Here is an example of a page of anecdotes for teaching the period from 1877-1900. The stories come from a variety of sources. (You can look up the source on my “SOURCE” page.) Keep in mind they are not verbatim from the source. I have taken the liberty of putting them in my own words and shortening them for your purposes. I know how tough it is to cover everything you want to cover, but adding stories will help keep your students interested. It will be worth the time to tell some of them.
GILDED AGE
ROBBER BARON PARTIES – One rich lady gave a dinner party where the guests sat on horses at the dining table. The party cost $250 per person. Most of the money was for the specially made trays that attached to the horses. At another party, the guests were shown into the banquet hall where a large table had a sand box on it. Each guest was given a silver pale and shovel like what you have at the beach as a kid. The entertainment was to dig in the sand for precious gems like diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. You got to keep whatever you uncovered, plus the pale and shovel. Shenkman p. 174
HEROIN COUGH SYRUP – In 1898, the Bayer Company introduced its new cough cure – heroin. This was not the first time a dangerous drug was put in medication. Until 1906, there was no government regulation of foods or medicines. It was caveat emptor – “let the buyer beware”. There were cocaine tablets for nerves and sore throats, morphine could be found in baby syrups, and alcohol was a major ingredient in most medicines. Shenkman p. 176
CHARLES GOODYEAR, DEBTOR – Charles Goodyear knew that India rubber would become pliable when heated, but what ingredient to make it make it useful? He tried all sorts of things such as soup, ink, salt, and even creamed cheese. Once he thought he got it right and sold hundreds of pairs of rubber shoes, only to have them melt in the heat when worn outside. He was perpetually in debt and once sold his kids textbooks for food. His family lived in poverty and survived on potatoes and wild roots at times. He sometimes spent time in debtor’s prison. Finally, he combined rubber, sulphur, and heat in a process called “vulcanization” to create the rubber we use today. But he still did not strike it rich. He went to France for the Great Exposition in Paris where his rubber products were a big hit and he gained the notice of Emperor Napoleon III. This did not keep him out of debtor’s prison in France, however. Eventually he got out and returned to America. Before he died in 1860, he was denied renewal of his patent on rubber. Instead of leaving his children millions, his death left them hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts. Whitcomb p. 42-3
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON’S JOB – After emancipation, the young Booker T. Washington was determined to get an education. When he went to school for the first time, he noticed all the other students had last names. He had always been called just Booker. On the spot he chose Washington because it sounded grand. Later, he learned that his mother had given him Taliaferro as his last name. He used it as his middle name. Going to school was a problem, his family was poor and needed for him to bring in some income. He got a job packing salt into barrels. He worked from 4 A.M. to 9 A.M., went to school, and then returned to the salt mine for two more hours of work every day. Whitcomb p. 148, 160
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER’S EDUCATION – One day in 1878, Mariah Watkins found a fourteen year-old African-American boy sleeping in her wood pile. She took him in and enrolled him in the local one room school house. He did chores and studied until he felt he had learned all he could and he moved on, taking odd jobs and getting more schooling. At age 25, he was accepted into Highland University, but was turned away at the door when they realized he was black. Five years later, he attended all-white Simpson College in Iowa. He paid for his tuition with his only $12. He earned money by washing cloths in two tubs he bought on credit. After he graduated, he went on to teach at Iowa State and then famously at Tuskegee Institute. Whitcomb p. 149
SUSAN B. ANTHONY VOTES – Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was famous for voting (along with fifteen other women) in Rochester, N.Y. She was put on trial where she was found guilty and fined $1, which she refused to pay. What is less known is that the only way she and the other women were able to vote that day was they convinced three voting inspectors to allow them to by convincing them that the new 14th Amendment enfranchised women. When they refused to pay $25 fines, they were jailed. Anthony’s friends convinced President Grant to pardon the men and they were reelected by the all-male voters. Whitcomb p. 195
TOM THUMB MARRIES – Twenty-five inch tall Tom Thumb was one of the most popular attractions at P.T. Barnum’s American Museum. When he got engaged to a little woman named Lavinia Bump, the wedding was the social event of the year 1863. It was photographed by the most famous photographer of the 1800s – Matthew Brady. President Lincoln sent Chinese fire screens as a wedding gift and later hosted the couple at the White House. The Thumbs settled down in a $30,000 house furnished with size-appropriate furniture. They were happily married for twenty years. Whitcomb p. 219-220
TWEED THE KIDNAPPER – William “Boss” Tweed was the most infamous political boss of the Gilded Age. His Tweed Ring ran New York City and stole millions of taxpayers’ money. In 1875, Tweed was arrested for embezzling $6 million. Since he could not pay the $3 million bail, he was put in jail. However, he was allowed to go out for walks and even visit his home for dinner. One night, he told his two guards he was going upstairs to talk to his wife and disappeared. He ended up in Spain. He might have lived there for years if it had not been for a cartoon. Famous political cartoonist had made a career of exposing the corruption of the Tweed Ring. A cartoon depicting Tweed in prison stripes, holding two children, and threatening them with a club, ran in Spanish newspapers. The Spanish authorities assumed it fingered Tweed as a child kidnapper and deported him back to America where he spent the rest of his life in prison. Whitcomb p. 225, 279
CARVER’S RANSOM – When he was just a baby, George and his mother was kidnapped by raiders during the Civil War. His master, Moses Carver, offered a race horse as a ransom and hired a Union scout named John Bentley to track down the kidnapper or kidnappers. Six days later, Bentley returned with the barely alive baby, but not his mother. Bentley was given the race horse. Carver’s wife nursed the baby back to health, but George grew up frail with a persistent cough that caused his adult voice to be high and squeaky. Whitcomb p. 236
