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A Gentleman's grooming kit

4/9/2017

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Shaving has always been a tradition – facial management has claimed to be a regular procedure all the way back in the copper age! (3000 BC). It has been found that even Egyptian priests and Alexander The Great encouraged personal hygiene in their campaigns.


It was recorded that shavers in England were first manufactured in Sheffield in the 1700s, but their popularity in England did not rise exceptionally until the peak of the Industrial Revolution (mid 1800s). At the time, shaver kits for men sparked a general encouragement for self- shaving, as opposed to visiting a barber for a regular shave. Self-shaving was considered convenient, more affordable, and quicker for the hard-working middle class British factories. Below is a breakdown of the components in a typical 1800s shaving kit:

1. The case - A container or box was designed to hold all necessary tools required for shaving, while still being compact enough to be portable. These cases were almost all rectangular (to fit all tools) and were made from light wood. Most boxes were quite thin, with dimension of around 8cm wide and 20 cm long. The box was usually about 5cm in height. Due to their size and expenditure, brushes were the hardest to place in this small box, and as a result, and alternative was to have bristles on the end of the brush.

2. The Cloth - A compact cloth was also embedded in the box, used to wipe excess shaving cream off at the end, and to open pores up before shaving.

3. The Mirror - A mirror was often fixated under the lid of the box so when flipped open, would be angled at the face. Kits that had a mirror were considered more portable, and may not have had as many tools as more home kits.

4. The Razor - Usually the standard grooming kit was equipped with a straight razor, but in the late 1800s they were overrun by the more preferred safety razor, popularised by companies such as Gillette.

5. 
The Ear Wax Remover - Yes that's right, a small bud like hard stick with a bit of a scoop on the end. This would serve as a tiny shovel that one could scoop out accumulate ear wax.

6. The Comb - a small comb was included to straighten the hairs of the moustache ir beard. Larger kits had one or two combs including one for head hair as well as the moustache.

7. The Nail File - OF course the grooming kit would not be complete without a small nail file. The more expensive and rare kits would have nail files with decorative handles and made of silver. The file section appears to last forever and in general did not need replacing of kept clean of nail shavings!

A number of popular figures who used shaving kits included Former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Marshall, Napoleon, and George Washington.


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Where did Croquet go?

16/7/2017

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What is known is that the game traveled from Ireland to England around 1851.  A Miss MacNaghten observed peasants in France playing a game with a number of hoops made of willow rods and mallets of broomsticks inserted into pieces of wood. She was very quick to make the game her favorite and introduced it in Ireland.  
Walter Jones Whitmore was a man who loved to play games and create inventions and in 1860 took up the game of croquet.  Being a cunning gamesman, he soon realized that there were no real tactics or any set of rules. So he certainly fixed that and in 1866 he began a write a series of articles on tactics in "The Field". Two years later in 1868, he published them in book form including his own hand colored diagrams.  In that publication he also discussed different types of strokes that a player could try.  His dedication to evolving the game led to his recognition as the “father” of modern croquet.
In regards to the playing field, in England they needed to find a ground that would suit the game. It was in 1869 that a large area of four acres was leased in Wimbledon.  Although croquet gained a little of a following, in 1874 there was a decline in the game among women who felt it had become too scientific!  Unfortunately for croque, also in that year a different game was patented called Sphairistrike that was in fact lawn tennis. This new tennis style of game then swept the country within a year.  In 1875 a number of Croquet fields were changed to allow people to start playing lawn tennis.  Then the Tennis trend was so popular in 1877 the club name was changed to the “All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club”. Then sure enough in July 1877 the first lawn tennis championship was held at Wimbledon.  So goes the story that croquet declined in popularity overshadowed by the ever growing tennis industry, which today is one of largest money making sports in the world. At least I have a few original early 1900 croquet clubs and hope to see you playing my version of the game.

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The Iconic High Wheel

2/7/2017

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So why and when was the iconic large Penny Farthing or High wheel popular? And why was it so enormous? First off, let me put the sheer size of the wheel in context. A bike today may have a circumference of about 0.7 metres. In 1870, a Penny Farthing wheel was around double this size at 1.5 metres.
The primary reason for the wheel size was speed. In 1817s bicycles were new, and in some countries seen as a ridiculous and dangerous invention. Developments like gears, rubber tyres and light building materials were yet to be invented. However, for a few English engineers in 1870, it seemed the only way to achieve the greatest speed was to increase the distance covered per revolution of the bicycle pedals, and this meant upsizing the circumference of the wheel to a ridiculous amount. This increase in size and the timely invention of rubber gave birth to the Penny Farthing and its hugh iconic front wheel. It certainly had a much more comfortable and faster ride than the previous smaller wooden wheeled bicycles.
However, within only about 20 years, smaller chain driven wheels with pneumatic tyres were introduced and considered much safer. With the addition of gear systems in 1902, bicycles were very comfortable with adjustable speed.
So goes the story that the iconic large wheel was short lived due to the danger of riding such a thin and offset bicycle.  You could say the Penny Farthing was pedalled out of the market!
Oh Yeah, the handlebars were quite a reach in 1870.
(image source – newyorkhistoryblog.com)


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