Flirting in the early 1900s

My character in 1904 carries a parasol. Parasols were commonly carried by fashionable women and often used to signal a woman’s intentions towards a man. Here are some of the parasol signals she might have learned from her older sisters.

 

Carrying it closed in the left hand — Meet on the first crossing.

Carrying it closed in the right hand by the side — Follow me.

Carrying it elevated in left hand — Desiring acquaintance.

Carrying it over the right shoulder — You can speak to me.

Folding it up — Get rid of your company.

Letting it rest on the left cheek — No.

Letting it rest on the right cheek — Yes.

Striking it on the hand — I am much displeased.

Swinging it to and fro by the handle on left side — I am engaged.

Swinging it to and fro by the handle on the right side — I am married.

Tapping the chin gently — I am in love with another.

Twirling it around — Be careful! We are watched.

Using it as a fan — Introduce me to your company.

With handle to the lips — Kiss me.

References:

Fisher, J., The Little Flirt, 1871

“Parasol Flirtation,” Taranaki Herald, 1891

Sangster, William, Umbrellas and Their History, 1855

Shafer, Daniel R,. Secrets of Life Unveiled, 1877

The Lowly Coat Hanger

You probably never gave a coat hanger much thought. I know I didn’t until my character was hanging her clothes in an armoire in chapter 7.  That’s when the question came up. What did they use to hang their clothes in 1904?

Most of us use clothes hangers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They lovingly support our clothing investment, some of our most prized possessions. But have you ever stopped to wonder where the idea originally came from? Who invented this humble little device? What year was it invented?

 

Some historians believe that Thomas Jefferson, our third President, invented the predecessor to the coat hanger. However, it seems likely that the earliest version, one with a hook and shoulder shape was developed later, after the invention of the coat hook by O.A. North on Connecticut in 1869.

 

It didn't take long for others to jump into the game and a variety of patents were filed with the US patents office. The one pictured below looks like it would have been use with a coat hook.

In 1903 at the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson Mississippi, Albert J. Parkhouse, an employee, decided that the coat hanger needed improving. He took a simple piece of wire and shaped two ovals and twisted them together, then finished it with a bent hook at the top so it could be hung over a bar. It was revolutionary. More clothes to be stored together in one place.
 

 More design ideas came along in the ensuing decades. The more rigid variation of the design (depicted below) incorporated wood and further wire support struts to add strength and durability.

 

 In 1932, Schuyler C. Hulett mounted cardboard tubes on the wire sections which supported the clothing in order to prevent excess wrinkling.

In 1965, Gerhard Wieckmann filed a patent for a revolutionary new hanger that still had a wire hook, however used a new design wooden frame. This wooden frame was developed to minimize the creases in clothing caused by wire hangers. This version of the hanger cost a little more, but would have a much greater lifespan. Then in 1967, J.H Batts filed a patent for a molded plastic hanger, the kind I like to well. The advantage was not only lower production costs but increased the durability. 

Golly, the things we take for granted. So there it is. Yes. Della could have had a hanger to hang up her clothes in 1904.

My Summer Reading Collection

You never know where you’ll find a great book. I found the first one on the Friends of the Library sale shelf. The second book, I’ve on my own shelf waiting to be read, the same with the last on the list. But the two in between came to my hand in a less common way. I was in the Dollar Tree store, wandering down an aisle and saw a shelf of books. It’s hard for me to pass any collection of books, so I pawed through the pile and picked two. Boy, am I glad I did.

Starting in June I read Oxygen by Carol Cassella. When I realized this book is about an woman anesthesiologist, written by a real life anesthesiologist, I knew the medical side of the story would be accurate. In the story, Dr. Marie Heaton, a tightly wound doctor, is sent into a tailspin when a child under her care unexpectedly dies while under anesthesia. Struggling to cope with the disaster that follows, she finally rallies and is determined to discover the underlying cause of the death. Ultimately she is lead to realize she’s been betrayed by the person she would least suspect. Highly recommended.

Memories Can Be Murder by Connie Shelton. I’ve enjoyed a number of Shelton’s Charlie Parker series. her characters are like real people, and I like the way she plots her stories. In this one Charlie finds a notebook of her father’s which opens old wounds and sends her on a quest to find out what really caused the plane crash that killed her parents.

The Striver’s Row Spy by Jason Overstreet. This book is an interesting peek into the post-WWI era of black America. The protagonist, Sidney Temple, a man of color in 1919, is tapped my J. Edgar Hoover to be one of the 1st African-American agents. His assignment is to move into Harlem, and infiltrate the organization of Marcus Garvey, a man who is advocating that the colored population relocate to Liberia. Hoover wants Temple to find and report incriminating evidence against Garvey.

Zodiac Station by Tom Harper. This is a tale of sabotage, suspicion, and paranoia among a group of scientists on a remote Arctic island of Utgard. It’s a good book to read during the hot summer. The description of Arctic cold and the difficulties of living in that sort of climate almost make you shiver. The science and the puzzle are fascinating.

Night Passage by Robert B. Parker is the first Jesse Stone novel. While reading this book I kept hearing Tom Selleck’s voice. He did such a great job of portraying Stone’s manner of investigating in those movies about corruption in the small New England town of Paradise.

Hope you find something here you'd like.