TOM THUMB MEETS THE QUEEN – In 1844, Tom Thumb visited London and was a big hit. He did a stage show that included impersonations of Napoleon, Goliath, and Cupid. Queen Victoria invited him to Buckingham Palace. Upon leaving, it was etiquette to depart by backing out of the queen’s presence. You were not to show your back to the queen. As Tom and P.T. Barnum were backing up, Barnum’s longer legs kept opening up gaps between the two. Tom solved the problem by occasionally turning and running to catch up and then resuming his backpedaling. This odd movement excited Queen Victoria’s poodle who proceeded to attack Tom. Tom defended himself with his cane, much to the amusement of the crowd. Later, the queen apologized for her dog’s behavior. Whitcomb p. 251
BELL’S TOY – Alexander Graham Bell offered his telephone patent to William Orton, president of Western Union Telegraph Company, for $100,000. Orton turned down the offer saying “what use could this company make of a toy?” So Bell was forced to form American Telephone and Telegraph which became one of the biggest companies in the world. Some experts consider Bell’s telephone patent to be the most valuable ever. And Orton’s decision is considered one of the stupidest. Whitcomb p. 291
UNCLE CLEVE GETS MARRIED – President Cleveland married his partner’s daughter, who was twenty-eight years younger than him. Cleveland had known Francis (called Frank) since her birth to his law partner. She called Grover “Uncle Cleve”. He doted on the little girl. When Oscar Folsom died in 1875, Cleveland became executor of his estate and like a guardian to Frank. In 1885, Francis visited President Uncle Cleve in the White House from college. When she left, Cleveland asked her mother for permission to write to her and the romance proceeded quickly. They were soon engaged, although the public was not told until five days before the wedding. Many thought he was marrying Frances’ mother! They were married in the Blue Room of the White House (the first and only Presidential wedding in the White House). He was 49 and she was 21 (making her the youngest First Lady). When asked about the age difference, Cleveland quipped that he “was waiting for his wife to grow up”. They had four children, the first of whom was born between Cleveland’s terms. The nation loved cute little baby Ruth and she gave her name to a candy bar. Frank p. 6 and wikipedia
BAD MEDICINE – There were a lot of strange medical practices in the 19th Century. Doctors practiced bloodletting (sometimes called “leeching” because actual leeches were used to draw the blood), purging, sweating, and freezing. Blistering involved the theory that the body would handle only one pain so you could substitute a lesser pain by using a blistering agent like acid to a part of the body. Or you could use a red hot poker. Amputations were common for bullet wounds that hit bones. Doctors were called ‘sawbones”. Trepanning was drilling holes in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain. Electric shocks were used to cure everything from constipation to malaria. The shocks could be self-induced by way of brushes, corsets, hats, or belts. Tonics were popular for curing a variety of problems. Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral cured coughs, colds, asthma, and consumption. Many of the tonics had high doses of alcohol and/or opium. The Bayer Company developed heroin and put it in cough remedies. Cocaine was also a popular ingredient, including in remedies for children like coughs and sore throats. Most of the tonics advertised a multitude of ailments that could be cured by one tonic. Some of the ailments were fictional like “internal slime fever” or “sudden death”. Sometimes the tonics (called “snake oil”) were sold by traveling medicine shows that lured customers through bands, jugglers, dancers, and magicians. A thriving industry was born when patent medicine producers discovered mail order sales. The producers perfected newspaper and magazine advertising, product packaging (without ingredient labels, of course), and direct mail sales. If you didn’t want to wait for the mail, you could go the local drug stores soda fountain and order some mineral water as a curative. Or Coca Cola with its cocaine to cure your head ache. Plungse Again pp. 17-20
VAUDEVILLE – Vaudeville was a type of entertainment that was similar to a variety show. A typical show might include: dancers, magicians, comics, jugglers, minstrels, actors performing Shakespeare, acrobats, ventriloquists, and drunken dogs. Some of the acts became famous, like Houdini and Will Rogers. Others went on to great fame in the movies, like the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Mae West. And then there were the acts like the Cherry Sisters (“America’s worst act”), Fink’s Mules, Nelson’s Cats and Rats, Peg Leg Bates (a female dancer), and 12 Speed Mechanics (who would assemble a car in two minutes). The acts were usually around 15 minutes long and there might be as many as 8 in a show. 2-5 shows per day were common. Vaudeville troupes travelled a circuit similar to circuses. A show usually stayed in a town for a few days. Vaudeville was popular from the 1880s to the 1920s. Movies basically stole the audiences and many performers made the transition to Hollywood. Plunges Again pp. 112-118
BOSS TWEED – The Society of St. Tammany was founded in 1789 in New York City. It started as a patriotic and charitable organization for tradesmen. It appealed to immigrants with food, shelter, and jobs. It soon used its good will with immigrants to organize immigrant voters. Eventually, Tammany Hall controlled NYC government. William Tweed rose in the organization by bribing officials and buying votes to put his men into government positions. He and his cronies became known as the Tweed Ring and he became known as “Boss” Tweed. He influenced state legislators to shift state power to NYC, meaning Tammany Hall. It made millions from graft on city projects like parks and sewers. Many of the project contracts went to Tweed businesses. Tweed used city gangs to intimidate his opponents and control the immigrant vote. He controlled judges and the police and bought favorable coverage in the newspapers. Everything was going fine until a county bookkeeper, who was upset with his share of graft, turned over incriminating evidence about the machine to the New York Times. The newspaper published articles chronicling the corruption in the building of the Tweed Courthouse. It was supposed to cost $500,000, but taxpayers ended up paying $13 million. Cartoonist drove a stake into the reputation of the Tammany Hall by depicting it as a voracious tiger. He drew Tweed as a villainous, bloated tyrant. Tweed was put on trial for forgery and larceny. After the first trial ended in a hung jury tainted by jury tampering, prosecutor Samuel J. Tilden assigned a cop to each juror, a cop to watch the cop, and a private detective to watch both. Tweed was sentenced to 12 years, later reduced to one year. Plunges Again pp. 345-349
