Sir Isaac Newton and the Kitty Door.

17th century astronomer, alchemist, mathematician and physicist, Sir Isaac Newton was a cat lover. When he wasnt investigating the laws of gravity, describing the universal laws of motion or discovering white light was made up of rainbow colours, Sir Isaac was a bit of a softie when it came to cats. So much so that the great scientist is attributed with inventing the kitty door, or as we call it in his native England, the cat flap.

Sir Isaac Newton - astronomer, mathematician, physicist.

There are two versions of how this came about. The first is that Newton suffered from crippling headaches, possibly migraines, brought on by hours peering through a telescope at the stars. To recover he locked himself in a darkened room for days on end and cut a small hole in the bottom of the door through which his landlady pushed his meals. Happily, his pet cat discovered the convenience of coming and going as she pleased and adopted it as her own special door. When the queen then had kittens, fearing the hole was a little high to be comfortable for the little ones, he cut another smaller hole, slighlty lower down!

Sir Isaac Newton's telescope.

The second story was that Newton, gazing at the stars in his darkened observatory was frequently distracted by his favourite cat scratching to get in and reached the practical solution of cutting a hole in the door and veiling it with a black velvet curtain so that no stray light got in.
Whatever the explanation a fellow of Trinity College, J M F Wright, where Newton had once lived, wrote in his memoir in 1872:
'Whether this account [Newton and the kitty door] is true of false, it is indisputably true that to this day there are in the door two plugged holes of the proper sizes for the respective eggresses of cats and kittens.'

Because cats and kittens are cute.....

'Corpse Candles' - the scent of death.

In 1837 a new type of candle became available - the 'Composition Candle.' - Burning cleanly, but a similar cost as inferior tallow candles, they became an overnight success. So why then, did they acquire the nickname 'Corpse Candles'?

They were created by a French scientist who separated tallow into two parts; one liquid, and one solid which he called 'stearine.' The stearine had a higher melting point than crude tallow and a secret ingredient prevented the candles becoming brittle. The Frenchman sold his 'secret' recipe to English manufacturers and for two years, 1835-36 they were wildly successful...until a English chemist extinguished his candle one night and smelt an alarming odour....

Mr Everitt, Professor of Chemistry noted an 'Abominable stinking smell like garlic,' the characteristic smell given off by arsenical vapours. The Westminster Medical Society investigated and confirmed the 'secret' ingredient to be arsenic; odourless while the candle burnt but released when the candle was extinguished and the wick smouldering The Society put forward a chilling scenario:
'Let us suppose London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane were lighted with stearine candles [each chandelier held 152 tapers]...608 grains of arsenious acid would be vaporised and floating in the air during the performance.'

Warnings against using the 'Corpse Candles' were posted in the press. However unscrupulous manufacturers with large stocks, marketed their candles as 'pure wax.' In 1837 new companies such as 'Pearl Wax Lights' guaranteed their products 'solemnly and unequivocably'  arsenic free gained the public's confidence, especially when it was discovered simple chalk was just as effective at preventing brittleness.

Postcript - having not learnt lessons from the past, the arsenic problem recurred in 1859...only this time the cause was a colouring - Scheele's Green (the key ingredient was arsenic), which gave a bright vibrant green colour...the fashion of the day.

Alexandre Dumas - the writing day.

Alexandre Dumas.

Alexandre Dumas 'Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.'

If you read blogs about romance novels it seems obligatory to learn about the author's writing day. Mine is far to boring (write where I can when I can - simple as that) and whilst researching I came across a note about famouns writer, Alexandre Dumas's writing day that struck me as far more interesting.

Most people at some time have encountered Alexandre's work whether they know it or not. A man ahead of his time, a born story teller he wrote such classics as 'The Three Muskateers,' 'The Count of Monte Cristo', 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and 'The Lady of the Camellias' - to name but a few.

The illegitimate son of a dressmaker and a play write, Dumas' writing career grew from a shabby flat in Paris, at Number 22, Rue de Rivoli. Sparsely furnished wiht a white wooden table, two ricketty chairs and a rusty iron bedstead, he wrote with a vengance. His personal quota was to achieve 20 polished pages a day, quite some achievement by any standards. Such was his single mindedness that in 1842, arguably his most productive year, he finished 'The Count of Monte Cristo' mid afternoon, but having only written 15 pages that day, instead of celebrating he stayed at his desk to pen the opening 5 pages of 'The Three Muskateers.'

In time his single mindedness was rewarded because he was also ahead of his time in marketting his work. He adapted his work to the stage, as 'Muskateers of the Queen', opened his own theatre and established a magazine 'Le Mousequetaire.' Doubtless Alexandre would havebeen thrilled to know his works are still alive and well today, reborn in the cinematic world.

