A World Discovered – by L.A ‘Code’ & E. L. Daniher
Illustrated by M. ‘Lovejoy’ & S. Flannery
Published by J.M. Dent & Sons
– altered by Hystoria
A government laboratory has worked a way to play back the recordings on fragile wax cylinders, which were the working vocals of the dolls made by Thomas Edison in 1890.
Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co. Inc. Maine 1887 – 1895 (Photo Courtesy of: Robin & Joan Rolfs)
Edison employed an army of hundreds of girls, (according to Randall Stross –The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World), giving each doll her individual voice.
A depiction of a young lady staffed by Edison, recording voice onto Edison’s recording device
The New York Times reports:
In 1890, Edison’s dolls were a flop; production lasted only six weeks. Children found them difficult to operate and more scary than cuddly. The recordings inside, which featured snippets of nursery rhymes, wore out quickly.
Yet sound historians say the cylinders were the first entertainment records ever made, and the young girls hired to recite the rhymes were the world’s first recording artists.
Year after year, the Rolfses asked experts if there might be a safe way to play the recordings. Then a government laboratory developed a method to play fragile records without touching them.
Cylinders carry sound in a spiral groove cut by a phonograph recording needle that vibrates up and down, creating a surface made of tiny hills and valleys. In the Irene set-up, a microscope perched above the shaft takes thousands of high-resolution images of small sections of the grooves.
Stitched together, the images provide a topographic map of the cylinder’s surface, charting changes in depth as small as one five-hundredth the thickness of a human hair. Pitch, volume and timbre are all encoded in the hills and valleys and the speed at which the record is played.
You can have a listen to:
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
“There Was a Little Girl” – the first recording heard from Edison’s Talking Doll.
There was a little girl,
And she had a little curl
When she was good,
She was very, very good.
But when she was bad, she was horrid.
Right in the middle of her forehead.
Miniature phonograph neatly tucked inside the cavity of a doll
Cylinders for the 6-second recordings were not interchangeable. A child would have to turn the crank at a fairly steady pace to hear the low-quality audio, hissing doll speak.
French jointed, you say… ahem… moving along…
Many customers returned the dolls for this very reason, as I’m sure you can understand -after having listened to the recordings – good Christians may have thought the dolls to have been possessed by demons. Not many were kept leaving very few in existence today.
Advertisement for “the voices of the little monsters were exceedingly unpleasant to hear” (in Edison’s own words), creepy dolls
Some dolls fetched up to $25.00 depending on how fanciful their dress may have been – a full 2 – 4 weeks pay for most folk – and too much cash to waste on a defunct toy which probably induced more nightmares than joy.
Collector Ward Harris holding one of Thomas Edison’s talking dolls – 1949 (Ernest K. Bennett/Associated Press)
The truth of the matter is this. Edison had envisioned the idea of a talking doll as early as 1877, but it was another inventor, William W. Jacques, who first developed a prototype based on Edison’s original tinfoil phonograph. Jacques and his partner Lowell Briggs founded the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company in 1887 with Edison agreeing to lend his name to the planned product in return for royalties and stock ownership. Before production began, however, Edison took over the company, demoting the founder and leading to years of ill-will and lawsuits. – Scripophily
Oh, Karma. You always find your man! What could have been, if there had been no back-stabbing demotions?
Edison Stock Certificate printed by the American Banknote Company, NY – 1889. Signatures of Company President, William W. Jacques and Secretary, Lowell Briggs
Edison Stock Certificate printed by the American Banknote Company, NY. – 1889. Santa and his reindeer
– altered by Hystoria
James Pettit – (1777 Albany NY – 1849 Fredonia, NY) physician: later specializing in optical surgery. In 1843, the first batch of Pettit’s Eye Salve was manufactured – fifteen dozen tins. His son Eber M. Pettit, acted as the firm’s travelling salesman, flogging the tins in Chautauqua and surrounding counties.
The Versailles Botanic Mills, which began operation around 1859, prepared bark, roots and herbs to be used in patent medicines. They were sold to Starr and Pettit and later owned by D. R. Barker under the management of James Pettit, grandson of the Dr. James Pettit. When the Dr. Pettit passed in 1849, Eber M. Pettit took over the business, Barker, became a full partner. In 1858, with business booming, the travelling sales was handed to Eber’s son James, as though it were tradition, and concentrated on the office work.
