
Lifehacks from 100 Years Ago - ohjeez
http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/51702/10-lifehacks-100-years-ago
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ronaldx
Starbucks UK have taken the advice from #6 ("How to keep your plants watered")
and accurately applied it to their teabags:

"Loosely plait two or three strands of wool together, immerse completely in
water, and place one end in the pail, weighted, and touching the bottom."

Thanks to their kindness in this matter, I no longer need to worry so much
about watering my own hands.

~~~
samstave
Heh, yep - and actually the strings of MightyLeaf tea bags are the best water
wicks known to man.

For this reason, I cut/rip/tear off the strings from all my tea bags. I have
been a voracious tea drinker for years.

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neilkimmett
I love how the instructions for "how to make a chair to cross a stream" are:
1\. swim across the stream 2\. make a chair to cross the stream

~~~
samstave
You forgot the most important ingredient: A small boy.

Tools for crossing a stream:

1\. Boy (with swim skill)

2\. Rope

3\. Pully

4\. Chair

EASY!!!

~~~
DanBC
I loved the "send a boy across the river" step.

I'm collecting a list of "things we did that you probably think are weird" to
give to my son when he's older.

This kind of thing is going on the list. As are "party lines"[1] for
telephones and me having to chop wood all year to have enough to get us
through winter.

[1]
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_\(telephony\)))

~~~
samstave
Some things to add to your list:

Setting dip switches on modems to be able to dial into a BBS.

Calling 411

Renting/Rewinding VHS tapes

Getting grounded for running up the long distance phone bill (by calling BBSs)

De-soldering bad memory chips on your Apple ][ boards.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Cleaning the dust off your record

Getting up to change between one of 4 channels on the television.

Wrapping left overs in foil and baking in an oven set to 275 degrees for 30
minutes to re-heat.

Needing two or three friends to move your television

using your hand to move your player's position on the game board.

reading books you checked out from a library

figuring out where you are by un-folding a 48" square out of date printout of
what streets existed about 5 years ago.

The list goes on and on.

~~~
samstave
Heh, channel changing and library checkouts also popped into my head!

Life evolves!

~~~
tomjen3
I just checked 3 books out of the library less than 3 hours ago.

~~~
samstave
Troglodyte! Stop living in the past!

    
    
       /I have a $30 late fee I owe to the milbrea library :(

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rcavezza
I really wish police would use #5 to deal with dogs instead of shooting them.
I've seen too many videos of this recently.

~~~
Tichy
Shouldn't dogs that attack humans be put down in any case? I thought that
would be standard consequence if a dog bites a person.

~~~
tibbon
Oddly, we don't deal the same with people who abuse animals.

~~~
jff
Animals aren't people.

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dhughes
If you're wondering why all the fuss over eggs it's because chickens don't lay
eggs in the winter due fewer hours of light. Once electric lights were put in
barns eggs were available year round.

I doubt in the early 1900s if many or any farmers could afford new fangled
electric lights.

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Narretz
Isn't it highly dangerous to pull down the tree? Seems like you would have to
run away in the exact moment it falls, so you are not in its path.

~~~
swamp40
You wrap the rope around another tree/pulley to change direction, then stand
off to the side.

But yes - taking down trees is dangerous, no matter how you do it.

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ekianjo
Excellent advice for the water plants! Plants always die when I am away for
more than a week and I was seriously thinking about an Arduino hack to
automate water dispensing but that trick would be great if it worked !!

~~~
maxerickson
Depending on your taste, you might get away with buying indestructible plants.
Aloe doesn't mind if you forget about for a while and is (maybe) a little more
interesting to look at than yet another cactus. And there are lots of other
succulents.

~~~
kaybe
Interestingly, swamp plants also deal well with longer absences, because one
can just drown them completely when leaving. After a few weeks the water is
gone, but the plant is also fine with that for a while.

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sp332
These are cool, but isn't the water filter backwards?

~~~
zeckalpha
By going in this order, the sand does not go into the output.

~~~
voidlogic
This, if you had a big enough filter you would both start and end with the
large rocks and have the fine sand in the middle.

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arbuge
I like the way you need a "boy" to cross a stream...

Tough luck if you're an all-daughter or childless family I suppose. Get used
to your side of the stream.

~~~
pkamb
The card is specifically from a Boy Scouts cigarette card series:

[http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult...](http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?num=80&r=02fBoy%20Scouts%4002fCigarette%20cards&word=&rOper=2&stype=Rel&rSource=&rDiv=George%20Arents%20Collection&rCol=Cigarette%2520Cards%253A%2520ABCs&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=1&imgs=20&pNum=)

~~~
angersock
That's the best bit--these were cigs for boy scouts. Always be prepared, I
suppose.

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dadoes
I wonder if it is a coincidence that the person touching the live wire looks
like Nikola Tesla..

~~~
mirkules
I love how it says "stand on glass". All I can think about is how it would
make the Safety Police of 2013 cringe so hard. _Back in my day, we stood on
glass and rescued people who were being electrocuted_

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dbbolton
Isn't the water filter backward? Don't you want the finest layer on the bottom
if you're using gravity to filter the water?

It seems to me that as shown, the sand is just going to fall down through the
stones and you'll end up with a sand and stone layer.

~~~
sliverstorm
Could be organized that way to prevent the sand and small stones from clogging
the spigot.

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larrys
On #3 "How to stop a mad dog" I can offer this:

As a runner I have had success with running toward a charging dog and acting
crazy. Several times that I have done that the dog has run the other way. The
key is to make all sorts of hand motion and noise.

~~~
anonymous
Also a stick. I'm pretty sure it's legal to carry a stick wherever. Do not
attempt against packs of more than 3-4 dogs, a large pack of strays is
dangerous. Also, do not hit the dog too hard if it belongs to somebody - it's
not polite to break other people's property, no matter how much you want to
kill it.

It's trickier if you're on a bike, but then I usually opt to kick them as they
chase me. So far, I've outrun the ones that weren't deterred after being
kicked.

If you live in a normal country that actually has animal care centres where
they humanely kill stray dogs, you probably don't have problems to which the
above advice applies.

~~~
pseut
Less aggressive dogs are usually deterred by a squirt from a water bottle (if
it's clearly someone's pet rather than a stray). I've heard that heavy bike
chains are also effective and it might be easier to swing one than to kick at
high speeds.

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dropq42
Surprised they didn't include plain baking soda

~~~
dropq42
or baking soda related hacks, I mean. it can be used for a ridiculous number
of things and common problems

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hakcermani
Nice. Still useful today .. some of them. Does anyone else also think the
water filter in a pail is kindof reversed ? I think we should start with the
coarse and end with the fine, unless we are drawing off from the top ..

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nnq
does the plat watering tip actually work in hot climate (~40C/104F)?

~~~
mapleoin
If you have gravity in said hot climate and an atmosphere then it will work.

