Inventions

The History of Typewriters by Charlene Raddon

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Hi everyone, Charlene Raddon here and I’m thrilled to be back. The first documented version of a typewriter was in 1575 when an Italian printmaker named Francesco Rampazetto created the scrittura tattile, which was a machine made to impress letters into the paper. But this wasn’t the first attempt. In 1801 and 1808, Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter for his blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, to give her the ability to write. Of more use was a patent for a machine called a typographer in 1829 by an American, William Austin Burt, considered one of the first typewriters to have existed. A little later, in 1864, an Austrian carpenter named Peter Mitterhofer developed several typewriter prototypes.

One early model that did not use the QWERTY system did not even type with typebars. The Hammond, introduced in 1884, came on the scene with its own keyboard, with two rows and a curved “Ideal” keyboard. The Hammond printed from a type shuttle—a C-shaped piece of vulcanized rubber, which can easily be exchanged if a different typeface is wanted. There is no cylindrical platen as on typebar typewriters; the paper is hit against the shuttle by a hammer.

The first commercially produced typewriter, the Hanson Writing Ball, was invented in Denmark in 1865 by Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen. By 1878, he made the refinements to create the machine by which it is primarily known. It was a combination of unusual design and ergonomic innovations: 52 keys on a large brass hemisphere, resembling an oversized pincushion. It was successful in Europe and a staple in European offices into the early 1900s. The Hammond gained a solid base of loyal customers. These well-engineered machines lasted, with a name change to Varityper and electrification, right up to the beginning of the word-processor era.

 

The best breakthrough came in 1868 when four Americans, Christopher Latham Sholes, Frank Haven Hall, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule, patented the first truly commercially successful typewriter produced by E. Remington and Sons. The Sholes and Glidden comes closest to what we know today. It had a QWERTY keyboard, the first of its kind, which was adopted as the standard.

Other machines typing from a single type element rather than typebars included the Crandall (1881) … and a more practical version called the Blickensderfer.

The effort to create a visible rather than “blind” machine led to ingenious ways of getting the typebars to the platen. Examples of early visible writers include the Williams and the Oliver. The Daugherty Visible of 1891 was the first front-stroke typewriter to go into production: the typebars rest below the platen and hit the front of it. With the Underwood of 1895, this typewriter style began to gain ascendancy. The millions produced the most popular model of early Underwoods, the #5. By the 1920s, virtually all typewriters were “look-alikes”: frontstroke, QWERTY, typebar machines printing through a ribbon, using one shift key and four banks of keys. (Some diehards lingered on. The giant Burroughs Moon-Hopkins typewriter and accounting machine was a blind writer that was manufactured, amazingly enough, until the late 1940s.)

In 1897, the “Underwood 1 Typewriter” was developed, the first with a typing area visible to the typist. It was created by American Franz X. Wagner in 1892, but in 1895, it was taken over by John T. Underwood, who gave it his name. The Underwood 1 typewriter set the standard going forward. In the 1900s, typewriter designs became standard, mainly having the same setup with only minor variations depending on the exact use of the machine.

In 1914, James Fields Smathers invented the first practical use, a power-operated typewriter, and in 1925, Remington produced its first electric typewriter based on Smathers’s design and used a Northeast motor to power the typing function. Then, in 1935, IBM came out with their electric typewriter.

I don’t remember the make of the first typewriter I used as a stenographer and secretary in the 1950s-’60s, but I remember when the “ball” typehead came out, and I received my first one. It seemed like quite an invention at the time. I also remember the small portable typewriter I used in 1980 to start my writing career. I wonder what became of it—thrown out, I suppose, or given away. And, of course, I remember my first computer—so many glitches and problems. But that was long ago.

In the 19th century, the standard price for a typewriter was $100—several times the value of an excellent personal computer today when we adjust for inflation. There were many efforts to produce cheaper typewriters. Most of these were index machines where the typist first points at a letter on some sort of index, then performs another motion to print the letter. Obviously, these were not heavy-duty office machines; they were meant for people of limited means who needed to do some occasional typing. An example is the “American” index typewriter, which sold for $5. Index typewriters survived into the 20th century as children’s toys; one commonly found example is the “Dial” typewriter made by Marx Toys in the 1920s and 30s.

