From the January 12, 1860 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
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Although different such tools were worked on for hundreds of years, it was Charles Latham Sholes who was awarded a patent in 1868 for what would become the first commercially successful typewriter. It was the “Sholes and Glidden Type-writer” that gave the machine its popular name, also introducing the QWERTY keyboard, which was aimed at slowing down typists so that the keys on these crude early gadgets would not become entangled. The contraption also helped transition women into the workforce, even if the initial jobs were low-level ones. Below is an article from the September 16, 1923 Brooklyn Daily Eagle marking the moment when Sholes’ creation reached a particularly nice round number.
The Space Race knew numerous casualties, and one of the first was Austrian rocketeer Max Valier, who passed away 39 years before humans reached the moon. His work with rocket motors and his founding, in 1927, of the Society for Space Travel, were instrumental in humankind’s eventual giant leap. (One of the Society’s members was Wernher Von Braun, who later became a Nazi before leading the American postwar space program.) Newspaper writers had wondered for years when his daring experiments would do him in, but Valier actually perished while calmly tinkering in his lab. The story of his demise from the May 18, 1930 Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Tags: Max Valier
Tags: Earl Patterson
From the August 14, 1893 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
“In these troublous times when money is scarcer than the fabled teeth of hens or than the upper molars of the female of the bovine species, it has been noticed that a man will part with almost anything in his possession for the sake of a little ready money. But the worst case of destitution which has come to notice so far, is that of Hiram C. Truesdale, the popular young attorney, whose future always seemed bright and who appeared to be on the road not only to reputation but great fortune. But he has more and more felt the gnawing tooth of poverty and has tried in devious ways to escape the gnaw. He has offered his old clothes for sale at greatly reduced rates, but he could find no purchaser for various reasons, the chief one being that the trousers were too long to fit the ordinary user of such articles. Article after article was put up, first a toothbrush, then, a No. 1 Kodak, then a hammerless shot gun, then his vote, and in fact everything that he hoped something could be raised on, but to no avail. Finally, a gentleman appeared, who said to him in a moment of particular financial despondency: ‘Harry, you have a remarkable handsome mustache, which I have always admired as a thing of beauty, and if you will cut it off and give it to me I will give you 25 cents for it.’ Harry hesitated for a long time and tried to raise the offer to 30 cents, but they buyer stuck to his price and finally prevailed. The mustache was sacrificed and Mr. Truesdale was relieved from his financial troubles.“•
From the November 17, 1885 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
St. Paul. — Mrs. Eulitz, of Glenrillen, died and was buried on the 3rd. On the 8th she was disinterred and showed signs of life by the flush on her cheeks and the perfect appearance of her body. She is now believed to be in a state of suspended animation.•
Tags: Mrs. Eulitz
So much going on in this 1924 Brooklyn Daily Eagle feature about the plastic surgery practice of one Dr. W. Augustus Pratt. The early part of the piece mentions the surgeries endured by a 48-year-old woman who wanted to put a permissible face on her May-December relationship with a 16-year-old drug-store clerk. The indelicate article refers to injured WWI veterans as “noseless or chinless monsters.” It goes on to focus on women’s efforts to cosmetically remake themselves for beauty and men for professional reasons. Dr. Pratt, by the way, married one of his patients after “perfecting” her, though, as you can see from the photo at the bottom, he could have used a few nips and/or tucks himself.
Tags: Dr. W.A. Pratt, Marion T. Byrnes
From the June 5, 1934 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Simla, India — Religious pilgrims reported today that the aged Shamanist abbot of a temple near Bareilly has been buried alive at his own request.
The abbot, who was reported to be 157 years old, believed his life’s work was over, and that to live on would be an affront to the deities. Pilgrims reported he lay down in a grave and that faithful followers, after performing ancient ceremonies, covered him with earth.•
A house that’s impervious to storm and earthquake sounds pretty good right about now, and that was what Buckminster Fuller promised in 1929 when he introduced the Dymaxion House, an architectural dream never realized beyond a few prototypes. In a 1932 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from a series on the future of the home, Fuller’s automated abode was given a public hearing. The opening of the piece below.
