Hundred-Year-Old Labor-Saving Cleaning Equipment and Devices

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, April 22, 1914: Spent part of the day on my knees. Now I don’t mean I was trying to be good. I was cleaning house.

For Wiping Up Wood or Tile Floors

This long handle has a row of rubber teeth on the crossbar at the end. When a wet cloth is laid on any floor this handle is used to push it, as the rubber teeth grip the cloth, and guide it over the surface. It makes the wiping up of many floors a very simple matter, as it is light, easily pushed and forces the cloth close to baseboards.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma-

Whew, spring housecleaning can be hard work. Maybe you need some of the new labor-saving cleaning equipment featured in the December, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

According to the article these are “the newest labor-savers for women—and not one of them costs more than fifty cents.”

A Dustpan that Saves Sweeping

No need for a housekeeper to stoop for every paper and match provided she has this long-handled sanitary dustpan. The pan opens as it is set down, and closes as it is lifted. The sweepings need not be emptied until the pan is full. It can be carried, full, on one arm while both hands carry other articles.

Washes the Windows Faster

In this device are combined water pail, sponge, and drying cloth. There is a shallow reservoir of metal, with a sponge on one side and a rubber “squee-gee” on the other. The whole is mounted on a convenient handle and is especially useful for outside window cleaning.

Influence of Seasonal Variation on Health

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, April 20, 1914: There really isn’t much to write about.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Yesterday, I shared information from a book published in 1914 about the relationship between weather and health. Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share some more from the book about the relationship seasonal variations and health.

At low temperatures, but more especially at high temperatures, the relative humidity of the atmospheres plays a most important role in determining the healthfulness of the climate of a locality.

The seasonal variations alone in the temperate zone are of great influence upon mortality aside from the general climatic conditions of a locality.

Mild winters and cool summers both lower the mortality, the former exerting a special influence upon the aged, and the latter upon the young, more particularly the infantile population. A cool, damp summer is always accompanied by a low mortality.

Season has also an important influence upon the character of the prevalent diseases—intestinal diseases being most prevalent in summer and respiratory diseases in winter.

The Principles of Hygiene (1914) by D.H. Bergey, MD

The Effect of Weather on Health

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, April 20, 1914: There wasn’t much coming this way except the rain.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

This was the second rainy day in a row. According to a book published in 1914, The Principles of Hygiene by D.H. Bergey, MD, there was a relationship between weather and health.

The Influence of Precipitation on Health

The immediate effect of a fall of rain is to cleanse and purify the air from dust of all sorts, organic and inorganic, and from micro-organisms. So far the influence of rain is decidedly beneficial to health; but when rainfall is so excessive as largely to increase the humidity of the air, its hygienic effect becomes merged in that of humidity.

The Influence of Humidity on Health

If the relative humidity be increased, there will be a hindrance to the escape of water from the body; and when this condition is combined with a high temperature the heat is far more oppressive than when the atmosphere is dry and allows free evaporation. On the other hand, a moist, cold atmosphere is far more distressing than when the air is dry, and there is but little movement.

The Effects of Wind Upon Health

It is complex and not well defined how wind affects health. All wind favors evaporation, and therefore loss of heat from the body. Winds that are and moist are mild and relaxing; dry, cool winds are bracing; but cold winds are penetrating, and considered dangerous to persons of delicate constitutions.

Sunlight as a Disinfectant

Sunlight is an efficient disinfectant. This agent is constantly acting and, no doubt, removes most of the detrimental agents on surfaces exposed to the sun. Most bacteria grow best in the dark.

TIZ Foot Soak Advertisement

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, April 19, 1914: Was storm staid at church this afternoon. Had on a pair of new shoes and no rubbers, but managed to get home all the same.

Source: Milton Evening Standard (April 2, 1914)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma—

I hope your shoes weren’t ruined. Do your feet ache from walking home with wet feet? Maybe you’d feel better if you soaked your feet in TIZ.

Parcel Post Packages Sold at White Elephant Sale

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, April 18, 1914: Went to a social this evening up at town. Parcel post packages were sold at an auction. I bought a package, which, when unwrapped disclosed a handkerchief. That wasn’t a misfit, but there were some that were more. Who ever heard of a man wearing a sun bonnet or an apron? Well that’s what some of them got.

Source: Milton Evening Standard (April 28, 1914)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Wow, occasionally I just tingle, when a post pulls together like this one did. I never would have guessed that I’d find a newspaper story about this diary entry—

Several weeks ago, I was browsing through old Milton Evening Standard microfilms at the library looking for interesting stories and advertisements that I could use on days when Grandma didn’t write much—and suddenly this column jumped out at me. Grandma attended the party described in the paper!

Parcel post in the US began in 1913—and apparently it was such a cool thing that people had fundraisers with White Elephant sales—but with a twist. Instead of bringing the wrapped items to the party, they mailed them via parcel post.

Two days before this entry, Grandma mailed several packages that apparently were sold at the party:

Went up to town this afternoon to mail some parcel post packages. Oh dear me, and it cost eleven cents . . .

April 16, 1914

1914 Underwood Deviled Ham Advertisement

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, April 17, 1914: Nothing much doing today.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (April, 1914)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a hundred-year-old advertisement for Underwood Deviled Ham.

According to Wikipedia, the William Underwood Company first made deviled ham in 1868.

The devil logo was trademarked in 1870 and it is the oldest food trademark still in use in the United States. The red devil that debuted in 1895 and started as a demonic figure who evolved into a much friendlier version when compared to the original.

Sometimes I’m amazed which foods have lasted for more than a hundred years.

Mailed Some Packages

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, April 16, 1914: Went up to town this afternoon to mail some parcel post packages. Oh dear me, and it cost eleven cents. Called on a friend and quite a sociable chat. Went to a lecture this evening in Watsontown.