It was on a portable electric typewriter that I wrote my first book. It’s been too long to recall if I purchased a better one before I got my first computer. I think I must have been in the late 80s or early 90s. I didn’t know many people who had one yet at the time. I’ve been through more than I can remember since then, and so far, I’ve typed twenty-five published books, two unpublished books, and a few partially completed books.

My most recently finished book is #2 in my Outlaw Brides Series, The Outlaw and the Bounty Hunter. This was a fun one to write. The hero was raised in a circus, and when the circus closed, the workers became his hands on his new ranch. They worked for room and board and $5 a month, and were glad to have a bed to lay their heads on. The circus element added entertaining scenes to the story and made the characters more unique as well. One famous character is Rupert the Lion. He falls in love with the heroine and plays a key part in the finale. I hope to see this book released by the time this blog appears, but editing, proofreading, and publishing it may take longer.

Did you ever use a typewriter in your earlier days? If so, tell me how old you were. I’m giving away one copy of The Outlaw and the Sheriff to one commenter, and to another, I’ll offer a copy of The Outlaw and the Bounty Hunter.

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About Charlene:

Charlene Raddon fell in love with the wild west as a child, listening to western music with her dad and sitting in his lap while he read Zane Gray books. She never intended to become a writer. Charlene was an artist. She majored in fine art in college. In 1971, she moved to Utah, excited for the opportunity to paint landscapes. Then her sister introduced her to romance novels. She never picked up a paintbrush again. One morning she awoke to a vivid dream she knew must go into a book, so she took out a typewriter and began writing. She’s been writing ever since. Instead of painting pictures with a brush, Charlene uses words.

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Paper Planes

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. In my upcoming release, An Amish Christmas Match, my heroine Phoebe teaches a shy young boy under her care how to make paper airplanes, really good ones that will fly amazing distances. She uses it as an icebreaker, a way for him to interact with other young people.

I remember making paper airplanes as a kid (I won’t say how many years ago!). They were nothing special and I never could reach any great distances with them – a couple of yards at the most. So it was fun to do a little research into the history and some of the statistics around this fun pastime. Here is a little of what I learned.

Paper airplanes have a surprisingly long and rich history! The principles of flight have been studied for thousands of years.  15th century painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci is often credited with creating early prototypes of flying machines using parchment. While these were not paper planes as we know them today, his explorations into aerodynamics laid the groundwork for future innovations.

But it really wasn’t until the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aviation really started to take shape. Sir George Cayley, considered the father of aerodynamics, first explored the dynamics of paper flight in the early 1800s. He examined how air flows over the wings and designed the first successful glider.

Over the next decades, other aviation pioneers used paper models extensively in their research and designs. By folding paper, they were able to quickly test airfoils and prototype aircraft on the cheap. In 1909, the  Wright Flyer constructed of paperboard and wood was flown victoriously by Orville Wright himself!

The modern fascination with paper planes really took off in the 20th century. During World War II, engineers and designers used paper planes as prototypes to test their aerodynamic theories. This practice was not only cost-effective but also allowed for rapid experimentation and iteration. Many of the principles discovered through these tests were applied to the development of real aircraft, highlighting the practical value of these seemingly simple toys.

In the post-war era, paper planes became a popular pastime for children and adults alike. The simplicity of materials required—just a piece of paper and some folding techniques—made them an accessible form of entertainment. Schools began incorporating paper plane activities into their curriculum as a way to teach basic principles of physics and aerodynamics.

The 1960s and 70s saw a surge in the popularity of paper planes, with numerous books and guides published on the topic. Enthusiasts shared their designs and techniques, leading to the creation of more sophisticated and high-performing paper planes. This period also marked the beginning of competitive paper plane flying, with individuals and groups organizing events to see whose plane could fly the farthest or stay aloft the longest.

