Whiter Teeth, Fresher Mouth & Advertising

Another day another visit to the dentist – today the beginning of a crown and an hour in the chair - what fun. And I am back tomorrow.

I now have to use toothpaste for sensitive teeth – apparently it makes a coasting on the teeth to protect them a bit, as well as containing an ingredient which can get into the teeth as a substitute for calcium. As someone who loves natural, (nasty) chemical free products, this is a bit hard for me.

Did you know modern toothpaste contains these ingredients:.

• sodium monofluorophosphate (not to be confused with MSG)
• colour
• flavouring – usually peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen.
• fluoride
• foaming agents – sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) that terrible stuff
• detergents
• Triclosan, an antibacterial agent
• humectants (prevent the paste from hardening)
• Strontium chloride or potassium nitrate for sensitivity

That's why there are warnings on the tube not to eat the stuff.

Colgate ad, 1959 in Ebony Magazine

Colgate ad, 1949    

                                      Some herbal toothpastes contain:

• peppermint oil
• myrrh
• plant extract (strawberry extract)
• special oils and cleansing agents

These ingredients in herbal, or natural, toothpastes, were also used in the 19th century, although instead of pastes, powders were the norm. Most were homemade, with chalk, pulverized brick, or salt as ingredients.  Strawberry was considered to be a "natural" solution for preventing tartar and giving fresh breath.  Charcoal was also very popular for teeth cleaning, as recommended in the 1866 Home Encyclopaedia.  Clove oil was another ingredient – chewing on cloves is said to eliminate tooth ache.

Calvert Toothpaste, UK (1890)

The first 'toothpaste', Dr. Sheffield's Creme Dentifrice in a collapsible lead tube, was manufactured in London from 1892, the idea springing from painters using paint from tubes. Copying Sheffield, Colgate & Company Dental Cream was packaged in collapsible tubes from 1896.  Fluoride, basically a by product of aluminium smelting and still a debatable inclusion, was first added to toothpastes in the 1890s.

Dr Sheffield,s ad, 1905

Arm & Hammer marketed a baking soda-based toothpowder in the United States until about 2000, and Colgate currently markets toothpowder in India and other countries. I still use bi-carb for teeth cleaning now and again – which is also in some modern toothpastes.  One hundred years ago I may have used this tooth powder which your poured from a tin, rather than in a glass jar.

Jewsbury & Brown's Oriental Tooth Powder ad, 1913

Striped toothpaste was invented in New York by Leonard Lawrence Marraffino in 1955, and the patent was later sold to Unilever (originally Lever Brothers, the makers of Sunlight soap). They marketed it with the imaginative name of ‘Stripe’.

Stripe, 1955

There are now nearly fifty manufactures of toothpaste worldwide, with many different products. Some brands have en around for a long time - like Colgate (1890s), Sozodont (1859, first a powder), Stomatol (Swedish from about 1900), Ipana (US, 1901), Lion (Japan, 1918) and Pepsodent (USA, 1920s).

Ipana ad, 1934

Do you have a favourite toothpaste?

More images on tumblr.

Deb xx

Going to the Dentist

My oven cleaning plans were interrupted today, as I managed to get an appointment at the dentist.

At the dentist 1936

I had put it off, then I was ill, but now I am determined to get all my health issues sorted. I think I am still put off by visits to the dentist as a young girl in the early 70s - my dentist was about 100 and still had his original office set up from about the 1920s. There were big old leather chairs and a really big noisy drill -still have night mares about getting fillings!

Dr Withers, Utah, 1930s

 My dentist now is a lovely Indian lady, who is gentle and unassuming and quite painless.  She reassured me that the one filling I thought I needed I didn't, as my teeth are just getting sensitive because of a slightly receding gum line.  The major issue, the collapse of a tooth over an old root canal , is fixable, and will cost less than $2,000, so I am pretty happy.  I have to go back for two more visits over the next few days, and then in a fortnight for the crown to be fitted when it's back from the lab.

Lavoris Ad, USA (1920)

Now I just have to do as my dentist tells me - FLOSS and only use toothpaste for sensitive teeth.  She's so nice I promised I would.  I really don't want to end up with some of these:

George Washington's false teeth of hippo ivory

Have been to the dentist lately?


