The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1885-11-21
Fifty Years Ago.


ing back over recent inventions and dis
coveries as though mankind made no
great stride in all the 400 years that sue
c9eded the invention of printing. Fifty
years ago there was not reaping or
moving machine to be heard in any
field, nor was there seed-planter to be
seen on any labor-saying apparatus for
doing farm work except such as had
existed for generations.
IREARMs-PHoTos-RU
In 1885 the farmers shot squirrels with
tlint-lock fowling pieces, Springfield mus
kets, or some of the innumerablc
Queens arms" that were said to have
been picked up on the field of Bunker
Hill. Percussioncap locks had not come
into vogue, and flint locks were retained
in both the militia and regular service
for many years thereafter The first
breech-loading needle gun was made in
1886 and in the same year Samuel Colt
patented his revolving pistol.
Fifty years ago such thing as a pho
tograph had never been imagined.
Daguerre's process, long since abandon
ed, was first announced to the French
Academy of Sciences by Arago in 1889.
Portraits were painted in oil for those
who could afford them; miniatures were
taken in water colors upon ivory, and
for the rest there was nothing better
than sihoutte profile, cut in white
paper with pair of scissors, and placed
over piece of black silk.
1t was in 1885 that Charles Goodyear
took out his first patent for an India rub
ber cement. Before that time the few
gum" overshoes that were worn came
from the crude manufacture of the In
dians of Brazil. Garden hose, water
proofs and all the multifarious list of
hard and soft rubber goods belong to the
last half century.
PINS, PENS, FUEL AND LIGHT.
In 1886 the first successful machines
for making pins were put into operation
in New York, but these were the kind
with wire or "spun heads" which had
way of slipping down toward the point
and leaving the upper end of the pin to
go into the thumb or finger. The pro-
cess of making pins with solid heads,
such MS are now in universal use, was
not patented until 1910.
People wrote their letters with quill
pens in 1885, and there was no note
paper little ruled paper of any kind, no
blotting paper, no envelopes and no
stamps. Fine sand was used to take up
the surplus ink, and only one sheet or
piece of paper being allowed to go by
mail at single rate, foolscap was largely
used for correspondence on account of
its size, till it was replaced by large
square sheets of letter paper. Steel pens
were not in common use then, nor for a
long time afterwards, for they were
neither cheap nor good.
The use of anethetics was practically
unknown till the effect of ether in rem
dering the patient insensible to pain in
surgical operations was announced in
1916. Coal was hardly known as fuel
in this country fifty years ago. Every
body burned wood. Lucifer matches
were not often seen or smelled in those
days fire was kindled with the tinder-
box, and candles and pipes were usually
lighted with live Goals from the fire
place. There was no gas for lighting
streets or houses in this country. Whale
oil lamps and tallow dips were the uni
versal reliance. Burning fluid, lard oil
and camphene came later, and it was
years before the discovery of petroleum
and the manufacture of kerosene.
HoUsEKEEPER-cARPENT
The housekeeper had no canned fruits
whatever, and no preserved meats, soups
OR vegetables. She could get no CON
densed milk, no cocoa, and but little
chocolate. She would have had to look
long for banana, and all imported fruit
was scarce. She would as1soon of thought
of putting a raw squash on her table as
tomato in any form. Ice did not rattle
in her water-pitcher, and she had no re-
frigerator. Soda water and ice cream
were not at hand to cool the palate in
summer, and lager beer was a fluid whose
name was never pronounced on these
shores. The first really practical sewing
machine had not been invented, and the
household linen was spun and woven at
home.
The carpenter prepared every piece of
| woodwork that went into the construr