The digital age has further fueled the interest in paper planes. Online communities and forums have sprung up, where enthusiasts share videos, tutorials, and new designs. The advent of smartphone apps and computer simulations has allowed for more precise modeling and optimization of paper plane designs, pushing the boundaries of what these paper creations can achieve.

Fun Facts About Paper Planes

  • The current world record for the longest paper airplane flight is held by Joe Ayoob, who flew a plane designed by John Collins a staggering 226 feet, 10 inches in 2012.
    And The world record for the longest airtime for a paper airplane is held by Takuo Toda of Japan whose plane stayed aloft for 29.2 seconds, nearly half a minute!
  • The average distance a simple paper plane can fly is about 20 feet. However, with proper technique and design, some planes can exceed 100 feet.
  • There are countless designs for paper planes, ranging from the classic dart to more complex models like the Nakamura Lock and the Bulldog Dart. Each design has unique flight characteristics and challenges.
  • Paper airplanes are still used today by aerospace engineers when brainstorming and designing. NASA has held paper airplane competitions for decades to encourage kids’ interest in aerospace.
  • Paper planes are often used in educational settings to teach principles of aerodynamics and physics. They provide a hands-on way to understand lift, drag, and other forces that affect flight.
  • There are international competitions dedicated to paper planes. Red Bull’s Paper Wings is one of the most well-known, where participants compete in categories like longest distance, longest airtime, and aerobatics.
  • The art of paper folding, origami, has heavily influenced the designs of paper planes. Some of the most intricate paper planes require advanced origami techniques, making them both challenging and rewarding to create.
  • Paper planes are an eco-friendly activity, often made from recycled paper or scrap paper that would otherwise be thrown away. This makes them a sustainable form of entertainment and education.
  • According to a 2019 survey, 85% of people have made and flown a paper plane at least once in their lives.

Here are some links you can check out if you’re interested in learning new paper airplane folding techniques:

  • The Paper Airplane Guy (http://www.paperairplaneguy.com) – This site has step-by-step instructions and videos for making advanced paper airplanes, including record-breaking designs.
  • Fold ‘N Fly (http://www.foldnfly.com)- This site has diagrams and instructions for over 35 different paper airplane designs for all levels.
  • Red Bull Paper Wings (http://www.redbullpaperwings.com) – Red Bull hosts paper airplane competitions globally and shares design tips on their website. Beginner to complex models.
  • The Paper Airplane Factory (http://www.paperairplanefactory.com) – Features a database of over 700 different paper airplane designs to try! Instructions included.

With some practice and experimentation, anyone can learn how to make paper airplanes that will glide for amazing distances! Give one of these resources a try if you feel inspired to improve your own paper piloting skills.

So what are your own experiences with paper planes? Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for one of my books.

Rocking Chair Trivia Quiz!

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I’ve been having a lot of fun researching my new series, The Rocking Chair Ranch. For no reason in particular, this got me to thinking about the history of rocking chairs. I mean, did they start with mothers wanting a way to soothe their fussy babies to sleep or elderly people who sought to relieve their weary bones? Whichever, rocking chairs have long provided natural relief for life’s little discomforts.

So, just for fun, I put together a short trivia quiz about rocking chairs. Let’s see how many of them you get right. Answers are at the bottom.

  1. When was the first rocking chair invented and where?
  2. Which came first, rocking chairs, rocking horses, or cradles?
  3. Which president had an affinity for rocking chairs (due to a back problem) and owned 14.
  4. Rocking chairs were originally designed as outdoor furniture – true or false?
  5. According to Irish legend, what does an empty rocking chair mean?
  6. Where is the world’s largest rocking chair?
  7. What does the saying ‘off your rocker’ mean?

  1. In 1725, some ingenious person decided to fasten skates to the bottom of an English Yorkshire Windsor chair. It might have looked a little like this chair. Maybe. That person was from North American, so the rocking chair is truly an American invention.