Deb xxx

A fresh, fragrant fridge & soup

A busy day of Drs appointments (another story) and cleaning the kitchen, especially the fridge , ready for my big weekly shop. I also moved furniture around a little - I wanted a little nook inside to sit and read, and have the evening pre-dinner drink, as it's so hot outside at present and the mozzies love to eat me alive.

  

The chairs were on the veranda, so are a bit dog-eared, or dog-chewed really.  The table was a $5 thrift shop find that I painted distressed white, and my 'new' cushion with the american flag was a thrift shop find last week ($2). The pictures are vintage 1942 food ads.

Here's my clean and shiny fridge  -well, ok, just imagine it looks like this - I forgot to photograph it. Also imagine everyone is smiling as they help me put away the groceries! In reality it's more like 'oh mum not that healthy yoghurt again, and celery, really?!"

I wish

My trick for cleaning the fridge is to use bi-carb soda and hot water. I can't help with making the kids smile.

Bicarb also absorbs odours in the fridge, so what I do is this:

I juice half a lemon (and add it to hot water for my morning perk up, wow, still getting used to that one) then fill it with bi-carb soda.

Then I put that in the fridge, usually in the top tray on the door so it doesn't get lost or knocked over, and tell the kids not to eat it.  "No, it's not sugar guys. But go head, give it a go."

Then, at the end of the week, when the fridge is empty-ish again, I add a little hot water to the lemon, turn it upside down and use it to scrub the fridge. Once the major dirty and sticky bits are dealt with, I then wipe it all down with more hot water. Easy! Fresh and lemony with no nasty chemical smell.

The other thing I do, before I tackle the cleaning, is to make 'clean out the fridge soup'. I use all the remnants of veg lurking in the bottom of the crispers – those limp carrots, the broccoli with more stalk that florets and that little bit of cabbage that was too good to throw away……I start with a chopped onion and garlic in a little oil, then add all the other chopped veggies. When they start to release some of their juices I add 1 cup of stock or tomato juice and a few cups of water and simmer on medium to low heat until the vegetables get soft. I also add a tin of (rinsed) beans, and some herbs to taste, then heat till its all hot. I like it chunky, but the next day I blend the soup up with a little milk for the kids and ola, "cream of vegetable soup." Who doesn't love soup?

1950s can soup ad

Tomorrow, I tackle the oven.  The fun just never stops!

Deb xxx

A village built on soap

No, not literally, but read on....

Sunlight was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap, originally produced by the British company Lever Brothers in 1886. The soap formula was invented by chemist William Hough Watson, and used glycerine and vegetable oils such as palm oil rather than animal fats.  It was designed for washing clothes and general household use, and unlike other soaps of the day was cut into bars and wrapped, which saved women the job of cutting it themselves. 

Brothers William and James  Lever invested in Watson's soap invention, although James Lever became ill and did not stay in the business long.  They began advertising in the same way as Pears Soap did, with paintings  by prominent artists of the day being used.

Sunlight Poster ad, 1887

Sunlight Soap ad, The family wash, c. 1900

Sunlight Soap ad, c. 1900

William Lever reportedly made this witty quote about advertising, "I know half my advertising isn't working, I just don't know which half."

Despite their  mad idea of a a monopoly soap trust in 1906, which thankfully didn’t work, Lever Brothers were very successful (they also developed Lux soap, and the company is now Unilever).  In 1888 the company began building a village to house their factory workers – named Port Sunlight after the success of the soap.  The factory and village were built on 56 acres of land in Cheshire, south of the River Mersey and near the railway line and actual port.  In this progressive "planned community" 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500 workers and their families.  Each block of houses was designed by a different architect, with the Garden village’ atmosphere was influenced by he Arts and Crafts Movement, and its leader, William Morris.

One block of houses at Port Sunlight

There were allotments for vegetable growing, an Art Gallery,  cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall,  swimming pool, church, and a hotel (that didn’t serve alcohol).  The aim of the village was "to socialise and Christianise business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labour."  Without alcohol of course.  Maybe slightly controlling and big brother- ish?  The Village still exists, with many of the homes now privately owned.