Dumas' most widely known work, 'The Three Muskateers,' was inspired by the true story of the Queen's diamonds. In this 'truth is stranger than fact' tale, in 17th century France, Anne of Austria married to the King Louis XIII, a practising homosexual, is given a fabulous diamond necklace. Starved of marital affection Anne falls in love with the handsome Duke of Buckingham and foolishly gives him the necklace. Louis then insists Anne wears the diamond necklace to a grand ball and unless she can produce it will be dishonoured and publicly humiliated. A new recruit to the Muskateers, Treville, eager to prove himself volunteers to retrieve the diamonds taking reckless risks to do so. However Buckingham's mistress, Lucy Percy (a direct descendant of Mary Boleyn and King Henry VIII) is jealous and steals two of the largest diamonds and sends them to Anne's deadliest enemy....Cardinal Richelieu...makes you want to read the book all over again!

Nude or Prude? Victorian attitudes to sea bathing.

I am currently researching Georgian and Victorian attitudes to marriage and after a particularly pleasing foray into a second hand bookshop yesterday, came home with a real gem - 'The Perfect Wife,' by Rona Randall.
Skimming through this passage caught my eye, about Victorian attitudes to nudity. In short, in the Victorian bedroom nudity was to be avoided at all costs. Even sisters sharing a bedroom would stand back to back, and undress beneath voluminous night gowns. Indeed husband's often disrobed in an ajoining room to don his night shirt and didnt enter the bed chamber until his wife was safely attired in biloowing nightgown and frilly cap.
With this in mind it came as a shock to read that some Victorians thought nothing of bathing nude in the sea! The invention of swimming costumes came as late as 1870 and before this the options were a bathing hut wheeled into the see or to cavort naked in the waves. It seems many preferred the later and in the summer local newspaper correspondance columns were full of complaints about the;
'shameless seaside cavortings of loose women and unblushing men...'
However one naked bather, the Rev Francis Kilbert, was anything but loose. In his diary he extols the delights of nude sea bathing and complains about,
'the detestable custom of bathing drawers that are now becoming de rigeur.'
It seems he created quite a stir at Seaton 1873 when unaware of the new requirement for wearing bathing suites, especially as;
'the young ladies strolling near seemed to have no objection.'
One newspaper, the Saturday Review, commented on the habit of some women activley seeking out male nude bathers;
'There they sit [women] happy, innocent, undistrubed - placidly and immovably gaze at hundreds of males in the costume of Adam.'
Who'd have thought it!

On Cheryl Cole, malaria....considerations from history.

Doubtless the UK is breathing a sigh of relief that national treasure, Cheryl Cole, has recovered from her recent unpleasant experience of malaria. It is sobering to acknowledge that in the 18th century, one didnt have to journey to exotic parts to catch the illness but the marshes of Essex sufficed.
Daniel Defoe, (author of Robinson Crusoe) indeed met a man who had been married fifteen times; his wives having died at the rate of one a year, from malaria.
As Defoe writes:
'The reason, a merry fellow told me, who said he had had about a dozen and a half wives, wath this; that he being bred in the marshes...and seasoned to the place, did pretty well with it, but he always went up into the uplands for a wife. That when he took the young lasses out of the wholesome and fresh air, they were healthy, fresh and clean and well; but when they camoe out of their native air into the marshes among the fogs and damps, there they presently changed their complexion, got an ague or two,and seldom held it about half a year, or a year at most; and then, said he, he went to the uplands again and fetch another...'

A Guide to the Female Sex.

A woman's role in the 17th century was to be subservient to her husband. In 1675 Hannah Woolley produced a useful guide to help the sisterhood of women who's almost inevitable fate it was to marry. The volume was intitled, 'The Gentlewoman's Companion or A Guide to the Female Sex,' by this she means a guide as to how the female sex should behave!
Some of the more salient points on married life include:

- It is your duty to hide his (the husband's) faults and infirmities, neither to discover them yourself nor cause them to be discovered.

- Be careful to keep the house in good order...so as to disengage his fancy for taverns which many are compelled to use by reason of dissatisfaction at home.

- Be quiet, pleasant and peaceable to him (the husband, endeavour to pacify him with sweet and winning expressions.

- Breed up your children into as much if not more to him than yourself, and keep them in awe so they show so much awe rather than rudeness to him.

and finally:

- suffer not your expenses to exceed the receipt of your husband's income.

For mor historical comment see also:

www.graceelliot.webs.com

Whistler's mother...and the doctor's front door!

Portraits, painting and art are a recurring theme throughout 'A Dead Man's Debt', which put me in mind for today's blog of the true story of the famour artist Whistler, his pet dog and an eminent throat specialist.

Famous American artist James Whistler (1843 - 1903) created such masterpieces as 'Whistler's Mother,' (immortalised in the first Mr Bean movie!) and was also a great animal lover. He owned a tortoiseshell cat and also a french poodle, of whom he was particularly fond. When his favourite became unwell Whistler called on the services of a distinguished ENT specialist. The doctor arrived, but on finding his patient was canine rather than human, was distinctly un-amused. Only in view of his client's fame, reluctantly the doctor agreed to examine the animal and prescribed a cure.

The next day Whistler recieved an urgent summons from the eminent specialist. Thinking it was to do with his beloved dog, Whistler dropped everything and hastened over. The Doctor greeted him warmly with the following words;
'Good morning Mr Whistler, now I needed to see you about the painting of my front door.'