                             

  1. Rocking horses (early 1600s) and cradles (late 1400s) were around long before the rocking chair.

  1. John F. Kennedy. His doctor recommended rocking chairs for is back woes.

  1. True – rocking chairs were invented for the outdoors first.

  1. It’s an invitation for evil spirits — which explains why my mom always put decorative pillows on the seat of our rocking chair.

  1. Casey, Illinois. The chair weighs 46,000 pounds and is made of recycled wood and pipe. That is one big chair.

  1. A little crazy, possible because old people who can suffer from senility often rock in their chairs.

I hope you had a good time today. I learned a lot more about rocking chairs that I put in this post. Hopefully, I’ll find a place for some of it in one of my stories. Thanks for joining me and, in closing, here’s a rocking chair quote from Theodore Roosevelt:

“There are rainy days in autumn and stormy days in winter when the rocking chair in front of the fire simply demands an accompanying book.”

Ahh, Let the Fresh Air in!

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My newest book A MAN OF LEGEND is now available everywhere. This is Book 3 of the Lone Star Legends series and brings it to a gripping conclusion.

Quite a bit of research was necessary, some because I wasn’t sure about the early 1900s as I’d never set a book during that time period. It was really an interesting time with thousands of inventions and improvements in just about every part of life. Automobiles were just beginning to be driven and phones used.

One thing I wanted to add that I had questions about were screen doors and windows. In the 1880s, when diseases caused by mosquitoes and flies began to reach the public, folks started paying attention and installing screens. Then by the 1890s, companies began to mass produce and make them rust-poof and they really took off.

Since my story is set in 1908, I put them on the doors and windows at ranch headquarters of the Lone Star. I mention them quite a bit since Stoker Legend refused to have very much to do with innovations. Up in years at 83, he preferred the old ways.

A lot of people, including Charles Goodnight, slept on screen-in porches. A lot of folks did.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have air-conditioning and always slept with the windows up and doors open in the summer. I can still smell the fragrant night air coming in. I loved that smell. That was some good sleeping. It’s too bad those days are gone now, replaced by manufactured air.

Do you have any favorite memories of a screened porch or open windows? And sometimes we could overhear things we weren’t supposed to. I’m giving away three more copies of A MAN OF LEGEND so leave a comment.

About the book

Crockett Legend has always loved Paisley Mahone, but a family feud sure can ruin a romance. When her father turned against the powerful Legend clan, she took her family’s side and broke Crockett’s heart into pieces. Now her father’s dead and Paisley and her last remaining brother are convinced the Legends are to blame.

If only he can find a way to prove their innocence…

A chance meeting throws the couple together, and when their train is held up by outlaws, Crockett and Paisley have to team up to save a young boy from dying. A tenuous truce is born. Together they may have a chance of bringing the truth to light…if they can get to the bottom of who’s been trying to turn the two powerful families against each other. With so many secrets to unbury, it isn’t long before Paisley finds herself in the crosshairs, but Crockett vows there’ll be hell to pay if anyone hurts the woman he loves…or stands in the way of a Legend in the making.

Here’s my book trailer:

 

 

The Mother of Invention

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I’m making one of the three sisters in my upcoming new series an inventor.

It’s 1870-ish California. The three girls are the daughters of a wealthy man who owns a mountain full of forests and he’s raised his daughters to take over.

In my research into a new area…I’ve never set a book in California before. And a new industry…logging. (relax there are cowboys!) I found that this age is just amazingly full of inventions.

The oldest daughter is an inventor. She’s other things, too…but she already has two patents at age twenty-one and has a head just brimming with ideas.

Highly educated by her father, always treated with respect, her brilliance acknowledged by her parents, she’s a little shocked when circumstances force the three sisters to run from an evil man and hide out acting as servants.

Well, they are lousy servants. As smart as they are, they realize how completely all these basic needs have been met all their lives while they were doing ‘important stuff’. And now someone expects them, based on their disguises, to know how to mend clothes, darn socks, do laundry and cook. These three brilliant women are incompetent and they start to understand that they’ve really not respected enough the people who have seen to all their basic needs all their lives.

Anyway, back to the inventor. While other people cook and clean and care for her, she’s wild to invent things.

