LeLand Stanford CEO of the Central Pacific Railroad  May 11, 1869 The NY Sun A bond issued to help finance the Railroad          If you had asked the rail barons pushing to build a transcontinental railroad, "Will you make a profit selling tickets? Will you make a profit hauling farm crops and manufactured goods?" they would answer, "Certainly." If they were being utterly candid, though, they'd add, "Of course, that's not where the really big and quick money is."      A transcontinental railroad was proposed in the early 1840s.  Before the war with Mexico, its route would have been from Chicago and St Louis to the coast of Oregon. Southern senators and representatives in Congress opposed this, fearing it would simply bring more anti-slavery immigrants into the northern plains, creating more free soil states and breaking the grip minority pro slavery states had on Congress.       Adding Texas and the land gained by the...

  SWILL MILK KILLS    May 1858, Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated   depicted a nearly dead cow hoisted up off the manure covered floor in a New York City whiskey distillery "dairy farm" for one last milking.      In May 1858, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, Harper Weekly’s major competitor, ran an early example of investigative reporting.   Many whiskey distilleries had a side business –dairy farming.   Well, not farming exactly unless you consider examples such as Johnson’s Whiskey Distillery on West 16 th St with three long barns housing 2,000 cows in narrow stalls fed nothing but Johnson’s used up barley and corn mash.   Heated scalding hot, it was sluiced into the troughs in front of the captive cows.        T he stalls were not cleaned, so the cows had to lie down in their own manure and urine. When they stood up twice a day to be milked, the udders were not cleaned and neither were the milkers’...

  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...

     Coal driven steam engines powered ships across the Atlantic now in one to two weeks.  Under sail, it generally took about six weeks to sail from New York to England or Europe. Steam ships still carried a full complement of masts and sails both to provide movement if the engine failed or to conserve use of coal. Running a paddle wheel on one side of the ship faster than the other side allowed precise steering.      Newspapers printed lists, not only of which ships arrived and which departed, but also which ships had been “spoken,” that is, sighted at a particular time.      Despite progress, hazards remained the same.        Storms and hurricanes were unpredictable. Icebergs lurked in the far northern waters.          Ship travel increased dramatically and so did the loss of life.      Demand for better safety measures increased.  January 1, 1857 Baltimore n...

  From Harper's magazine, Jan. 31, 1858 It's estimated over 7,000 people died in railroad accidents before the Civil War Railroads -- In the late 1830s and early 1840s, increasing numbers of wealthy men saw opportunity to join together to create a “rail road.”  The earliest long rail line ran from Wilmington, NC to Weldon, NC on the Virginia border. Later, Weldon became a major transshipping point to carry slaves from the East to new owners in the Deep South.  Early locomotives were little more than a steam engine set on a flat wood surface with wheels attached to the bottom. The freight and passenger cars were simply open top boxes. Speeds varied from 10 to 35 mph. “Riding the cars “or “taking the cars” was the phrase for “ride the train” or “take the train.” Smoke blew back on the engineer and passengers, sparks frequently burning holes in clothes. If it rained, let’s hope you brought your umbrella. Soon, these cars had canvas tops applied to them and a cover for the en...