THE FIRST WOMAN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT – Victoria Woodhull had a tough childhood. Her father was a small-time criminal and the family lived in poverty. At age 13, she and her sister would conduct seances and turn the money they earned over to her father. She grew up believing in spiritualism and magnetic healing. She also was a strong supporter of sexual freedom after her first failed marriage to an alcoholic abuser. She met Cornelius Vanderbilt and became friends. She would give him stock advise based on contacts with the ghosts of Demosthenes, Napoleon, and Josephine. Vanderbilt shared the large profits with her. She and her sister opened their own business, making her the first female stockbrocker. She wanted to lead a social revolution to end the mistreatment of women. She demanded that women be allowed to get out of abusive marriages. She became the first woman to testify to the House Judiciary Committee. She argued that the Constitution already allowed women to vote. They didn’t listen. In 1872, she became the first woman to run for President. Her party was the Equal Rights Party. She spent election day in jail for “obscenity” after her newspaper published an expose about a adulterous preacher. Plunges Again 444-45
CHEWING GUM – Native Americans chewed resin from spruce bark. Early Americans chewed paraffin. In the late 1860s New York inventor Thomas Adams was visited by deposed Mexican dictator Santa Ana. The ex-tyrant was chewing pieces of the sapodilla plant. The told Adams the “gum” was called chicle. Adams got an idea and put out a product he called “Adams New York Gum – Snapping and Stretching”. His first flavor was licorice. Later, he invented a gum-making machine. Uncle p. 56
THE HOT DOG – The ancient Babylonians stuffed spiced meat into animal intestines to produce the first sausages. Sausages are mentioned in “The Odyssey”. They are mentioned in the oldest Roman cook book where they are called “salaus” which became “sausage”. In the Middle Ages, sausages were popular throughout Europe. Each region had its own flair. In Austria, Vienna sausages were popular. The word “wienerwurst” became weiner. In Frankfurt, Germany, a local butcher shaped his sausage like his pet dachshund. The sausages were called “dachshund sausages” and were eaten with sauerkraut and mustard, but not on a bun. The dachshund sausages were brought to America by German immigrants. In the 1890s, Charles Feltman sold “dachshund dogs” at Coney Island, NYC. Later, he opened a restaurant where they were sold as “frankfurters”. In 1904, a Frankfurt native was selling “dachshund sausages” at his booth at the St. Louis “Louisiana Purchase Exposition”. Because of the messy nature of the sausages combined with sauerkraut and mustard, he provided gloves for his customers. When he ran out of gloves, he got a nearby baker to produce sausage sized rolls. Now the frankfurter had a bun. In 1906, a cartoonist named Tad Dorgan went to a baseball game at the Polo Grounds in NYC. A vendor was peddling “red hot dachshund dogs”. Dorgan drew a cartoon of a dachshund in a bun. Since he was not sure of the spelling of dachshund, he called his drawing a “hot dog”. The name caught on. Uncle 1 p. 182-183
THE HAMBURGER – The Tartars, who fought Mongolians, would shred poor quality beef and cook it. It had migrated to Germany by the 14th Century where it became known as “Hamburg steak”. In the 1880s, a German immigrant brought “hamburger steak” to America. It was also called “Salisbury steak” after English Doctor J.H. Salisbury prescribed beef three times a day for his patients. The bun was added at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Uncle 1 p. 183
VULCANIZATION – After Charles Goodyear’s hardware store went bankrupt in 1830, he was in and out of debtor’s prisons for the next few years. When he was not in prison, he was inventing. In 1834, he invented a rubber inner tube, but no one wanted it because rubber would melt in heat and crack in cold. Someone need to invent a process to vulcanize rubber. He worked at home in his kitchen using a rolling pin, marble slab, and his wife’s pots and pans. After five years of failure, he accidentally dropped a mixture of rubber and sulphur on a hot stove. In 1854, he got a patent for vulcanization of rubber, but the patent was challenged and other inventors stole his idea. He spent all his money defending himself in court. He died poor in 1860. Uncle 4 pp. 124-125
DONKEY AND ELEPHANT – In 1828, Andrew Jackson was running for President. His opponents called him a “stubborn jackass”. The Democrats decided to adopt the donkey as their symbol. They put it on campaign posters and flyers. In 1874, there were rumors that President Grant might run for a third term. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast had a heard a false story about wild animals escaping from the Central Park Zoo. This gave him the idea to draw the Republican Party as a rampaging elephant in a cartoon that ran in Harper’s Weekly. Uncle 4 p. 195
COCA-COLA – In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was working on a non-alcoholic, “nerve medicine” to sell in his drug store. He boiled a concoction of herbs, coca leaves, and kola nuts in his back yards. He then added tap water to the “syrup”. One day a customer with a stomach ache asked for “fizzy water” to be added to it. Pemberton was in poor health so he sold the recipe for the syrup to a collection of drug store owners for $350. He died in 1888. Asa Candler bought out his fellow druggists and registered the Coca-Cola trademark. He was great at marketing and would give gifts like clocks and calendars with the Coca-Cola logo to stores that bought the syrup. By 1892, he was selling over 35,000 gallons of the syrup per year. Candler resisted bottling the drink for years for fear of lawsuits from exploding bottles. He changed his mind after a Mississippi candy store owner had success with bottles. Candler opened Coke’s first bottling plant five years later. In 1915, Coke hired an Indiana glass company to design a distinctive bottle. It was loosely based on the shape of the cola nut. Uncle 4 pp. 207-208
PEPSI-COLA – There were many copycats to Coke and usually Coke was successful in suing them out of business. In 1893, a North Carolina pharmacist named Caleb Bradham came up with “Brad’s Drink” which he renamed Pepsi-Cola to imply pepsin which was good for stomach ailments. His company went bankrupt due to changes in sugar prices. The rights were bought, but this company also went bankrupt in 1931. Charles Guth bought the rights for $10,500. He hated Coke because it would not give him a bulk discount even though he bought a lot of syrup to sell in his candy stores. When people asked for Coke, he would sell them Pepsi. Coke sued and lost. He too was going bankrupt in the Depression and tried to sell out to Coke, but they turned him down. Desperate, he cut the price from a dime to a nickel and since it was already being sold in bigger bottles than Coke, it was a cheaper alternative for depressed Americans. When the Depression ended, Pepsi found hard times as it was considered a low-scale beverage. By 1949, it was near bankruptcy again when a marketing wizard Alfred Steele (who had been fired by Coke) rebooted the company with a new logo (the current circular design) and endorsements from celebrities like Joan Crawford (Steele’s wife). It helped that Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Khrushchev chilled with a Pepsi after their famous “Kitchen Debate”. Uncle 4 pp. 209-213