Brochure about Port Sunlight

Sadly Lever’s good works for his employees in England did not match those for his employees in the Belgian Congo, where he sourced the palm oil used in his soaps.  Lever helped set up a system of forced labour, a program that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi holocaust. The practise of forced labour continued until the Congo gained independence in 1960.

Sunlight’s formula eventually changed, and it now uses mainly coconut oil and tallow rather than palm oil, plus a few secret synthetic ingredients.  It comes in a box of 4 cakes for about $3.35 Australian, so it is still good value (although I just bought a generic version on special for $1.99, usually $2.57).

One day I will make my own soap.  I have a few easy recipes I have saved over the years for soap made with vegetable oil, which sounds much nicer to me than using animal fat. I just need to find somewhere to buy caustic soda - sounds harsh but apparently it gets neutralised in the mixture.  I'll keep you updated.

If I were a soap maker I could have great ads too. I think something like this, from about 1880.

source

What do you think - too subtle?!

As usual, more images on tumblr.

Deb xxx

Washing Dishes Vintage Style

My family think I am crazy, but I actually enjoy washing dishes. Well I enjoy it more than rinsing dishes, stacking the dishwasher and then unstacking it again – especially in the morning.  It’s nice meditation time, or chatting time if you have a helper. It’s funny how the kids will chat to me more when we do the dishes than they do at the dinner table.
   

When I was a little girls growing up in the 70s, there was an campaign for Palmolive dish washing liquid with the catch phrase 'Dishwashing Liquid?You're soaking in it!" It was meant to be the detergent that actually made your hands softer. I don't think it really did, although Palmolive was originally made from olive oil so it may have back in the day, but I don't think it's bright green colour could be good for anything.  The campaign was obviously successful as it ran for 27 years until the late 90s, with american actress Jan Miner (October 15, 1917 - February 15, 2004)  playing Madge the manicurist. Madge did a lot to make washing dishes more glamorous - she certainly made me want to do dishes! Hmm, and I also became a manicurist.........the power of advertising!

Palmolive ad c, 1969

I do the dishes twice a day during the week, and three times on weekends when everyone’s home for lunch.  Tea and coffee cups used in between get left in the sink with a little water in them, and any other dishes as well.  I use environmentally friendly detergent or soap, and when the weathers been dry I like to use a big tub in the sink so I can pour the dirty dishwater onto the garden.  At the moment the gardens a bit water logged, so I don’t worry.  I used to have a metal soap saver and wash in sunlight soap, but at the moment I am using a supermarket eco detergent that was on special.  I also like castille liquid soap – the lavender one is wonderful. I use fabric dish cloths, which I found at the supermarket, but overlocked rags or cut down towels are good too. I am going to try crocheting some soon – I found a great pattern here.  I also use a dish brush and steel scourer. The timber dish brushes with replaceable heads are great and good to use if the water’s still very hot.

         
Liquid castile soap, vintage metal soap saver,  sunlight soap. eco dishbrush, metal scourer, cotton dish cloths

There are many ways to wash dishes, but this is my basic technique:

Firstly all the plates/bowls are scraped into the chook food bin, which saves pre-rinsing.  I part fill the sink with straight hot water and soap, put the dishes in to soak for about ten minutes, then scrub with a brush if I need to or wipe with the dish cloth, but usually they have just about washed themselves by then, rinse the top/inside of each plate/bowl under the tap, so that the excess water goes into the already partially full sink, and put on the dish rack.  Hot water seems to make things dry faster, and I don’t rinse the backs, just the  parts where food or liquid will be. 

 

Then I ad the glasses/cups to the sink and wash and rinse those. Then any pots, which have already had hot water put in them straight after dishing up if possible – I like the steel wool for those. Lastly cutlery, and I drain the sink and ad a little more hot water to rinse them in. I like to let each round of dishes air dry on the rack if I can do other things in between time (sweep the floor, wipe the table, runt he kids bath etc), otherwise I lay a tea towel on the bench and extend my drying room.  If I have a drying helper they use a fresh tea towel each time.  After the dishes are put away I spray the sink with a vinegar and lavender cleaner and wipe and rinse it, and wipe down all the benches. Then the dish cloth and towel go into the wash and clean ones are put out. Easy!

  
Here is a sweet little song from the1930s called Washing dishes with my sweetheart.  The lyrics start about half way through, but there are lots of lovely images of vintage kitchens as well.

enjoy!

