Hey all,
Karen Mercury here, writing this post about Thirteen Surprising Things you may not realize were around in the 1800s.
I know that I was shocked to learn that:
 Bathrooms. Yes, they had them. It was usually spelled with two words, “bath rooms.” It might not have had a toilet, but they did have separate rooms with bath tubs (two words) which they’d fill with water boiled on the stove.
 Graphaphone (1897). This was one of the earliest music-playing devices. They actually had wax cylinders that a needle would play on. I always wonder what would happen if it was really hot outside. “Sorry, dude. I can’t play you the latest and most up-to-date coon shouting song, cause it melted.”
 Can opener (1858), and
 Tin can (1810) so they had something to open up with the can opener. But obviously for 48 entire years, they were all frustrated, wondering how the hell they’d open up those damned cans. (A knife, probably.)
 Cigarette lighter. Yay! Now we can smoke! Before that invention, they had to light cigarettes with a piece of wood from the fireplace or campfire.
 Plastic surgery (1814). Some guy who lost his nose in England, and those pictures freak me out, so let’s not even go there.
 Braille (1829).
 Blueprints (1840)
 Stapler (1841)
 Radar (1887)
 Rayon (1855). Say, now we can wear some groovy paisley hippi shirts. Power to the people!
 Traffic lights (1868). This one is a puzzler. Was there some actual dude standing there with a paddle, all “Stop! No, I meant Go!” Totally directing traffic? There must have been a boatload of traffic accidents.
 Toilet paper (1880). So before 1880, they utilized leaves?
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