DR PEPPER – Dr (no period since the 1950s) Pepper was invented by a pharmacist named Charles Alderton as a health tonic. This happened in Waco, Texas in 1885. It was called “Dr. Pepper’s Phos-Ferrates”. No one know where the “Dr. Pepper” came from. The original formula contained pepsin (as did Pepsi). Lists 213
EDISON AND THE LIGHT BULB – Edison did not invent the light bulb. An incandescent light bulb was invented by British inventor Joseph Swan in 1845. The incandescent light worked by using electricity to heat a filament that would then glow with white light. The problem was the filaments would melt or not last long. By the 1870s, arc lighting was being used in lighthouses and as street lighting. In arc lighting, a spark “arcs” across two electrically charged rods. It was not practical for other uses because it gave off too much energy and thus too much light. Edison took on the task of inventing a cheaper, more efficient type of incandescent lighting. At first, he concentrated on a switch that would turn the filament on and off when it got too hot. It was a dead end, so Edison brought in Princeton physicist Frank Upton to reboot. Upton focused on the filament and eventually came up with one that burned for forty hours. It is a myth that Edison discovered this filament by himself in his laboratory and then watched it burn for the forty hours. This was supposedly on October 21, 1879, which became known as “Electric Light Day”. The story was invented by a newspaper reporter. Uncle Lost pp. 101-102
CHANG AND ENG – Chang and Eng were the original “Siamese twins”. They were born attached at the chest by a band of skin in Siam (Thailand) in 1811. There names meant “right” and “left” in the Thai language. They were discovered by an American sea captain and put on display in Europe and America. P.T. Barnum bought their contract and they became a star attraction. They got married to two unrelated women and had 22 kids between them. They died within hours of each other in 1874 at age 63. Uncle Lost 269
THE WAR OF THE CURRENTS – In 1882, Edison attempted to parlay his invention of the light bulb by creating the Edison Electric Light Company to provide direct current to homes and businesses. The problem was direct current lost voltage over distance so the power plants had to be located near the customers. Edison had a monopoly on providing power for NYC, but it required over 100 power stations scattered throughout the city. Edison’s big competitor was George Westinghouse. Westinghouse felt alternating current was the future of electric power. In 1885, he bought a patent for a transformer that would boost the current to a very high voltage and then transformers located on poles would reduce the power before it entered homes. Now power plants could be located outside of cities and near coal supplies and/or water sources. Westinghouse set up plants in Buffalo, New York and in the South and West, but he wanted NYC. As early as 1888, Edison put out a pamphlet warning about the dangers of AC. That same year, Nicolo Tesla invented an AC motor that Westinghouse bought the rights to. Edison’s next move was to hire “Professor” H.P. Brown, a self-proclaimed expert on electricity. He preached that AC was dangerous and there should be a law against any voltage above 300 traveling through wires. To prove their claim, Brown and Edison’s top engineer Arthur Kennelly conducted experiments electrocuting animals. They would pay neighborhood kids $.25 for every pet they brought in. They brought the press in for a gruesome electrocution of a large dog. Around this time New York was looking for an alternative to lynching condemned criminals. Hangings could go wrong with too loose a noose resulting in long moments of strangulation or too tight a noose resulting in decapitation. Edison suggested electrocution by way of AC thinking the horror of seeing a human being electrocuted by something that could be coming into their homes would cause the public to turn against AC. New York passed a law in 1888 switching the death penalty to electrocution via AC. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler (who had murdered his girlfriend with the blunt end of an axe) was the first to be put in the electric chair. His lawyers had argued that electrocution was “cruel and unusual punishment”, but Edison had convinced the judge that it was “humane”. Kemmler was hit with 17 seconds of current, but was still alive. It took another 72 seconds to complete the job in front of a horrified audience. However, the public just shrugged about the danger and decided they wanted the cheaper, more efficient AC coming into their homes. In 1893, Westinghouse was awarded the contract to light the Chicago World’s Fair and the next year he got the contract to construct the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls. And that’s why we have AC and not DC powering our electric appliances. Uncle Lost pp. 548-550, 591-593, 647-649
INVENTION OF THE TELEPHONE – On Feb. 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the telephone, just hours before Elisha Gray filed a similar patent for a phone using a liquid transmitter. Some historians believe Bell was given access to Gray’s idea and he incorporated it in his invention. Three days later, Bell was working in his laboratory, when according to legend, he spilled acid on himself. Instinctively he cried out to his assistant: “Watson, come here. I want you!” His assistant, Thomas Watson, came running from another room where he was working on the receiver. That was the moment Bell realized his invention worked. Bell tried to sell the invention to the Western Union Telegraph Company for $100,000, but it turned down his “electric toy”. Bell found investors and created his own telephone company. In 1877, Charles Williams of Somerville, Massachusetts installed the first phone in his home. Since it was the only phone in town, he had one placed in his office so his wife could call him. Originally phone calls were placed by calling an operator. At first, teenage boys were hired, but they tended to be rude so the telephone company went exclusively with adult females. In 1879, phone numbers were first suggested, but the public found the idea too impersonal so it took a while for the idea to catch on. For a long time after numbers were adopted, homes shared “party lines” which meant they shared the same line. Each home would have a different ring to tell you if the call was for you. Another problem was what to say when you answered the phone. Bell suggested the nautical “Ahoy”, but most people would say “Are you there?” It was Edison that pushed for a simple “Hello”. Uncle 10th Anniversary pp. 222-223
POTATO CHIPS – Cornelius Vanderbilt was dining at a restaurant called Moon’s Lake House in 1853. He asked the waiter to bring him some fried potatoes. He had tasted them in France. He described how to prepare them. Before this in America, potatoes were either baked, boiled, or mashed. Oil was too expensive for frying. When his order arrived, Vanderbilt sent them back because they were too large and not crisp enough. The next batch was also sent back. The chef George Crum got angry and cut the potato paper-thin and then added salt. Vanderbilt loved them. Uncle Great Big p. 168