The Eye Salve business relocated when the Barkers purchased a farm at the address of 278 Central Avenue, which now appears to be a fenced-in, empty lot beside a small apartment complex. The company continued to flourish during the Depression of 1873. Edward and Clarence Howard of The Howard Bro’s., offered to buy out Pettit’s portion of the empire in 1876, and the offer was accepted.
The Howard Bros., constructed a new factory in which to manufacture Pettit’s Eye Salve and sat immediately behind the Baptist Church building on Temple Street, complete with a basement and two stories above. The construction was well under way by the beginning of December 1877 and had taken most of 1878 and by January 15, 1879 within the issue of The Fredonia Censor, it was announced – “the Howard Bros., began making eye salve today,” – with Dr. E. M. Pettit in charge of operation.
The Howard Bros., purchased machinery not just for watch production, but also for medicinal lines for the production of Cough Cure and Blood Purifier. The brothers also purchased printing and binding equipment, which allowed for them to print labels, pamphlets and other advertising materials. By March 1880, a new factory had to be built due to their success; a 2-acre lot at 88-96 East Main Street.
The old building was transported – part by part – to the new site. As part of the new arrangement, Darwin R. Barker purchased Eber M. Pettit’s portion of the empire on 19 June 1880 – completely erasing the Pettit & Barker business name. There were fresh staff members hired, production increased on both lines, watches and medicines galore – The Howard Bros., continued to manufacture medicines on East Main Street and Railroad (Cleveland) Avenue until March 1888 – when they were forced to relocate and rebuild a factory at Buffalo NY, to keep up with demand – and another relocation 4 years later to house the works on Washington Street nearest Mohawk.
– altered by Hystoria
Origin: The Pettit Eye-Salve Business – By Douglas H. Shepard
Have you been the victim of Mr. or Mrs. Planet Rude, whom just so happened to sit behind you after boarding a bus, train or plane while you sat quietly, minding your own business – perhaps enjoying the novel you’ve chosen to read until you’ve reached your destination – only to have the hair on the back of your head parted by Mr. or Mrs. Planet Rude’s sneeze, wondering if a Little Green Man (or Woman…) had been launched and had made a home on several of your hair shafts?
If your answer is yes – spread this!
Why is Herbie Hancock on this trip..?
– altered by Hystoria
Mural by Bearface Design
Proverbs:
1. “Faith is the bird that sings at night.”
2. “Every mother crow thinks her own little crow is the blackest.”
3.“Forbidden fruit creates many jams”
4.”We grow too soon old and too late smart”
5. “Children and fools tell the truth.”
6. “It wonders me.”
Hex signs haven’t anything to do with witchcraft, Satanic ritual or anything evil just as the Pennsylvania Dutch aren’t Dutch, but a Germanic people. OK. There is the high Dutch (German) and low Dutch (Dutch) – in the 18 – 19th Century, the English referred to anyone from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland as Dutch – but, that’s not what we’re discussing here today.
Hex signs are works of art created to ward off storms, floods, pests and other farming hazards and mishaps, and are meant to bring blessings to the farmers and their communities and the people within them. The signs offered protection (against evil spirits), prosperity and even fertility to the newly-wed, if the Bride were lucky enough to have been gifted a hex sign to hang on her new home, or barn at her Bridal Shower.
The signs can be seen throughout parts of the United States (Pennsylvania, being the most obvious) and areas of Canada, such as Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario.
“One of the most popular hex symbols is Dutch Irish. It features a large, green shamrock, the traditional good luck sign of the Irish, as the design’s center or heart. A pair of Irish Distelfink birds shower the shamrock with a “double measure” of happiness and good fortune. Trinity tulips add faith, hope and charity; the decorative heart is overflowing with love for all. This design proclaims good luck of the Irish.” – Amish Country News
Not one – but two! – corduroy roads have been recently discovered in Ontario, Canada during the construction of Light Rail Transit (LRT) system on King Street in Uptown Waterloo near Conestoga Mall – the irony! A lead archaelogist claims the road dates back two centuries and is likely one of the first ever roads built by Euro-Canadian settlers in the region – being our Pennsylvania Dutch friends! “King Street has been an economic thoroughfare for 200 years” – read the article.
In addition to the hex sign, a farmer would often include a “Fire-Letter” – an incantation, hand-printed or copied, which would then be nailed to a rafter in the barn. The incantation written in English, or German that would banish the spirit of fire read: “I command you, Fire, in the power of God, to lay down your flames!
