teeth and used the material for "new" ones?   

[K_Dubb]

Good point.  Do you think they ground down the used teeth and used the material for "new" ones?

I think this was before any durable plastic besides bakelite, which was dark brown and tastes funny, so the material itself may have had some value.  But I wouldn't be surprised if it worked like how my grandpa used to pick his glasses from a big bin a the junk store -- just keep trying them on until you find a pair that works.

[gabrielle]

I think this was before any durable plastic besides bakelite, which was dark brown and tastes funny, so the material itself may have had some value.  But I wouldn't be surprised if it worked like how my grandpa used to pick his glasses from a big bin a the junk store -- just keep trying them on until you find a pair that works.

Thanks K Dubb.  I am going to try and un-know this little fact. LOL.

[albrecht]

Sorry for the bad pics but using an older smartphone. Here is the stereoscope I inherited. Also some interesting stuff found in the box. An old newspaper* for lining the bottom and on the inside of the top a sketch my granddad, I think, made of all the railroad lines in Iowa. He often told me as a kid that the only "fun" the kids had was watching trains.

*not a newspaper like the big boys but, from looking up online, a charity's newspaper set up by  a Baptist minister who started to get kids dropped off at his house! So started an organization still going (but no renamed) to help orphans and families with children who could not take care of them, particularly after the Council Bluff flood and poor economic conditions. And, apparently, back then if a mother died, in particular, the dads couldn't/wouldn't raise the children due to jobs or etc.
http://www.councilbluffslibrary.org/history/tree.php?dir=/Community/People/Lemen,%20Joseph
http://childrenssquare.org/about-us-2/

which I also find a bit odd because my family (at least back then) was very Lutheran and although my granddad was an orphan he, and his brothers, were split up and farmed out (literally) to various relatives after his mother died but not through that organization.

[gabrielle]

Sorry for the bad pics but using an older smartphone. Here is the stereoscope I inherited. Also some interesting stuff found in the box. An old newspaper* for lining the bottom and on the inside of the top a sketch my granddad, I think, made of all the railroad lines in Iowa. He often told me as a kid that the only "fun" the kids had was watching trains.

*not a newspaper like the big boys but, from looking up online, a charity's newspaper set up by  a Baptist minister who started to get kids dropped off at his house! So started an organization still going (but no renamed) to help orphans and families with children who could not take care of them, particularly after the Council Bluff flood and poor economic conditions. And, apparently, back then if a mother died, in particular, the dads couldn't/wouldn't raise the children due to jobs or etc.
http://www.councilbluffslibrary.org/history/tree.php?dir=/Community/People/Lemen,%20Joseph
http://childrenssquare.org/about-us-2/

which I also find a bit odd because my family (at least back then) was very Lutheran and although my granddad was an orphan he, and his brothers, were split up and farmed out (literally) to various relatives after his mother died but not through that organization.

Albrecht...that is so cool!!  My husband remembers using an old stereoscope to look at aerial photos to view topographic photos. 

[Rix Gins]

Here is the stereoscope I inherited. 

That's a Keystone View Co. Monarch Stereoscope Viewer: Patent Date 1904.  Notice the antlered stag standing in the woods with the name Monarch embossed at the very top.  And it looks to be in very good shape.  Notice the felt that is attached to the part that presses against your face?  Yours appears to be soft and velvety, something you usually don't find in old stereo viewers.  The two wires at the end to hold the stereoviews...totally curved the same at both sides.  Usually they manage to get bent from being stored for so long.  Interestingly enough, your model is the exact, same one that I first bought from an antique mall quite a few years back.  I have since purchased two other viewers of this type, one which has an enlarged viewer hood that allows you to wear glasses.  The other, I bought because it was made out of cherry wood.  Then I have one other different type of model that is box like and the stereoview is slid inside the front and you lift a mirror up that reflects the light from in front, not the back.  P,S. the felt on my first model got all dry and crusty.  Guess I should have used some type of conditioner on it.  lol

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

From the Seattle Star today:

Sounds like there could be a break in the case now that a previously overlooked "clew" has been discovered.  The noose is tightening around the nephew, and it's only a matter of time before one of his accomplices cracks under the pre-Miranda third degree tag team of Captain Tennant and Deputy Prosecutor Ellis. 

The department is in turmoil, though over the liquor issue:

All the unsolved murders probably didn't help, either, and some of those were probably connected to the booze trade. I bet there's more than meets the eye to the story of the blacksmith who the police claimed strangled himself and then torched his shack to destroy the evidence.

[K_Dubb]

Sorry for the bad pics but using an older smartphone. Here is the stereoscope I inherited. Also some interesting stuff found in the box. An old newspaper* for lining the bottom and on the inside of the top a sketch my granddad, I think, made of all the railroad lines in Iowa. He often told me as a kid that the only "fun" the kids had was watching trains.

That is very cool!  Looks to be in spectacular condition, too.

I spent hours looking at viewmasters when I was a kid.  Same idea, but color.

[K_Dubb]

Sounds like there could be a break in the case now that a previously overlooked "clew" has been discovered.  The noose is tightening around the nephew, and it's only a matter of time before one of his accomplices cracks under the pre-Miranda third degree tag team of Captain Tennant and Deputy Prosecutor Ellis. 

All the unsolved murders probably didn't help, either, and some of those were probably connected to the booze trade. I bet there's more than meets the eye to the story of the blacksmith who the police claimed strangled himself and then torched his shack to destroy the evidence.

I think he already faced questioning by 10 detectives, if I remember right.  I feel bad for him if he's innocent.