EDISON’S CIGARS – Edison was having trouble with people taking his expensive Cuban cigars off his desk. He got fed up and complained to a friend who suggested he pull a prank by having a cigar maker use cabbage leaf to make a box of cigars for him. A couple of weeks passed by and Edison complained to his friend about it taking so long for the cabbage cigars to arrive. When they asked his manager about it, he said the cigars had arrived the previous week and he had packed the box in Edison’s suitcase because he was going on a trip. Edison: “ I smoked every one of those damned cigars myself!” maroon book p. 11
EDISON OUTKICKS FORD – Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were good friends. They were once eating dinner at a fancy hotel. Their host had an expensive chandelier above the table. The chandelier featured large glass globes over the lights. In the middle of the meal, Ford looked up and bet Edison he could knock off one of the globes with a foot. Edison was game so the table was moved and he began to stretch to get ready for his jump. He made a mighty leap and knocked one of the globes off. On his turn, Ford barely missed and lost the bet. For the rest of the meal, Ford had to listen to Edison taunting him: “You are a younger man than I but I can outkick you!” maroon book p. 12
LEGAL HEROIN – In 1898, Dr. Heinrich Dreser, the head of research for Bayer Company, derived heroin from morphine. (One year later, he invented aspirin.) He envisioned heroin as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was first used in cough medicines, but was also used as a painkiller and even as a cure for morphine addiction! Soon it was an ingredient in remedies for headaches and menstrual cramps. It took twelve years for doctors to determine that it was highly addictive and ruined lives. In 1914, Congress passed the Harrison Narcotics Act which basically ended the use of heroin in medicines. In 1924, Congress went all the way and banned heroin in the U.S. In 1956, all legal supplies were destroyed, but by then the Mafia had gotten into the profitable heroin trade. maroon p. 30
CARNEGIE DONATION – Andrew Carnegie donated millions to charity. One day a donation seeker knocked on the door of his mansion. He was shown into Carnegie’s office and made a strong case for his charity, but Carnegie responded by telling him he was tired of all the people begging him for money. The donation-seeker was not to be put off and continued to make a case for his charity. Finally, Carnegie told the man that if he could find someone to donate the other half of what he needed, Carnegie would match it. The man agreed and left, but soon returned. Carnegie was upset and asked the man if he did not understand what the deal was. Carnegie: “Where did you get half the money in so short a time?” Donation-seeker: “From your wife.” Carnegie chuckled and reached for his check-book. maroon p. 33
STATUE OF LIBERTY – When Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was sculpting “Liberty Enlightening the World”, he need a model. He chose to fashion the arms after his girlfriend Jeanne-Emilie Baheux. For the face, however, he felt she was too beautiful. He wanted someone more mature and perseverant. He chose his mother Charlotte. maroon p. 36
ADDLED EDISON – Thomas’ father thought he was stupid. When his first grade teacher reinforced this by calling him “addled”, he ran away from school after only three months. He never returned. He was home-schooled by his mother who had been a teacher. It seems to have worked out for him. Whitcomb 148
EDISON’S FIRST CHECK – In 1869, the twenty-two year old Edison arrived in New York City looking for a job. He got one with a telegraph company and was soon fixing equipment that no one had been able to fix. He went on to make other improvements and inventions to improve the efficiency of the company with no extra compensation. One day he invented an improved stock ticker that so impressed the head of the company that the man asked Edison how much he owed him for all his improvements. Edison was thinking to ask for $3,000, but asked the boss how much he thought would be reasonable. He was given a check for $40,000, He used the money to set up his first manufacturing shop. maroon 115
ROCKEFELLER’S ESTATE – John D. Rockefeller had an estate at Pocantico Hills, New York. It had 75 buildings, a garage for 50 cars (although he drove the same car for fifteen years), 70 miles of paved roads, a private golf course, and 1000-1500 employees. Lawrence 113
MORGAN’S NOSE – J.P. Morgan had a skin condition that caused his nose to be large and ugly. He was self-conscious about this and there is a famous picture of him trying to hit a Glded Age paparazzi with his cane. One day he was scheduled to visit Mrs. Dwight Morrow for tea. Mrs. Morrow was extremely worried about what her young daughter Anne might do when she saw the nose. She tried to prepare Anne by describing the nose and begging her not to say anything about it, not to point at it, not to be shocked by it, etc. When the door bell rang, Anne ran to open it and as her mother sweated, Anne was a perfect angel. She made no reference to the nose and her mother began to fell less tense. Things were going swimmingly well until the tea arrived. As she poured a cup for Morgan, Mrs. Morrow asked: “Do you take nose in your tea?” Lawrence 113
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL – His father wrote books on proper speech. He and his brothers learned to make a dog “speak” by manipulating their vocal cords. At age 21, he got a job teaching the deaf in a school in Boston. One day, he read a book by a German scientist, but he misunderstood his description of using electricity to vibrate tuning forks. He though the scientist was talking about transmitting sound from one tuning fork to another. He went to a local electrical shop to learn about electricity from its owner, Thomas Watson. Watson became Bell’s assistant in developing his “harmonic telegraph”. Lawrence 128-130
LAZY ALVA – Thomas Alva Edison was called Alva by his family and Al by his friends. As a boy, he hated chores. He used poor health as an excuse to get out of most of his jobs. One day when his father ordered him to plant six acres of turnips, he finished in 2 ½ hours by planting the turnips fourteen feet apart. He was not a big believer in hygiene. He took only one bath a week and did not care about his appearance. He would spit his chewing tobacco on the floor. When aske why he didn’t use the spittoon, he said if he spit on the floor, he couldn’t miss. He did not believe in sleep and got by with twenty-minute cat naps. Sometimes his workers would find him in a closet curled up on some newspapers like a cat. He was almost deaf so he could fall asleep quickly and almost anywhere. He only was interested in inventing practical things that would make him a profit. After his first job as a telegraph operator, he made his first invention – an electric vote counter. It was not a success, but his next, a stock ticker, had him on his way to fame and 1,093 patents. Lawrence 130-132
