The Gaslight Equipment Catalogue Being a Compendium of various useful articles and sundries for the Victorian era, together with information pertaining to their use By Rod Basler Disclaimer: The following is a game supplement. The prices listed herein are based on historical research and are from period catalogs – while some of the items are still manufactured, they are not for sale at the prices listed here, and are not available either from the author or from Chaosium, Inc. All information about 19th century medications and medical treatments is for historical interest only – for the sake of everything that is holy, do NOT use them (and please tell me that I don’t need to say that.) Any comments or information about race or religion are neither the opinions of the author, nor of Chaosium, Inc., but rather are meant to be a reflection of the attitudes common among certain social classes of the period in question. They are in no way meant as either an offense or an endorsement. The role-playing game Call of Cthulhu is copyright © 2005 to Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis. Images from the 1902 Sears Catalog are copyright © 2002 PrincetonImaging.com. Used with permission. All rights reserved. All other images and quotations are, to the best of my knowledge, in the public domain; if any are still under copyright, please contact the author. Copyright 2005 Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the following persons and organizations for their assistance with the research for this book: Ken Orlando and Smith-Victor, Inc.; Jim Troeller of Green's Security Centers, Inc.; Walter Shawlee and Clark McCoy of the Slide Rule Universe; Stuart Schneider and Bill Utley of the Flashlight Collectors of America; Dan Taylor at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome; Tina Armstrong of the News International Archives in London; Judy Lim-Sharpe and Andrea Pearson at the U.S. Treasury Department; Stephen Hartson of The Wheelmen (an antique bicycle and bicycling club); Dave Johnson for his Online Mining Artifact Museum; Sioux Feeney, historian for Western Union; Lee Jackson for the incomparable website ‘The Dictionary of Victorian London’ (www.victorianlondon.org); Richard Fraser, archivist and curator of manuscripts at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; James Stephens, for being willing to read the disembodied chapters I kept tossing in front of him; Erikka Thompson and Lynn Kurtz, for being willing proofreaders; Richard Basler, numismatist, philatelist, all-around history buff, and a heck of a great dad; and finally Michell Basler, my wife, for putting up with and actually encouraging what must surely be a form of insanity. Last, but not least, I would like to thank the ‘Old Man of Providence’ himself: H.P. Lovecraft, whose imagination, writing, and deep love for the past started this all. Thanks, Howard, wherever you are. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Currency and Exchange Rates 2 Camping Gear and Outdoor Equipment 6 Alpine Ropes; Tests, Canvas, and Waterproofing; So Where Are the Backpacks? Men’s Clothing 12 The Importance of Hats Women’s Clothing 15 Corsets, Crinolines, and Bustles Luggage, Boxes, and Containers 17 Communication Equipment and Stationery 20 Some Selected Dates; Skill Use: Telegraph Operation and Wireless Operation; Telegraphs and Telegrams; Western Union; British Postage; Delivery Times; Parcel Post; Poste Restane; American Postage; Franking; The Pony Express; Postage in the Confederate States of America; Freight; The Universal Postal Union Sporting Goods 27 Entertainment, Lodging, and Dining 30 Victorian Entertainments; The Edison Speaking Phonograph; “Tossing the Pieman” Firearms 36 British Gun Laws; Pistol Ammunition (table); Rifle Ammunition (table); Firearm Data (table); Shotgun Shells (table); Shotguns (table) Hardware and Housewares 50 Brushes and the Cult of Cleanliness; Barrel Sizes; Cooking – Open Hearth and Cast Iron Stoves Photographic Equipment 56 Photographic History; Flash Powder Units; The Wet Collodion Process Laboratory and Scientific Equipment 60 Scientific Discoveries of the Gaslight Era Lamps and Illumination 63 Illuminating History; Flashlights and Batteries; Candles; Candle Shades; Arctic Lights; 6’s, 8’s, etc.; Carriage Lamps; Hazards; Gaslight; Using a Gaslight; Primitive Lighting; Lamp Fuels circa 1850 Medical Equipment and Medicines 70 Milestones of Gaslight Era Medicine; Physicians, Surgeons, Apothecaries, and More; Doctors in the United States; The Well-Stocked Medicine Chest; Typical Medical Fees; Inflammation Theory; Laudable Pus; Miasmic Fevers; Medical Terms Optics 79 Toiletries, Luxuries, and Vices 81 Tools 84 Gentleman’s Tools; Planes; Soldering; On Locks and Locksmithing; Burglar’s Tools and Techniques Transportation 93 Some Dates in Transportation; Highwheel Bicycles, or “Just how do I get on this thing, anyway?”; Renting Horses from the “Jobber”; The Pioneering Motorists; Gasoline, Steam, and Electric; Learning to Fly; The Balloon and Early