And in the research I did for her I just found SO MANY INVENTIONS. This was a crazy age for newer, more modern inventions. (I suppose that’s true of every age though?)

The progress they were making with oil and gas, with engines, with updating everything. There were so many small (and yet HUGE) inventions. The undercarriage of a railroad train, the braking systems, the use of water power, steam power, wind power. And now here she is, Michelle, hiding from a bad man and expected to know how to turn a haunch of venison into supper for twenty people and all she can do is hope to not poison or starve everyone.

I really loved this research. Oddly enough, the strange, small inventions caught most of my attention. The most rudimentary automobiles (which were modified bicycles but with motors, but BAD motors) had been invented. Then with one tiny speck of progress at a time, I read somewhere there were over 100,000 patents for cars by the time Henry Ford created his assembly line, crude first steps became what we have today.

I read for a long time about the four stroke cycle engine, which is the engine inside a car, at it’s most basic at least, was theorized for a decade before someone managed to build a working model. My heroine is fascinated by that and, later in the series, when her husband is getting VERY TIRED of her blowing stuff up, especially herself, we mention that’s she’s working on that theory.

Anyway, necessity is the mother of inventions but for me and this book? Inventions were the mother of the necessity of me writing this story.

Book #1 coming in February, this is the little sister who likes dynamite. I’ll write about that next! The Element of Love 

Then next book comes in July #2 Inventions of the Heart

And finally next October, not available for preorder yet, we’ll have A Model of Devotion for the sister who likes building bridges.

Lots to talk about during an age that is just full of progress.

 

Horsepower – History and Trivia

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Last moth I did a post on the Transcontinental Railroad. While I was doing my research I came across a little footnote on the term horsepower, one of those little trivia nuggets that led me down a rabbit trail. Today I thought I’d share the results of that little research sidetrack.

The concept of horsepower was created in the eighteenth century by a man named James Watt. And believe it or not, it was created as a last ditch marketing gimmick.

In the 1760s, Watt was tasked with repairing a defective steam engine. But Watt was an enterprising inventor and noted some inefficiency problems with the overall design that he thought he could correct.

So instead of completing his assigned task, Watt created a new and improved steam engine that was far and away better than anything on the market at that time. However he had trouble finding any customers willing to give his product a try. The problem was, previous steam engines had failed, in sometimes spectacular ways, making folks unwilling to replace their familiar and reliable horses with yet another version of the engine.

But Watt was not one to give up easily. He decided the answer to his marketing problem was to come up with a unit of measure that would allow him to compare his engine to horses. He poured a lot of time and thought into how he would do this. Watt eventually came up with a unit of measure that was defined as the power exerted by a single horse to move 33,000 pounds of material one foot in one minute. He dubbed this unit of measure the horsepower.

 

His calculations went something like this: He had observed ponies at a coal mine and  figured out that on average the animals were able to move 220 pounds of product over a mineshaft 100 feet long in one minute. By his calculation, that was equivalent to 22,000 pounds over one foot in one minute. Then he made one additional tweak to his calculation – he figured a horse could do 50 percent more work than a pony, thus his new horsepower measurement would equal 33,000 foot-pounds of force per minute.

As you can see, the manner in which he computed his horsepower measurement was not truly scientific, nor was it entirely accurate, but the important thing to Watt was that it gave him a method to convey the power of his engine in a manner people could visualize. Armed with this new way of measuring his engine’s power, he claimed his machine had the power of ten horses, in other words ten horsepower. It worked – people were receptive to this new way of looking at his engine and so were willing to reconsider the value of his machine.  This tactic proved so successful that his competitors began using horsepower in their advertisements and sales pitches too.  And this unscientific measurement that was developed as a marketing tactic is still in use today, more than 240 years later.

A couple of additional bits of trivia

  • Because of The Watt Engine’s rapid incorporation into many industries, many consider the Watt engine to be one of the defining developments of the Industrial Revolution.
  • James Watt was later recognized for his contributions to science and industry, the unit of power in the International System of Units, the watt, was named for him.
  • An actual horse’s peak power has been measured at  just under 15hp. However, for prolonged periods of time, the average horse can’t deliver even one horsepower.