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AUTO – The car was first invented in Europe, but it took Americans to make it affordable. In 1894, Elwood Haynes invented a “horseless carriage” that could go 6 MPH. The next year George Selden received the first patent for a gasoline-powered auto. He did not build it, he was happy to get royalties on every car built. Until 1911, when Henry Ford won a case in court ending his monopoly. Charles Duryea is sometimes called the Father of the Automobile. His car was a buggy with a water-cooled engine in the rear and rubber tires. It could go 18 MPH. He founded the Duryea Motor Company in 1895 and built 13 cars the next year, but the business was not a success. Ransom Olds built the first steam carriage. His Olds Motor Works had the first auto assembly line and used standardized parts. He built his factory in Detroit. Henry Ford was as mechanic in Detroit. He put together his “quadricycle” from parts of old steam carriages, bicycles, motorcycles, buggies, and scrap metal. In 1903, he started Ford Motor Company and five years later invented the iconic Model T. Lawrence 133-136
ROBBER BARON EXTRAVAGANCES
– Mrs. Martin Bradley hosted a costume ball that cost $250,000
– guests at a party were shown into the banquet hall and handed a sterling silver pail and shovel like you might have at the beach; on the huge table was a sand box; the guests were encouraged to dig for precious jewels like diamonds, rubies, and emeralds and could keep what they found, along with the pail and shovel
– a wife had a birthday party for her dog and gave him a $15,000 diamond collar
– some Robber Barons smoked cigarettes made from $100 bills
CARNEGIE AND THE COLLECTION PLATE – One Sunday Carnegie was traveling through the rural South when he had his chauffer stop at a little Baptist church for mass. He sat in the back pew and was the only white person in the church. The rest of the congregation were poor blacks. When the collection plate was passed around, the people put in nickels and dimes, whatever they could afford. When it got to Carnegie, he tossed in a $100 bill, causing the usher’s eyes to light up. He immediately brought the collection to the priest. A hush dropped over the church as the priest could be seen whispering to the usher and holding up the $100 bill. He then stepped to the podium and said: “Brothers and sisters, God has been good to us today. We have collected $3.37 to do his work. And if the $100 bill the white man put in is real, God has been great to us!”
VAUDEVILLE JOKES
– Marriage is like a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, suffering
– A Scotsman’s wife was running a fever of 105 degrees so he put her in the basement and used her to heat his house
– A prisoner was being led to his execution by firing squad through a pouring rain. He complained to his executioner: “What brutes you are to make me walk through this rain!” The executioner responded: “What are you complaining about? We have to walk back through it.”
THE ELEVATOR – Elisha Otis (a descendent of Revolutionary hero James Otis) was a master mechanic. He invented a safety lift for a warehouse, but the company went out of business. He was headed for California in 1852 to seek gold when a furniture maker commissioned two of his elevators. He used a steam engine to raise and lower the elevator. He started his own company. He made a big splash at an exposition when he theatrically cut the rope holding his elevator with an axe and the elevator only plunged three inches, thus proving to the shocked crowd that the contraption was safe. Unfortunately, he was not a good businessman and when he died at age 49, he left his two sons in debt. They proved to be superior businessmen and the company prospered. By 1873, they had installed over 2,000 elevators. The invention was crucial to the boom in skyscrapers. It made higher floors in hotels more popular. In 1900, the Otis company bought the escalator. Over the years, the medical profession backed off on claims that the sudden acceleration and deceleration was unhealthy. Originally, cities established speed limits of 40 feet per minute. This was raised to 1,200 in the 1930s. Today, the standard is 2,000 feet per minute. Amazing 25-26
THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR – The workers were protesting for an eight-hour working day instead of their current 12-14 hour days. Things were peaceful until the Mayor of Chicago, who had come to show his support, left. At this point, the police began to disperse the crowd. Someone threw a bomb into the police, killing eight. The police opened fire on the crowd, injuring many. Police fanned out through the city arresting eight anarchists. Only two had been at the rally. All eight were found guilty and seven were sentenced to death. One committed suicide the night before his execution. He bit down on a blasting cap that he had hidden in his jail cell. Four were hanged. In 1893, the Governor pardoned the three that were serving life imprisonment. Historians have tried to determine who actually threw the bomb. The leading candidates are two anarchists, Rudolph Schnaubert or George Meng, both of whom had been at the rally. Neither was arrested. Amazing 179-180
CIVIL WAR PRESIDENTS
– Hayes – enlisted after Fort Sumter; he was appointed Major in a volunteer infantry regiment; he fought in the Battle of South Mountain; he had a horse shot from under him in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign
– Garfield – he raised a regiment; fought at Shiloh; he led a charge that evicted the Confederate army from Kentucky; fought in the Battle of Chickamauga; left the army when he was elected to Congress in 1863
– Arthur – was quartermaster general (in charge of supplies) for the state of New York; rose to Brigadier General
– Cleveland – hired a substitute because he had to support his ailing widowed mother
– Harrison – raised a unit of volunteers; participated in Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign; rose to Brigadier General
– McKinley – enlisted as a private; was a sergeant at Antietam where he had a dangerous job of driving a wagon; promoted to Lieutenant by his commanding officer – Rutherford Hayes; eventually reached major
Amazing 356-357