It amazes me how quickly (3 months) after prohibition bootlegging took over.  "Blindpigging", from what I can tell, refers to speakeasies.

[Rix Gins]

Everett True, April 12, 1916.

[Rix Gins]

The Day Book, April 12, 1916.

[Rix Gins]

The Daily Bonanza, April 12, 1916.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Play Ball!

The 1916 Major League baseball season opened today with the Washington Senators defeating the New York Yankees 3 -2 in eleven innings at the Polo Grounds in New York. Both starting pitchers went the distance, with Walter Johnson outdueling Ray Caldwell.  Here's a link to the box score.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA191604120.shtml

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

The Boston Red Sox started their championship season with a win against the Philadelphia Athletics at Fenway Park behind a solid 8 1/3 inning pitching performance by 20-year-old Babe Ruth who got some relief help from Rube Foster in the 9th. It would be the first of twenty-three wins that season for the Babe, who led the American League with forty starts and a sparkling 1.75 ERA.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS191604120.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml

Babe Ruth's 1916 baseball card and a Red Sox team picture from that year. 

[Rix Gins]

Cool stuff, Robert.  Keep 'em coming.  Favorite player's nickname of the day:  Home Run Baker.  He must have been a pretty good player to get a nickname like that.

[K_Dubb]

The Daily Bonanza, April 12, 1916.

Well, that settles it! Happy is the impresario, as RGG has said.

Love the picture of TR with flowers.

[K_Dubb]

From the Seattle Star today:

[Rix Gins]

Re: Woman warned in murder case.  A roughly dressed man, tall and slender with a sandy mustache threatens Mrs. Fouts.  Could this be the fellow that Robert G.G. said the nephew hired to do the dirty deed?  How about it Charlie, will the police ever get to the bottom of this case?

"Even melon grown in shade will ripen in the end."

[albrecht]

Re: Woman warned in murder case.  A roughly dressed man, tall and slender with a sandy mustache threatens Mrs. Fouts.  Could this be the fellow that Robert G.G. said the nephew hired to do the dirty deed?  How about it Charlie, will the police ever get to the bottom of this case?

"Even melon grown in shade will ripen in the end."

I'm sure Charlie will get his man but I'm a bit upset that the bumblings of Number One Son and Birmingham caused the "roughly dressed" man who threatened Mrs.Fouts to escape this time.
ps: here is a fun website with a list of Charlie's aphorisms.

[Rix Gins]

I'm sure Charlie will get his man but I'm a bit upset that the bumblings of Number One Son and Birmingham caused the "roughly dressed" man who threatened Mrs.Fouts to escape this time.
ps: here is a fun website with a list of Charlie's aphorisms.

Haha.  Those two do have a tendency to foul up Charlie's progress on a case.  Here is the aphorism website that I use...  http://charliechanfamily.tripod.com/id6.html

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Cool stuff, Robert.  Keep 'em coming.  Favorite player's nickname of the day:  Home Run Baker.  He must have been a pretty good player to get a nickname like that.

I will! I've been looking forward to the start of the '16 season, which was fairly late by recent standards. The season was shorter then because of the 154 game schedule and the numerous doubleheaders that were played.

Frank "Home Run" Baker had a great baseball nickname indeed, and he was one of the premier power hitters of his day during the Dead Ball Era.  He led the American League in home runs from 1911 to 1914, with 11, 10,12, and 9, sat out the 1915 season due to a contract dispute, and returned to hit 10 in 1916, which was good for second in the lead.  He was edged out by Wally Pipp, famous for losing his job to Lou Gehrig a few years later, who hit 12.  "Home Run" Baker finished his career with 96 HRs, a very respectable total for the time, but not the reason for his nickname.  That was given to him by a sports writer after Baker homered off New York aces Christie Mathewson and Rube Marquard to help beat them in the 1911 World Series.

Here's his 1916 baseball card and a picture from early in his career.

[gabrielle]

There is something about this "woman warned in murder case" that is giving me the creeps.  I am starting to think there was more to this story than we know to date.

[Rix Gins]

Marimba band music anybody?  This was recorded on April 12, 1916.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2jqo9ZuMd8

And here is a tune you will recognize, also recorded 100 years ago.  (You will have to turn the volume up on this one.)  http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700001911/B-16903-Peer_Gynt_suite_no._1_arranged

[albrecht]

Haha.  Those two do have a tendency to foul up Charlie's progress on a case.  Here is the aphorism website that I use...  http://charliechanfamily.tripod.com/id6.html

That was the website that I, somehow, forgot to post after my ps?! The  CC books by Earl Derr Biggers are actually pretty good, less funny and obviously don't feature the musical numbers and slapstick (which is one of the good things about the movies though.) His other famous book Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) was made into plays, and several movies, one of which I watched the other night: "House of Long Shadows" starring a big-four line-up: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine. And, apparently, also was the basis for the ridiculous, but funny, "Haunted Honeymoon" (Gilda Radner's last movie) which flopped but I think is hilarious.

[albrecht]

Marimba band music anybody?  This was recorded on April 12, 1916.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2jqo9ZuMd8

And here is a tune you will recognize, also recorded 100 years ago.  (You will have to turn the volume up on this one.)  http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700001911/B-16903-Peer_Gynt_suite_no._1_arranged

Thanks for the Grieg link! Like those old recordings. Been to Troldhaugen years ago. My granddad's favorite hymn was "Den store, hvide flok" ("great white Host") which was arranged by Grieg and is interesting in the music/style. Here's two over a hundred years ago though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Itcty5ZvM