So if your dishwasher breaks down, don’t stress – just wash the dishes the old fashioned way and have fun!

Deb xx

As usual, more vintage dish washing images on tumblr.

Beautiful Hands Vintage Style

I was looking at my May 1942 Good Housekeeping Magazine this morning and found some more ads for hand care soaps and creams.  Even in the 1940s women used their hands for washing clothes and dishes a lot more than we do today.  Taking care of your hands was a big thing – as was looking pretty for your man.  These ads are all from the one issue.

The magazine also has lots of ads for deodorant and make up, and some lovely articles, which I’ll post another time. And there are lots more images on tumblr.

Stay beautiful!

Deb xx

Wash Day Blues, Sore Hands & Hand Cream

I've been posting about washing and laundry recently. Here is a little 10 minute snippet from The 1900's House, which shows the ladies of the house on washday.  It gives a  good feel of what  washday was like before washing machines were invented. At the end of the video the girls make their own hand cream for their ruined hands, and then start on the ironing.

After centuries of home made preparations, hand and body creams began to be commercially manufactured in the late 1800's. Early ingredients came from plants and animals, such as olive oil, bees wax, whale oil and lanolin from sheep's wool, and from the 1860's formulas took advantage of mineral oil (baby oil) and petroleum jelly (Vaseline) created in the production of gasoline.  The basic assumption was that fats and oils helped make the skin soft and supple, although in truth mineral products do not absorb into the skin, although they  can keep moisture in the skin by making a barrier.

 

           Old Vaseline Ad, c. 1890s source and glass jar, c. 1910 source

Glycerol, or glycerine, was added as a lubricant and humectant, to enable to the creams to be absorbed into the skin.  Glycerol is also a component of glycerin soap, like the famous Pears soap, first produced and sold in  London in 1789 by Andrew Pears, which was advertised as a complexion soap and for babies, as well as for "soft, white hands" as it's moisturising properties help prevent excessive dryness compared to some other soaps.

  

Pears is still available today, although I fear it is much an inferior product.

Cold cream was also commercially manufactured by the late 1800s, although it had been invented centuries earlier by a physician named Galen, in second century Greece. Galen's cold cream was based on beeswax and water, with olive oil and rose petals for softness and scent, respectively. From the 1780's whale oil was used instead of olive oil, and later mineral oil and then from t he 1970s, thankfully, jojoba oil.  Borax was also added early on to give the cream it's white appearance. 

Cold cream, and Vanishing cream, another popular product in the early 1900s were both used a a healing cream great for chapped hands, before they became popular complexion creams.  American scientist Theron T. Pond (1800–1852) invented a medicinal cream in 1846 which contained healing witch hazel, which he named "Golden Treasure." In 1846, the "T.T. Pond Company" was formed, and when Pond died in 1852, the company named his cream "Pond's Extract."  

When the children hurt themselves, 1913, source

 From 1886  the company advertised nationally under the name of Pond's Healing . By 1915 Ponds moved from healing to beauty,  and so "Pond's Vanishing Cream" and "Pond's Cold Cream" were created.  Both products are still available today.

  

      Vanishing Cream ad, 1912 source and How to relieve chapped skin in one application, 1916, source

Vanishing creams are called that because they seem to vanish into the skin (not the other way around).  Another early vanishing cream was introduced by Burroughs Wellcombe under the name Hazeline Snow. Also made with witch hazel, it was first marketed in the 1890s as a medicinal cream,and was included in first-aid cabinets that the company produced for sale around the world. Hazeline is also still available today.

1912 Burroughs Wellcome first-aid cabinet
 containing Hazeline products, source

   


In 1900 German Dr Leifschuz patented a smooth ointment he called Eucerin "the beautiful wax", and sold from 1903 under the name Paul Beiersdorf und Co.  Dermatologist Professor Unna wrote in 1907 that it was a cream "easily prescribed by the doctor", "sold by the pharmacist" and "creates a good feeling for the patient due to its smoothness and cooling effect." It was available in the US from the  1920s under the name Eucerin Original, and is still available today.

My favourite hand cream is a balm I buy here locally, made with beeswax and olive oil and essentials oils of lavender and rosemary.  I call it Mum's special cream, and the kids ask for it as soon as they have a scratch, a mozzie bite or even a headache.  One day soon I will make my own - I found a nice easy recipe here.  