VICTORIA WOODHULL – She was a proponent of women’s suffrage and equal rights. Before she got into politics, she and her sister followed in their mother’s footsteps by becoming clairvoyants. Her first marriage ended in a rare wife-initiated divorce due to her husband’s alcoholism. Her second marriage was to a man who agreed with her about free love. They moved to New York City where the sisters opened a salon where they continued to practice clairvoyance. One of their customers was Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made them wealthy with his stock tips. The sisters opened their own stock brokerage, becoming the first female stock brokers. In 1870, she became the first woman to run for President. The sisters published the first weekly newspaper run by women. It concentrated on women’s issues. In 1871, she became the first woman to testify before a congressional committee. She argued that the 14th Amendment provided for women’s suffrage. In 1872, she became the first woman nominated for President when the Equal Rights Party tabbed her. Her espousal of free love hurt her chances. She got in trouble when her newspaper published an expose about the infidelities of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. The sisters were jailed for libel and obscenity. She spent election night in jail. They were found not guilty, partly because the expose was true, but court fees impoverished her. She moved to England, married a banker and restored her finances. Amazing 395-397
TYPHOID MARY – Mary Mallon immigrated to America from Ireland at age 15 in 1883. She started as a domestic servant and moved up to cook. She cooked for some of the wealthiest families in New York City. Apparently, during her years as a domestic servant she had what she thought was the flu, but was actually a mild case of typhoid. This made her a carrier. When several members of banker Charles Warren’s family contracted the disease, he brought in a sanitary inspector who discovered that 7 out of 8 previous employers of Mary had family members get typhoid. When he visited Mary at her current job and asked for urine and blood samples, she ran him off with a knife. After all, she was perfectly healthy. The inspector got the police to cart her off to a hospital where tests revealed she was a carrier. She was quarantined in a cottage on the hospital grounds. A few years later, after promising never to work as a cook again, she was freed. However, it was her only way of making a living, so she soon broke her promise. In 1915, an outbreak at Sloane Maternity Hospital led to over twenty cases and two deaths. The infections were traced to the cook, Mary Brown. When they realized Brown was Mallon, Mary was put back in the cottage for the rest of her life. Amazing 419-421
LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD – Interesting facts about the Statue of Liberty:
– it was originally called “Liberty Enlightening the World”
– it was sculpted by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi; the structural engineer was Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel
– the face is supposedly Bartholdi’s mother Charlotte
– it was started in 1875 and completed in 1884 , reassembled in America and dedicated in 1886
– a smaller version (35 feet tall) was dedicated to Americans living in Paris and is still on an island in the Seine River a mile from the Eiffel Tower
– the crown has 25 windows and 7 spikes (one for each of the seven seas)
– the tablet has the date July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals
– it is 152’ from the base to the torch and 305’ to the tip of the torch
– there are 192 steps from the ground to the top of the pedestal and 354 more to the crown
– the index finger is 8 feet long
– the sandal size is 879
– from 1886-1902 it was a functional lighthouse
– a new torch was put on in 1986
Amazing 499-500
TO THE EGRESS – P.T. Barnum was having a problem in his New York museum of oddities. People would come in and wouldn’t want to leave. He solved the problem by putting a sign “TO THE EGRESS” above the exit door. Fuller 98
EDISON’S TURNSTILE – Edison was giving a guest a tour of his home, which had all sorts of modern conveniences. As the guest left he had to pass through a turnstile which was hard to push through. When the guest complained about Edison having such a modern home, but a stiff turnstile, Edison explained that every time a guest pushed through the turnstile, it pumped eight gallons of water into a tank on the roof. Fuller 199-200
CARNEGIE AND THE SOCIALIST – Carnegie was debating with a visiting socialist. The socialist was arguing that it was unjust for one man to have so much wealth. Wealth should be equally distributed. Carnegie summoned his secretary and whispered in his ear. Later, the secretary returned with a paper listing all of Carnegie’s assets. Carnegie reached for an almanac and did some calculating. Then he reached in his pocket and gave the socialist 16 cents. “Here is your share of my wealth.” Fuller 367
I WILL RUIN YOU – Cornelius Vanderbilt once sent the following telegram to a business rival:
“You have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you for the law takes too long. I will ruin you.”
Fuller 381
THE “TELEPHONE REPEATER” – Edison helped Bell’s invention by inventing the transmitter, but he had no confidence in the telephone. He felt it would be too expensive for the average American. But what if they could use it like the telegraph. You would record a message and then go to a telephone exchange to send your message. He called the invention “the telephone repeater” and was shocked when it worked the first time he tried it. He said “Mary had a little lamb” into the microphone and heard it played back to him. The machine did not use disks, it used cylinders, but it was essentially like a record player. He did not see it as entertainment, however. He saw it as a replacement for letter-writing and stenographers. He refused to recognize its potential, even after it turned out to be affordable. In 1894, he finally put a record player on the market, but it took a while for it to catch on because people preferred the cheaper alternative of paying a nickel to listen to songs on a jukebox. Shenkman 147-8
FROZEN FISH – In 1912, Clarence Birdseye was on a fur-trading expedition in Labrador. He decided to go ice-fishing in 20 degrees below zero weather. It was so cold that whenever he would pull a fish out of the water, it would instantly freeze. When he returned to camp and put the fish in a pail of water, they revived. This gave him the idea for preserving foods, but it took a while to put it into effect. In 1925, he marketed the first frozen food – fish. Shenkman 203-4
TOM THUMB – In 1842, P.T. Barnum hired four year-old Charles Stratton who was a little person standing 25 inches tall. Barnum renamed him “General Tom Thumb”. He toured with the circus doing a variety of things. He sang and danced. He impersonated Napoleon and Cupid. He became an international celebrity after a tour of Europe in 1844. Tom Thumb performed for Queen Victoria. In 1863, Barnum put on the ultimate publicity stunt when he arranged the marriage between Tom and a little woman named Lavinia Warren who was 2’8”. At the time, Tom had reached his adult height of 2’11”. Barnum sold tickets to the event for $75 each and 2,000 people attended. On their honeymoon, the couple had dinner with the Lincoln’s at the White House. Tom died of a stroke in 1883 at age 45. Lavinia remarried and lived until 1919. Lists 73
EARLY BASEBALL RULES –
– Until 1883, pitchers could not move their feet when they delivered the ball and they had to pitch underhand. A batter could request a high or low ball.
