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Bisulphide of Carbon - Across the Country on One Tank of Fuel?

The People's Voice from April 17, 1880 continues to turn up weird and delightful stories. In "Supplanting Steam," the article claims the invention of a new fuel source that could be used with current steam engines with minimal alterations (essentially adding a condenser). The extraordinary properties of bisulphide of carbon have been long known, but no one has hitherto discovered the means of utilizing its forces until recently, when its union with petroleum solved the difficulty. This substance, bisulphide of carbon, is more commonly known today as carbon disulfide . Petroleum, of course, needs no introduction (but in this invention, it seems to have been used primarily as a lubricant). The article claims this combination, when heated in the steam chamber to "lukewarm" temperatures around 140-200 F (60-94 Celsius), "acts precisely as steam, only more dense, and with greater force...It is claimed that three-fourth of the fuel required for steam is save

The Unicorn of Thibet

In honor of the upcoming National Unicorn Day on April 9, I present to you a tale of the mythical beast, as related in the Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser, March 19, 1821 : A King Pursued by a Unicorn , detail THE UNICORN. In the forty-seventh number of that invaluable work, the Quarterly Review , received from our correspondent at London, we find another amusing and interesting article in relation to the Snowy Range of the Hymalaya mountains, forming that stupendous buttress which supports on the south the celebrated Table Land of Central Asia.— The article of which we speak, is a review of a tour through a part of these mountains, to the sources of the river Jumna and Ganges. In the course of the review, the writer introduces a letter from a British officer commanding in the hilly country east of Nepaul, to the marquis of Hastings, stating that the Unicorn, so long considered as a fabulous animal, actually exists at this moment in the interior of Thibet, where it is well k

Ambrotypes, Melianotypes, and Firnotypes, Oh My! Photography after the Civil War

An ad placed in the Winchester News for August 18, 1865 shows Winchester getting back to some semblance of normalcy. One of those signs was Nathaniel Routzahn, a local photographer, noting a reduction in prices for his services to previous costs. His prices before the war? According to an 1859 ad , they ranged anywhere from 50 cents to $50. An 1858 invention to display photographs like a slideshow, advanced by the knobs on the top of the cabinet in The American Journal of Photography . The inventor believed "it has numbered the days of the fashionable album." Suppose you were hankering for a portrait. Mr. Routzahn's company offered several options, so let's take a look to explore what each type of image was: Ambrotypes : This is an image printed on glass, which first proliferated in the United States in the 1850s. While they were cheaper to produce and clearer than the earlier daguerreotype, by the time of this ad, ambrotypes were falling out of favor, in part due t

The Rise of the Sewing Machine

We take for granted these days that our clothes and items will be machine-sewn and generally well-constructed. You might be surprised, however, at how long that has been true. The first mention we find of the invention of the sewing machine reported in Virginia comes by way of the Alexandria Gazette, October 15, 1845 : An ingenious piece of mechanism has lately been made known to the public in France. It is a sewing machine, and calculated to revolutionize completely the art of sewing. It will perform two hundred stitches to the minute, enlarge or contract tho stitches by the simple turn of a screw, lead the needle along all the sinuosities of the stuff to be sewed, without the least danger of tear, whatever may be the texture of the stuff and do every part of the sewing of a coat, button holes excepted. The Staunton Spectator, published on October 30 that same year, includes the final line omitted from Alexandria's publication: "The inventor is Mr. B. Thimounier, tailor at A

Shredded Wheat Is Here to Stay

How many ways can you think of to eat shredded wheat biscuits? Apparently there were "two dozen ways of preparing them" in 1896, according to an ad in the Daily Item . Just four years later, public demonstrations using shredded wheat mentioned a r ecipe book with 262 recipes . Newspapers ran snarky ads decrying the manufactured necessity for shredded wheat and other breakfast cereals. Despite the push back, shredded wheat was here to stay - at least as a breakfast cereal. But how did it arrive? Shredded Wheat Biscuit with Apricots and Cream, from More Light . Shredded wheat was the invention of Henry Perky . The story goes that he met another person over shared digestion woes around 1890, and learned this person's trick of eating boiled wheat with cream. After connecting with machinist William H. Ford, they developed a machine to process wheat into "little whole wheat mattresses" to facilitate the ease of eating the wheat. After exhibiting his biscuits at the

Building Winchester in 1896

While perusing local news items in the July 16, 1896 Daily Item , several notes on construction projects and locations in Winchester jumped out. Let's see if we can track down where these building may be, and if they are still in existence. Miss Marie Wood, daughter of Col. Robt. C. Wood , of New Orleans, is the guest of her aunt, Mrs. B. T. Dandridge on Braddock street. This was a well-known house that no longer stands. Mrs. B. T. Dandridge is Betty Taylor Dandridge , who acted as First Lady when her mother declined the role. The house, located at 116 N. Braddock St., was demolished in 1934, but several images of it are available at the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives . Mr. J. S. Haldeman, of the creamery on Kent street, received yesterday 5000 pounds of milk and manufactured 387 pounds of butter. One of Haldeman's buildings still stands at 21-25 South Kent St. ( another building in the complex was demolished to provide parking). Although much altered by later uses, the buildin