Have you made your own cream? Any good recipes or pointers?

Deb xx

Pegging out the wash

When electrical clothes dryers were first introduced in America in about 1915, only well-to-do families could afford them  - and they therefore became associated with (usually white) affluence.  Until recently many American states, and parts of Canada such as Ontario,  actually forbid people to dry their clothes outside on a line, as it was an old symbol of poverty.  Now clothes lines are beginning to be seen as indicative of  low-crime areas, as it means you are able to hang up your washing in your yard without the fear it will be stolen. However, according to The New York Times, "the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities" are forbidden from using outdoor clothes lines, and some affluent suburbs also forbid them.  

In these days of worry about greenhouse emissions, it seems crazy to me that people are unable to dry their clothes on a line outside.  Don’t get me wrong – I love my drier and use it when I have to, but I also think air drying is a good idea.  In Australia  we seem to love clotheslines.  The famous Hills Hoist,  a height-adjustable rotary clothes line, was built by  Lance Hill of Adelaide in 1945, and has featured on stamps and in movies (like Muriel’s Wedding),  but as early as 1895 Colin Stewart and Allan Harley of Sun Foundry also in Adelaide applied for a patent for an 'Improved Rotary and Tilting Clothes Drying Rack'.

  
The real inventor of the rotary clothes hoist was Gilbert Toyne of Geelong, who patented four designs between 1911 and 1946, and first sold his design though the Aeroplane Clothes Hoist Company he established in 1911.  Toyne served in WWI, so  production and design were interrupted for years, but in 1925 he patented his classic 1925 all-metal rotary clothes hoist design with a winding mechanism to raise and lower it.
 
Part of a brochure from 1912, source

Toyne was a blacksmith, and one of 13 children who understood the large amount of resulting laundry, and also designed his hoist to withstand the rigours of children swinging on it.   By the 1930s Toyne’s rotary clothes hoists were available all over Australia and  New Zealand. Here is an ad from 1931 ^source



TOYNES ALL METAL ROTARY CLOTHES HOIST

“Probably there is nothing used in connection with a modern residence that calls more, for improvement than the Clothes Line, with its general untidy and clumsy appearance. Install a modern Clothes Line stand in one place and peg the washing on the endless revolving lines, then raise lines by turning handle. Easy to erect by following directions supplied. We also  make Gas and Portable Coppers, fitted with our patent "ezewac." Clothes Lifters three turns of the handle instantly lifts all the washing from copper to troughs. Simple and easy--nothing like it elsewhere. “

Of course you don’t need a rotary line to dry your clothes.  I don’t have one – I have a flip up line at the side of the house, and a pull out line under the deck for rainy days (we’re up to a week of solid rain now so it gets lots of use – but I use my drier a bit too).  For hundreds of years women have been pegging their washing on a simple line strung between posts, using simple pegs made of wood with a slit to push over the line and cloth. 

 
Doing the laundry.  1875. source                  Vintage pegs, source

You don’t need pegs either (my kids never use them) but they do stop the washing blowing off on a windy day.  If you don’t mind a bit of bark or dirt you can even spread your washing on bushes, grass or over tree branches.

 
Hanging Washing with Pigs and Chickens 1797, source                                                      An etching by George Moreland, 1792, source

Drying washing on a line is easy, cheap, green, vintage, healthy and good exercise.    I do it, and we have LOTS of rain and usually 80% humidity, but you can also dry washing where it snows.


Hanging washing in the snow, Australian, c. 1935 source

With a pulley system, you don’t even have to go outside to peg the washing.

 

Hanging washing can also be quite relaxing and meditative   I like to use old style dolly pegs . They’re great to give to baby(ies) while they watch you from their pram – it’s been the first thing my children have been able to grasp onto – good for fine motor skills and they won’t snap on them  (they loved to slide them onto an ice cream containers too).  Or if you’re so inclined you can use plastic and colour match your pegs so both are the same for each garment (this is not unusual as you may think). Or grab some of these cute dolly pegs on etsy.



I’m off to hang out the washing…

For more images and sources I have forgotten to list, please go to tumblr.

Deb xxx