Fiat Lux! Camphene & Burning Fluid for Sale There is darkness behind light. We take it for granted—lighting is cheap, easy, and quick. It was not always so. In a survey carried out by a newsmagazine in the late 1850s, people were asked to list the most important and useful things invented in the previous two decades.   At the top of the list: matches .  Matches made starting light so much easier and faster.   They were referred to at the time as "lucifers" from the devil angel's name which means in Latin "bringer of light."  Now, with lucifers, there was no more careful tending of a fire not to go out, or the difficult journey to a neighbor’s farm for a bit of fire to carefully take home.   Candles, lamps, and cigars could now be lighted anywhere. Matches were so cheap they were available to all levels of society. Originally made from phosphorus, matches could burst into flame with the slightest friction—in a pocket, scuffed on the floor, or simp...

  Locofocos, Barn Burners, and Putty Heads Torchlight rally of Know Nothings in NY City  Don't you wish you could call some politician a " Locofoco ?" Or protest "all those  Barnburner   Putty Heads ?"      Plus  Know Nothings ,  Hards  and  Softs ,  Conscience Whigs , Free Soilers, Putty Heads  and  Fusionists  just to name a few of the political parties or factions of political parties. Modern political terms just lack this sort of colorful speech. Sept. 25, 1852 NY Herald (On the NY State Democratic convention)      Thus was the State ticket made up of two  softs , one  barnburner  and one  hard shell hunker ; and having formed an electoral ticket upon which are eighteen  hunkers  to seventeen  barnburners  and  softs , and a State committee which reckons nine  barnburners  and  softs  to seven  hunke...