– There were no called strikes originally. The batter could wait for the pitch he wanted. In 1879, it was decided that nine balls would equal a walk. It was in 1889 that the standard four balls was put in.
– Until the 1920s, pitchers could put spit, mucus, and petroleum jelly on the ball.
THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE – On Oct. 8, 1871, the most famous fire in American history broke out in Chicago. Before it was over it had created $200 million in damages and cost the lives of 300 people. 90,000 were left homeless. The city was ripe for a fire due to a long drought. There had recently been 700 small fires. In a case of bad timing, a lumberyard caught fire on Oct. 7 and took 17 hours to put out. It left the firemen exhausted and not in the best shape when the big fire broke out 12 hours later. To make matters worse, the fire department was given the wrong address and the second fire engine to arrive did not have enough fuel to run its waterpump. The neighborhood was completely wooden and the fire quickly spread to Conley’s Patch which was a slum area. Early on a gasworks exploded plunging the city into darkness. The business district was supposedly “fireproof” with its brick and stone buildings, but the roofs were wooden. The fire jumped the river to reach the north side. There was widespread looting, including by escaped inmates from the courthouse jail. The fire needed air which created gale-force winds. When the waterworks went up, there went the water for fire hoses. The fire did not burn out until Oct. 10 when a drizzling rain finished it. Lists 420-421
HOUDINI’S DEATH – Harry Houdini was 52 and touring with his act. As part of the act, he would allow an audience member to punch him as hard as he could in his stomach. Houdini would tighten his stomach muscles and not get hurt. After a show in Montreal, Houdini was relaxing in his room when a college student was shown in to meet him. Without warning the young man punched Houdini several times without warning, leaving Houdini on the floor in pain. Coincidentally, Houdini had been diagnosed with appendicitis a few days before but had disregarded it. The assault resulted in peritonitis (stomach inflammation), but Houdini continued his tour. In Detroit a week later, he developed a fever of 104 degrees and collapsed on stage. He finished the show, but was then rushed to the hospital, where he passed away. Lists 460
EDISON’S VACATION – Edison was a workaholic who did not sleep much. When he was working on the light bulb, it was all about the perfect filament. He tried everything he could think of. Finally, he discovered that carbonized bamboo gave off the longest light. He knew this because he sat in his laboratory for forty hours waiting for it to burn out. It was because of this type of obsessive work schedule that his wife became concerned with his well-being. One day she suggested that he go on a vacation. When Edison asked where, she suggested he go to the place he most wanted to be. Edison said okay and promised that he would go tomorrow. The next day Edison was in his laboratory. Humes 77
THE QWERTY KEYBOARD – Christopher Sholes knew he had something special when he invented the modern typewriter in the 1860’s, but there was a problem. The machine used metal rods with the letters engraved on the end. When you pressed the key, the rod would swing up and imprint the letter on the paper. The keyboard was set up in alphabetical order, naturally. Unfortunately, when the typist would type fast, the rods would often entangle. This happened when the two letters were next to each other. Sholes did a study of which letters appeared the most next to each other in words and organized the letters on his new keyboard with the most often used letters as far from each other as possible. The new keyboard, which is still used even though we gave up the metal rods long ago, got its name from the first six letters on the upper row. Strange 209
EDWIN DRAKE – The Father of the Petroleum Industry died broke. Drake did not discover oil. “Rock oil” (as opposed to “vegetable oil”) had been seeping from the ground for centuries. The problem was it did not seep much and people assumed it was because there was not much below the surface. The best you could hope for would be a seep (like a pool) where it collected in some quantity. There was one at Titusville, Pa. that produced 3 barrels a day, but that was not very profitable. Some had tried drilling a hole to bring underground oil up, but inevitably water infiltrated the hole and would cause it to collapse. Drake’s breakthrough was to insert a “drive pipe” as he drilled down to prevent water seepage. Soon, he was producing 35 barrels a day at that same site. Unfortunately, Drake did not patent his innovation and he speculated in the oil industry at the same time that his invention had caused a plunge in oil prices due to increased production. He ended up begging friends to give him money to keep his family from starving and died poor. Uncle John’s Fully Loaded 73-74
THE TWEED COURTHOUSE – In 1858, the County of New York decided it needed a new courthouse. It budgeted $250,000 (about $5 million today). Unfortunately for taxpayers, William “Boss” Tweed and his political machine known as Tammany Hall controlled politics in New York City. The Tweed Ring saw the project as a good way to line their pockets. Contracts were given out to friends who were willing to pay the machine kickbacks. In other words, they would bid way above what their cost plus profits would be for a job and then pay the surplus back to the machine. For instance, one businessman submitted an invoice for $350,000 of carpets. The carpets actually cost $13,000. A furniture maker charged $179,000 for three tables and forty chairs. A man dubbed the “Prince of Plasterers” submitted a bill for $133,000 for two days work (and later billed $1 million for repairs). By 1871, Tweed and his cronies had embezzled $13 million (equivalent to $230 million today) from a total of $15 million paid by the taxpayers. Purchasing Alaska had cost the U.S. $7 million. Uncle John’s Fully Loaded 112-113
WHAT’S IN A NAME? George Eastman invented the first affordable camera, but did not name for himself. He wanted a name that was short, energetic, could not be misspelled, and meant nothing. He loved the letter K because it is a strong letter so he started with it and then played around until he got Kodak. People’s I 354-5
HETTY GREEN – Hetty inherited $10 million from her father. She built it up to the point where she was the wealthiest woman in the world. She did this through shrewd investments and living a very frugal life. When she married millionaire Edward Green, she made him sign a prenuptial agreement so he couldn’t have access to her money. They separated several years later and she kept building her fortune (he went bankrupt). She lived in a low rent apartment and wore the same old clothes every day. When her son broke his leg, she tried to nurse him at home. That wasn’t working so she dressed him in rags and brought him to the charity hospital. The doctors recognized her and demanded payment. She immediately took her son home and went back to nursing him on her own. Eventually, he had to have his leg amputated. Peoples I 215-6
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