Book Review

               Ever wonder how your favourite novel went from an edited manuscript to the beautiful bound book on the shelf at Chapters? Today novels are published at manufacturers with the latest technology and fancy machines, but at one time, like so many other things, books were bound by hand. One of the tools used in the binding process was a book press.

                We just happen to have one of these 150 pound beasts in our collection. Donated by a man from Hampton in 1972, this book press made of iron was at one time red and black with gold trim. With time its appearance has aged, but I wouldn’t doubt that it could still press a book just as well as ever. From sewing parchment to gluing paper together, book binding has come a long way, but this artifact has been useful throughout much of the progression.

             A book press doesn’t have an overly complicated job, although, without one, pages of a book may not be assembled very neatly. Book presses are used by placing the stack of papers that are to become a book ever so carefully, straight and in order, on the base of the press. The ‘T’ shaped handle (in our case) is then turned until the top plate comes down on the papers and everything is snug. The book press ensures that the pages are compressed together, but it also allows someone to work on the spine, or trim the edges of the pages without worrying if they are going to slide around. The next step could be to sew pages together, glue them, make holes for a coil, or numerous other options.

             An object that appears to be such a rugged piece actually has quite a delicate job. Next time you’re reading an old novel maybe you’ll think about all the hard work that went into, not only writing the story, but fabricating the book itself!  

http://www.ibookbinding.com/blog/what-exactly-is-a-nipping-press/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMXHmXSYXso

Hooked

            Resembling the trident of the “God of the Sea”, Poseidon, this artifact is nothing short of looking fierce. Without knowing what purpose this object holds, it would be easy to mistake it for the head of a small pitchfork that had fancy prong tips, or perhaps some sort of trident. A little less impressive than a Greek God’s trident and a little more intriguing than a fancy pitchfork, this artifact is actually an eel spear.

            One of our previous posts this summer, Ahoy Captain, highlighted the sextant of Peter McKay. Not only did the sea captain’s donated belongings consist of his nautical charts and instruments, but also a large tool chest filled with various tools. One such “tool” is this eel spear. When, where, and why he used this eel spear is unknown to us, but it is quite possible that this was something he picked up along his travels.

            So what would possess people to want to spear eels? Like many things that vary among different cultures, what is considered a delicacy varies as well, and in many parts of the world eels were, and still are, considered something special to dine on. It’s possible that meals of eels aren’t as popular anymore, but many years ago it was not uncommon for these slimy, snake-like creatures to be prepared in many different ways. If the thought of swimming with eels sends a shiver down your spine, the thought of eating one must be just about unbearable.

            Perhaps the best part about this aquatic species is that they can range in size from two inches to thirteen feet long – just the thought of an eel twice the length of a tall, full-grown man is horrifying! Eels move by causing these long, slender bodies to ripple like a wave, if they reverse the direction of the wave they can easily move backwards. Due to the absence of certain fins eels really do look similar to snakes, except for the fusion of the dorsal, anal and caudal fins which run the length of their bodies like a thin, mane of fin.

            Getting back to the spear, most eel spears have some sort of notch at the end so that a long wooden pole can be attached; this one appears to have a slight curve in the metal which likely attached to a pole in some way. The extra length of a pole was needed as eels typically hang out in the muddy bottoms. A spear would be plunged into the depths of the water until it hooked onto an eel, the pointed, arrow-shaped ends then played a part in ensuring the eel wouldn’t get away before it was brought to the surface and removed. You can imagine that an eel, even a few feet long, thrashing around would put up quite a fight – the eel coming off the spear would’ve been the least of their worries.

Similar to many of our artifacts, this eel spear has a history that is so far removed from this time and culture it is hard to imagine it ever taking place. Again, it just goes to show how much has changed! And so I’ll leave you with this - blood of eels is actually toxic to humans, and if that isn’t enough to indicate that we should keep our distance than I don’t know what is…

           

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel

http://www.journalofantiques.com/June03/hearthJun03.htm

Selective Hearing

            At first glance object 2014.002.154 resembles some sort of pipe, but upon further inspection you realize that it just can’t be a pipe. So what is the oddly shaped thing? It is one of the first versions of the fancy little pieces people now place in their ears in order to improve their hearing – a hearing aid!