Aeronauts; Long-Distance Coaches (Stagecoaches); Railroads; Riverboats; Thames River Boats; Hansom Cabs and Coaches; Steamships; The Omnibus; The Underground. Various Anti-Social Devices 106 Some Useful Inventions; Explosives and the Law; Matches Weapons and Accessories 111 Melee Weapons (table); Ranged Weapons (table) Miscellaneous Equipment 117 Calling Cards; Diving Equipment Bibliography 122 The Gaslight Equipment Catalogue Introduction This volume, the first in a series of equipment guides for different gaming eras, is more than just a price list: its aim is to provide both Keeper and Player with as much information as is possible within these few pages about the way people over a century past lived and worked - the sorts of items that were available (and when they were invented), how they were used, even at times what people knew. This is particularly important because the 19th century is perhaps the single most remarkable period in the history of the west: no other century, not even our own 20th century, saw such amazing change and development. If an educated person, say for example a physician from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, could be transported nearly two hundred and fifty years into his future to meet with a counterpart in 1800, there is not much that he would see and experience that would not be immediately understandable. While he might marvel at the Montgolfiers’ balloon or be awestruck at the enormous steam engines of Watt and Newcomen that was now beginning to pump water and lift ore from mines, these things would be easily understood. He might lift an eyebrow at the democratic experiments in the American colonies and in France, but he would easily recognize their origins in Athenian Greece and the senate of Rome. Wind, the horse, and the strong human back still provided most of the motive power; and man rarely traveled faster than on the back of a fleet horse. The field of medicine had changed distressingly little since his time – in fact, very little since the time of Aristotle; they would have studied some of the same texts. If he were to hold a rifle, he might comment upon the clever flintlock mechanism, but it would be immediately understood as a simple development of the matchlock carried by his country’s soldiers. Even in the styles of clothing he would see the faint echoes of his own era. If you were to take this good doctor’s 1800 informant and move him forward to 1900, there is very little that he would see that is familiar, let alone understandable. Those huge steam engines had become small enough and powerful enough to speed enormous trains along steel rails, twice as fast as a horse could run. Steam and internal combustion engines now powered small ‘motorcars’ and trucks that were fast replacing the horse. A man on a bicycle, powered only by his legs, had traveled at the unheard-of speed of 60 miles an hour. Candles and oil lamps were fast being replaced by electric lights, and the Niagara Falls was being harnessed to light them. Invisible waves of energy sped through the air as radio, and x-rays could penetrate solid matter. The “atom”, thought to be the smallest, indivisible unit of matter since the ancient Greeks, had just recently been discovered to be made up of smaller, hitherto unknown particles. In medicine, the revolutionary idea that disease was caused by tiny organisms too small to be seen had replaced long-held theories about humours and ‘inflammation,’ and a controversial book by the naturalist Charles Darwin posed the disturbing possibility that man might be just another animal, first cousin to the ape. Finally, only 14 years later - a sort of idyllic coda to this most remarkable century - two shots from a small self-loading pistol patented in 1900 would trigger the First World War, bringing three empires crashing down in ruin and ushering in our modern age. During the 19th century, most of the population of both Britain and the United States still lived in rural communities, and for many of them, money was almost an abstract concept. Farmers had an account at the general store in town, which allowed them to purchase supplies on credit during the growing season. Once the harvest was in, the farmer could (hopefully) settle the account with a little left over, and the process would start again. Storeowners had to judge how much credit could be safely extended to each customer, based on the farmer’s holdings and the prospects for the year, and most everyday transactions between farmers and townsfolk were made on the basis of barter – the doctor accepted a chicken in exchange for a house call, the miller took a percentage of the grain in exchange for grinding it into flour. If you were to walk into a general store in any rural town, you would notice that while you had a very wide variety of products available, there was very little choice – the owner of the store could not afford to have products sitting around on the shelves, so while there would certainly be a sewing machine, there would only be one (most likely a Singer).