There you have it, a short accounting of what I discovered about the origins of the term horsepower. So what do you think, did any of the information in this post surprise you?  Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a copy of any of my backlist books.

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

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My favorite time period to write about is between 1880 and 1890. In many ways, the cowboys of yesteryear struggled with some of the same issues we currently face and that’s what makes the time period so fascinating to me.

They aren’t paying attention to each other. They’re too intent on the wireless.

For example, technology in the way of telephones and electricity changed the way people lived in the 19th century, just as new technology does today.  The Victorians even had their own Internet.  It was called the telegraph, and this opened-up a whole new world to them.

What, for that matter, is a text message but a telegram, the high cost of which forced people in the past to be brief and to the point?

In the past, our ancestors worried about losing their jobs to machinery.  Today, there’s a real possibility that robots will make us obsolete.

Sears and Roebuck was the Amazon of the Gilded Age. The catalogue featured a wide selection of products at clearly marked prices. No more haggling.  Customers were drawn to the easy-to-read, warm, friendly language used to describe goods, and the catalogue proved an instant success. Our ancestors could even order a house through the catalog and that’s something we can’t do on Amazon.

The Victorians worried about books like we worry about iPhones. We worry about screen time damaging the eyes.  Victorians were certain that the mass rise of books due to printing presses would make everyone blind. 

Then as now, women fought for equal rights.  Our early sisters fought for property ownership, employment opportunities and the right to vote. Women have come a long way since those early days, but challenges still exist, especially in matters of economics and power.

Nothing has changed much in the area of courting

Almost every single I know subscribes to at least one dating site.  These are very similar to the Mail-Order Bride catalogs of yesteryear.

Did our Victorian ancestors worry about climate change?  You bet they did! The Florida Agriculturist published an article addressing the problem in 1890. The article stated: “Most all the states of the union in succession of their settlement have experienced a falling off in their average temperatures of several degrees.  A change from an evenly tempered climate has resulted in long droughts, sudden floods, heavy frost and suffocating heat.”

Nothing much has changed in the world of politics. Today, the Republicans and Democrats are still battling it out, just as they did in the nineteenth century. We still haven’t elected a female president, though Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood tried to change that when she ran in 1884 and again, in 1888.

What about environmental concerns? Today we’re concerned that plastic bags and straws are harming our oceans.  Our Victorian ancestors worried about tomato cans. That’s because a German scientist told the New York Times in 1881 that the careless deposit of tin cans was “bringing the earth closer to the sun and hastening the day of the final and fatal collision.”

During the 1800s, horses were taken to task for messing up the streets.  (Oddly, enough, it was once thought that automobiles were good for the environment.)  Today, cattle are under fire for the methane in their you-know-whats. Oh, boy, I can only imagine how that would have gone over with those old-time ranch owners.

We have Coronavirus, but that’s nothing compared to what our ancestors battled.  The 1894 Hong Kong plague was a major outbreak and became the third pandemic in the world. The rapid outbreak and spread of the plague was caused by infected fleas. Repressive government actions to control the plague led the Pune nationalists to criticize the Chinese publicly. Sound familiar?  The plague killed more than 10 million people in India, alone. 

As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Reading how people in the past survived and, yes, even prospered during tough times inspires me and gives me hope for the future.  I hope it does the same to my readers.

This list is nowhere near complete, but what did you find the most surprising?

Attorney Ben Heywood didn’t expect to get shot on his wedding day–and certainly not by his mail order bride.—Pistol-Packin’ Bride/Mail Order Standoff collection.

Amazon

B&N

 

3-D Pictures, 19th Century Style (Reprise)

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. I’m afraid this month’s blog date sort of snuck up on me – a combination of dealing with my foot in a cast, a looming book deadline and planning an impromptu Disney vacation in a couple of weeks.  So I hope you will forgive me if I reprise an older post.  And to make it up to you, I’m offering 2 folks who leave a comment here their choice of any book in my backlist.

