When there was electricity

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Saint, Aug 27, 2021.

  1. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    Long time ago, maybe 150 years ago,
    when there was no electricity,
    no refrigerator,
    how did people store meat, fish etc.?
    How did they make sure the food were fresh.
    For a restaurant, how did they keep the raw meat fresh?

    Did they have ice?
    How to make ice cube for drinking?

    During summer, how to sleep at night when it was so hot?
    No fan, no aircond.
     
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  3. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    Dehydration, curing meat with salt, smoking, fermenting, storing _X_ surrounded by honey in jars, etc.

    Blocks of ice could be removed from water sources during the winter and stored below ground. In the northernmost, mountainous climes ice might be intermittently available beyond winter, and certainly subterranean storage lasted longer.

    First: people back then weren't spoiled to the incredible degree that we are now. They could endure assorted sufferings, both physical and mental/social -- had no choice.

    Wide hats, handheld fans, wet sheets for air to circulate through, stone or brick dwellings, shade trees, dips in watering holes & creeks, underground living, siestas - afternoon naps in the hottest countries, open windows at night (damn the bugs), etc.
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2021
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  5. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    On the farm where I was born, we had no electricity until 1954 (67 years ago). In those days, farmers used to grow most of their own food. Peas, beans, corn, etc. were grown in the garden and "canned" in Mason jars. Cucumbers, beets, etc. were grown in the garden and pickled. Root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, etc. would keep for a long time in a cool root cellar. Live pigs, chickens, cattle, etc. will keep indefinitely until you need to butcher one. You can split a pig or cow with the neighbors and eat the whole thing fresh. Milk can be made into cheese which will keep for a long time.
    In James A. Michener's novel Chesapeake, the restaurants in Baltimore hired hunters to kill hundreds/thousands of ducks every day on Chesapeake Bay, which is on one of the major flyways. Even today, restaurants in coastal cities get fresh fish daily.
     
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  7. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    At night they lit candles?
    Or kerosene lamp?
     
  8. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    Torches, lamps, lanterns, and candles. Piped gaslighting emerged in the 19th-century, providing street illumination that cut down on crime but also led to longer hours working in factories.

    For peasants and the poorest commoners, the restricted illumination of fire pits, braziers, or fire places could occasionally be the only light source available when short of portable combustible material. The latter reserved for emergency trips outdoors or longer excursions on moonless and cloudy nights.

    In this era, the Lykov family was an extreme case of living in isolation, off the grid under the harshest of conditions. No contact with and no access to the resources of distant communities.

    Siberia: the Lykov family
    https://www.americanoutdoor.guide/features/siberia-the-lykov-family/

    "They lived in what, on first glance, appeared to be a ramshackle hut, covered by years of soot, hurriedly thrown together. But the home was carefully thought out, including the roof where “the larch boards were shaped like troughs and laid out like the tile on European homes.” Inside, the family had constructed a fieldstone stove with a chimney that went out the sidewall not the roof. In one corner of the tiny house, the treasured loom and spinning wheel stood, and it amazed the first people to find the Lykovs that six grown adults could sleep in such tight confines."

    Agafia Lykova, sole current survivor
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova
     
  9. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Fun fact - one of the first gases available for lighting was called "town gas" and was made from coke. It was a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and a few other hydrocarbons. Needless to say it burned fairly dirty and was deadly when it leaked - but it was better than nothing.
     
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  10. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Kerosene lamps. In 1959, when we left the farm, some of the neighbors still didn't have electricity - too far from the lines, I guess. When we went to visit them, the kerosene lamps were pretty spooky for little kids.

    By the way, we didn't have running water either. We had to walk a quarter-mile to the well for a pail of water. And when we moved to the city there were some houses on the next block that didn't have running water - the "honey wagon" would come around to empty the buckets in their outhouses. When we moved to a newer area, there was still a tap in the corner of the school ground where people could get free water. Those taps were still around until fairly recently.
     
  11. candy Valued Senior Member

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    Another fun fact - Carbide systems were used in rural areas for household lighting. A large tank was buried in the ground for the acetylene production. Tanks are still occasionally unearthed and are dangerous. My Mother told us they were not reliable for lighting so you kept the kerosene lantern filled.
     
  12. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    No electricity how to boil water and do cooking?
    Do you has gas tank?
    No electricity means no TV and radio, only can read newspapers to know outside news?
     
  13. foghorn Valued Senior Member

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    What do bots do when there's no electricity?
    Do bots have a sense of humour?
    Saint, say after me... Ha ha ha.
    Bot ask questions to generate posts.
    Posts= $, £
     
  14. candy Valued Senior Member

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    When we do without electricity we call it camping. There sections of department stores devoted to all the devices you can buy to make camping very comfortable. Personally I prefer a camping trailer with a generator.
     
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  15. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Wood. Sterno. Propane. Natural gas. Solar ovens. Alcohol stoves.
    No electricity at all means no people. A lot of our nervous system depends on changes in electrical potential.
     
  16. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    no radio how to listen to music, life is pretty boring.
     
  17. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    Learn to play an instrument.
     
  18. candy Valued Senior Member

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    I have a player piano to go with the pump organ.
     

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