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“We are living in a spheroidal universe”:
Tags: Buckminster Fuller, Lou Wylie
From the June 13, 1867 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
A school teacher in a Texas town was grossly insulted by a man, who told her at the same time that if she had any friends to avenge the insult that she could send them to him. The lady replied that she was able to protect herself, and, drawing a pistol, shot the man, killing him on the spot.•
The Mormon polygamists of Short Creek, Arizona, near the border of Utah, had long vexed local authorities with their alternative lifestyle, but things came to a head in 1953 when the largest mass arrest of such people–perhaps any people–in American history to that point occurred. The state believed they were bringing to a close a chapter it found disquieting, but it was only a temporary interruption. The town renamed itself Colorado City and Warren Jeffs, the polygamous sect leader, held dominion over much of the land more than 50 years later when convicted of sex charges against children. A report about the raid from the July 27, 1953 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
From the May 1, 1911 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Hamburg — The eighth wonder of the world recently appeared in this city. It is a talking dog, Don by name, who has learned to articulate eight German words very clearly and distinctly. The discovery of the dog’s power to articulate was made quite by accident.•
From the July 20, 1886 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Frederick Gruenwald, a German, called upon Relief Clerk Short, of the Charities Department, yesterday afternoon. He stated that he came with his wife and three children from Cleveland, O., about three weeks ago, and was anxious to go back. He was unable to pay for himself and his family to Cleveland, as he had but $8, and asked Mr. Short to furnish him the balance necessary. Gruenwald stated that some time ago he saw an advertisement in a New York weekly paper regarding the exhibition of living curiosities. As he had a living curiosity in his family he thought this would be an opportunity to make a living for himself and his family. The curiosity was Albertine, who was born with two tongues. Gruenwald at once communicated with the authors of the advertisement and made arrangements with them to exhibit Albertine at various museums at Coney Island for the past two weeks. She was obliged to keep her mouth open for hours at a time. Yesterday morning an officer for the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children appeared at the museum and prevented the exhibition of the child. Clerk Short will refer the case to the Charities Commissioners at their meeting to-morrow morning.•
Tags: Albertine Gruenwald, Frederick Gruenwald, Relief Clerk Short
The Space Race really started quite a bit before the success of Sputnik in 1957, with transistors at Bell Labs ten years earlier and WWII rocketeering before that. An example of technology wedded to space exploration prior to artificial satellites and moon landings can be seen in this brief article from the January 9, 1955 Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
From the April 13, 1943 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Pasadena, Cal. — California Institute of Technology today reported successful transfusions of cow and horse blood to human beings.
So far, however, only one transfusion per patient is possible. The second may prove fatal.
Considerable progress is being made, according to Dr. Dan H. Campbell of the department of immunochemistry. Substitution of animal for human blood in transfusions may not be so far off, he said.•
Tags: Dr. Dan H. Campbell
Ninety-one years ago, when some scientists believed there could be life on Mars that was not completely unlike that on Earth, a plethora of plans were hatched to begin a dialogue of sorts between the planets when they were to move a scant 36 million miles from one another. The Navy Lieutenant-Commander Fitzhugh Green, whose work in this area is referenced in the below article from the July 7, 1924 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, was later incarcerated due to his opiate addiction. The three stills above are from Aelita: Queen of Mars, the Soviet sci-film released that same year.
Tags: Fitzhugh Green
From the May 26, 1904 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Chicago — Miss Eloise Reusse of St. Paul, Minn., who became insane here while undergoing the ordeal of the so called “Sun Worship Feast,” is dead at the state hospital for the insane at Elgin. Dr. Frank S. Whitman, superintendent of the hospital, says death was due to acute mania induced by starvation.
During the fast, which is said to have lasted forty-one days, the deceased is said by the hospital authorities to have been subjected to torture by means of needles and application of lotus oil.•
From the February 17, 1940 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
New Martinsville, W. Va. — Crying continually, Mrs. Okey Long, 16, a “child bride” four years ago, pleaded today that she didn’t know a shotgun was loaded when she grabbed it in anger and killed her 27-year-old husband.
Sheriff Frank Berger said that the shooting occurred at a snowbound farm home 23 miles from here as Long returned to find his wife aroused over his long absence to get medicine for a sick cow.•
From the September 23, 1895 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Dr. Edward W. Burnette, a New York physician, has died from cancer of the face, contracted from a patient whom he had treated.•
Tags: Dr. Edward W. Burnette
Producing an infinite bounty of healthy food and clean energy through “artificial photosynthesis” was the stated near-term goal of a group of University of California scientists featured in an article in the January 27, 1955 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Even the dietary needs of space travelers was given consideration.
Tags: Joseph L. Myler
From the September 18, 1912 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Olga Martin,18 years old, the daughter of Charles Martin, a wealthy contractor of 469 Crescent Street, was operated on last night at the Lutheran Hospital for the removal of a breastpin which the young woman swallowed more than two years ago.
The operation was performed by the visiting staff of the hospital, including Drs. Harold L. Barnes, John Kepke, F.H. DeCoste and Raymond Westover. The patient was conscious during the entire proceedings an experienced no pain because of the use of cocaine.•
Tags: Charles Martin, Dr. F.H. DeCoste, Dr. Harold L. Barnes, Dr. John Kepke, Dr. Raymond Westover, Olga Martin
From the March 17, 1899 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Toronto, Ont. — Four days ago David Custman, aged 21 years, began bleeding at the nose. Remedies were applied without effect, and Custman died this morning. Before death blood oozed from every pore in his body.•
Tags: David Custman