Did you know that the scientific principles behind 3-D movies had their first practical application as early as 1838?  That’s when Charles Wheatstone patented his reflecting stereoscope.   I’m sure you’ve all seen stereoscopes before, in pictures if not in actuality.  But do you know how they work?

Actually, they work in much the same way human vision works.  Because our eyes are spaced about two inches apart we see everything from slightly different angles.  Our brains, wonderful creations that they are, then process these into a single image with both dimension and depth.  Charles Wheatstone applied this principle to his invention, using drawings that were pairs of reverse images and a series of mirrors to create the illusion of a single three dimensional image.

In 1850, glass images were developed.  Though an improvement on the earlier drawings, the quality was low and the price was relatively high.

Queen Victoria took a fancy to the device when she saw one demonstrated at the Crystal Palace Exposition in 1851, and suddenly they were all the rage in Europe.  It was somewhat later before the fascination took hold in America.

These early stereoscopes were large, bulky and table mounted, requiring a large commitment of space as well as money.  But all of that changed a few short years later.  With the advent of photographic improvements, tintypes, daguerreotypes and flat mount paper became available, greatly improving the quality of the images.  Early attempts had photographers taking one photograph then slightly shifting the camera and taking a second.  The next evolution had photographers utilizing a rig that had two cameras mounted on it to take the twin photos.  Eventually an enterprising inventor created a camera with two lenses

Then, in 1862 Oliver Wendell Holmes and Joseph Bates created a compact, handheld viewer named the Holmes stereopticon and the popularity of stereoscopes exploded.  In fact, by the end of the century, in spite of their expense, you could find one of these devices in many middle and upper class parlors of the time.  The most popular slides were the travelogue type that depicted exotic landmarks such as the pyramids of Egypt and the closer-to-home scenic beauty of Yellowstone.   The marvels of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1892 and the St. Louis World Fair also made their way onto stereoscopic slides.  As Burke Long put it, “Mass-produced and relatively cheap, the integrated system of mechanical viewer and photographs became fashionable for classroom pedagogy, tourist mementos, and parlor travel to exotic places of the world.”  You could say that, as a form of entertainment, the stereopticon was the Victorian era’s equivalent of today’s video players. 

By the 1920s movies and the enhanced availability of cameras to the ‘common man’ began to supplant the stereopticon’s hold on people’s  interest.  But, believe it or not,  the stereopticon survives to this day.  The child’s toy View-Master, named one of the top 50 toys of the twentieth century, is a direct ‘descendant’ of the stereopticon, utilizing the very same principles.

 

So, did anything in today’s post surprise you? Do you have firsthand experience with a stereopticon? Did you play with a View-Master as a child? 

Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for winner’s choice of one book from my backlist!

Cha-Ching: The Bell Heard Around the World

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This past week, while working on a scene set in a general store, I got to wondering when cash registers might have been found in the Old West. I was surprised to discover that the cash register (called a Cashier at the time) was invented in 1879 by a saloon owner.

James Ritty (public domain)

James Jacob Ritty, owner of the popular Pony House Saloon in Dayton, Ohio, knew something was wrong.  Buffalo Bill and John Dillinger were among his many customers and business was booming.  Still he saw no profit.  He was suspicious that his bartenders were dipping into the till but couldn’t prove it.

The problem was very much on his mind during a sailing trip to Europe. While studying the ship’s mechanics, particularly the counting mechanism that recorded the propeller’s revolutions, he got an idea; why not invent a device that would record a shop’s sales? 

Upon returning to the states, he ran his idea by his brother, John, and after a couple of false starts, the two patented what became known as Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier. 

Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier 1879. public domain

The machine had a clock-like feature that rang up sales, but no cash drawer.  During each sale, a paper tape was punched with holes so that the merchant could keep track of sales. At the end of the day, the merchant could add up the holes.  This was no easy task. Even though the machine was designed to record daily sales no greater than $12.99, the tally could be as long as twenty feet.