– altered by Hystoria
As the YouTube description states, Fractal Universe V.2 is a movie made entirely from the use and combination of formulas and fractal algorithms. It also gets into destruction and recreation and how that’s just life. Fractals are pretty cool – so here is an animation created by Lisandro Sabio of South America. Its duration – the short version – is 19:35 in length and can be paused at any time if you should need to get up to re-fill your coffee/tea.
The YouTube description also states that”3D Fractal geometry is displayed in today’s world with great attention for its ability to recreate nature with an amazing level of detail and complexity through a simple code”. Let’s think about that for a moment… just one?
– altered by Hystoria
The release date for “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” was February 26, 1920. It has been hailed as “the first true horror film”and “cult film”. The film – a premonition of the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party – the addition of the frame story turns an otherwise “revolutionary” film into a “conformist” one. Other themes of the film include the destabilized contrast between insanity and sanity, the subjective perception of reality, and the duality of human nature.
“There are spirits — everywhere. They are all around us. They have driven me
from hearth and home – from wife and child”
“That is my fiance”
“What she and I have experienced is even stranger than what you have lived through”
“Let me tell you about it”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOefuksrW0Y
Hystoria thought you might like to try making carnival candies at home! From Great Granny’s 1947 copy of “The American Woman’s Cook Book”, we bring you mounds of sugar!
Before you begin, please be sure to have all equipment on hand; candy thermometer, copper pans or pots (preferable for some candies – cast iron for others), measuring cups and spoons, cookie sheets to pour and mold molten sugar into brittle and so on, right? Right.
Page 10. not included. You can search for a table giving the various stages of sugar cookery using the magic of your favorite (search) engine.
It is always best to go through your cupboards to be sure you have all ingredients on hand before you begin.
Sugar has a tendency to keep its temperature when it is splashed upon the skin. Be very careful when stirring your mixtures, as sugar can severely burn and scar.
Never leave children unattended near the stove. Read previous (above) caption.
You may not want to overindulge on dates – high in calories – and fiber!
The taffy recipes have nothing to do with skin colour. Please do NOT use the recipes provided as a way to find something to complain about.
Be sure to follow the instructions for the Popcorn Balls, “discard all imperfect kernels” – you don’t want to suffer any broken teeth and brushing afterwards probably wouldn’t hurt, either!
Using oils, or ‘pure’ instead of ‘artificial extracts’ is recommended for any recipe.
Lastly: Hystoria, will not assume any responsibility for any kitchen incidences such as; fires, burns, broken bones – dishes, appliances, light bulbs, wooden spoons, bowls, or any other objects that may be subject to breakage during the making of candies, etc!
– altered by Hystora
Organ grinders were a special people who brought smiles to the many faces of adults and children alike during very difficult times – war; high unemployment, and so on. If we could please keep our angry thoughts and comments pertaining to animal cruelty and abuse to a minimum today, as this post has nothing to do with that particular topic. So… can it, would ya!
An organ grinder would want to have a loving friendship with his furry, busking companion, no? It would be very difficult to constantly abuse a monkey without the monkey trashing the organ grinder’s abode and not leaving behind scratches and bite marks on his Master. The monkey would for certain be appearing in the next street show with a limp, broken limb or some sign of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). But, alas! Those monkeys seemed to enjoy interacting with children and collecting tips!
What’s a spank once in a while? The organ grinder wouldn’t want to spank his monkey too often – just enough to let his monkey know how to behave properly in public.
“No peeking up the ladies’ skirts!”.– “Only pickpocket from the gentlemen!” — if the organ grinder was lucky enough to find such a wise monkey to partner up with.
Just enjoy the images and the short cartoon and try not to complain – if you’re the type!
Organ Grinder ca. 1848 Gabriel Cromer Collection
The Organ Grinder – Merrie Melodies: A Hugh Harman – Rudolf Ising Production – 1933
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvd1n0_the-organ-grinder-1933_shortfilms
An organ grinder and his monkey stroll down a New York street when his monkey spots a building with ladies dangling from their windows, climbs to collect the tips, dances and does a few flips for the kids. Intelligent monkey then impersonates Harpo Marx, Stan Laurel, and Oliver Hardy – 3 classic comedians you may not know of, if you’re under the age of 40 – and also before the days of having to drop F-bombs to stir up a laugh. Monkey also finds himself in a run-away-car, ruins a fruit stand and crashes into a music store!
– altered by Hystoria
Hystoria 