Their invention worked and Ritty’s profits rose, but it wasn’t fool proof. Without a cash drawer, money still turned up in the wrong pockets.

The brothers later added a cash drawer and the Cha-Ching sound that shop owners love to hear.  (It’s thought that merchants came up with odd prices like forty-nine or ninety-nine cents, so cashiers would have to open the till to make change. This helped insure that all sales were recorded.)

The brothers opened a factory above the saloon. Running two businesses soon proved too much for James, and he sold his cashier business to a group of investors.  Eventually, the company sold to John H. Patterson who renamed it the National Cash Register Corporation.

The Thief Catcher

By the 1880s, cash registers could be found in retail shops across the country.  Though the new and improved registers aided bookkeeping and inventory chores, they were resented by clerks.  It’s easy to understand why; the machines were called “thief catchers.”  Honest clerks resented the implication and dishonest clerks missed the extra income.   

But then, as now, enterprising thieves always found a way. 

Speaking of thieves, do you always ask for receipts, even at fast food outlets?  If not, you should. Dishonest clerks can do a lot with unclaimed receipts–and none of it good!

 

The only thing threatening their success is love!

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Going, going, GONE!

by

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you should know that the classic candy that has been a constant since 1847, is about to go the way of phone booths.   Yes, that’s right.  The company that makes Necco Wafers has announced that, unless it finds a buyer, it will close its doors forever in May.

Do you know what that means?  Future generations will never know what drywall tastes like. 

Originally called hub wafers, the coin-shaped candies were carried by soldiers during the Civil War and World War II.  Since the candy traveled well and never melted or spoiled, soldiers and yes, even cowboys, could carry them with confidence.

These candies traveled as far as the North Pole, and that’s not all. Admiral Byrd took two tons of the things with him to the Antarctica.  Even more impressive; Necco Wafers was the first candy to multi-task.  They served as wafers during communion and were tossed in baskets for payment at toll booths.

Sad to say, Necco isn’t the only old company at risk. In recent years, we’ve seen the demise of the Sears Wish book and five and dime stores. Who knows what will be next? 

I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but I shudder to think that Baker’s chocolate—a friend to cooks since 1780—might someday be declared unfit for human consumption.  Don’t laugh. It happened to wheat, eggs and red meat. Who’s to say the same thing won’t happen to chocolate?

Never mind that cowboys and civil war soldiers enjoyed morning cups of Baker’s hot chocolate with no known problems.  Cast-iron stomachs of the past have no place in today’s world. 

It’s not just food and drink that’s in danger. The next company that could bite the dust could very well be Remington, established in 1818. It’s hard to believe that the company that produced the “rifle that won the west” might one day close its doors. But firearms aren’t all that popular these days.  Nor for that matter are typewriters. So who knows? 

And what about Brooks Brothers, another formidable company founded in 1818? The company made the first ready-to-wear suits in 1849.  Those flocking to California that year for the gold rush couldn’t wait for tailors to outfit them. For that reason, forty-niners depended on Brooks Brothers for their clothing needs. So did Abe Lincoln, Eisenhower and J.F. Kennedy.

Anything made of paper is about to become obsolete, including maps, shopping bags and checks.  Here in California, the war on drinking straws is heating up.  If that’s not enough, many of the nation’s newspapers have vanished in recent years. That means that old standbys like The New York Times (founded in 1851 as the New York Daily Times) could one day shut down their presses forever. 

I also worry about Merriam-Webster, founded in 1831. If it goes the way of encyclopedia salesmen, I will have to share the blame. I can’t remember the last time I actually looked something up in an honest-to-goodness, print dictionary, can you? 

Nothing is safe in today’s fast-paced world as proven by Kodak. Who would have thought that a company that we all knew and loved would close its dark-room doors forever and stop making cameras?

Founded in 1889, Kodak was the absolute leader in photography. It’s still in business making mobile devices, but its past glory is gone. Phone cameras have taken its place, but it’s not the same. An iPhone second just doesn’t have the same ring as a Kodak moment.

So, what old-time product do you or would you miss? What were you glad to see go?

 

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