Sometimes referred to as an ear trumpet, this artifact was most likely used in the 1800s and perhaps into the 1900s. The earliest record for the making and use of a similar aid is in the 1600s, with serious manufacturing beginning in the early 1800s. One man, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, was designing ear trumpets for Beethoven around 1810. Similar to modern, electronic hearing aids that magnify sound waves for an individual, the ear trumpet would funnel the waves into its tube and allow for the sound to be louder – who knows how well these devices actually worked, especially for the severely hearing impaired!

  If there ever was a situation that the phrase ‘selective hearing’ applied to it would have had to have been when this hearing aid was in use. Unlike modern hearing aids that sit inside an individual’s ear and can typically be turned “on” or “off”, as well as have the volume changed, this aid would rely solely on someone holding it beside their head and placing the small tip into their outer ear. The excuse was surely used that someone hadn’t heard something because they hadn’t used the hearing aid, as it was too awkward or tiring to hold up to their head for a whole conversation. I probably would have opted to miss some conversations for the sake of not having to use this thing! 

          

            It is hard to imagine someone using one of these devices now, but that just goes to show another way in which our world has advanced. For everyone’s sake, it is probably good that these are no longer in use, as the improvements in technology, size and shape suggest these may not have worked the best.

http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Non-Electric/EarTrumpets/Long%20Trumpets/info/foldedmetal2.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_trumpet

Sly Fox

           When most people think of livestock they picture cows, pigs, and perhaps chickens, but not many people would consider foxes. This is likely because in recent years fox farms have not been nearly as popular as they were in the early 1900s. People have varying points of view on fox farms because the foxes were mainly bred for their fur for use in the fashion industry. It still is a part of our history, though, and so today we would like to share a bit about fox farming in the New Brunswick area with you.

            Discovered in our vault yesterday was a Canadian National Live Stock Records book that contains records for a fox farm in Millstream, New Brunswick from 1926 to 1930. It seems that the owner of the fox farm was John A. Northrup. Having seen horse and dog registration certificates, pedigree charts and sale papers, it was very surprising to find that these individual foxes had very similar papers to accompany their birth and sale.

            The first page in the book is an ‘Agreement Re Marking Foxes’ signed by Mr. Northrup on August 16^th, 1930 in Millstream, NB. The paper is addressed to the Accountant, Canadian National Live Stock Records in Ottawa, Ontario. The agreement contains details regarding the registration regulations, tattooing of foxes, and not holding certain groups responsible for any damage or loss during the marking or inspection of his ranch. The last sentence in the document, “At present my ranch contains 6 adult foxes and 10 puppies.”

            Most of the pages in the book are Ranch Records for a specific year that contain information about the puppies born and the parents. For example, a yellow 1929 page states that his female fox, Teakles, was mated on February 22^nd, 1929 with his male fox, Northrup, and their litter was born on April 15^th, 1929. The litter consisted of three male pups. Two were dark silver and their dispositions were described as “Susp”, the third was medium silver with an “OK” disposition. One was pelted, one was sold, and there is nothing listed for the third.

            It isn’t the coolest artifact in our collection to look at, but it certainly tells us a bit about the history of our area. When this book was discovered we did some searching to find more information about this time period in rural New Brunswick, and we included the link to a website that goes into the details about fox farming in the Salisbury area.

http://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca/Products/V/Village-of-Salisbury.aspx

Butter Churn

      Imagine this. It’s the 1940s in Kings County, NB. The sun is shining, the wind is gusting a warm mid-summer breeze. The man of the farm is out on the large green tractor planting for the autumn crops. The children are all dressed up in their Sunday school clothes playing outside, running around the white picket fence that encloses their Victorian style house. Meanwhile, the mother is performing her daily chores. You might be thinking she’s sweeping the floors, or doing the dishes or hanging the clothes out to dry on this fine day. Instead she is creating a well-known, sauce, additive, and condiment that has been around for centuries. She is making butter.
      
     The picture below, for the people who are unaware, is a butter churner. Evidence for the use of butter dates back as early as 2000 BC, and there is mention of it in biblical works. One of the responsibilities the women of households had was to churn butter until it was up to perfection standards. This process consisted of 30 minutes of hard pushing and pulling of the cream with the butter stick in up and down motions.  Once the product is churned, it is then separated from the buttermilk and is ready for use. The reminder of buttermilk would also be kept for cooking purposes or to drink. 

     Butter churning has revolutionized the way we do things nowadays. It was a brilliant way to make use of cream and alter it into a new creation!

Grinding Away

          Anyone that has stopped in at our museum has probably seen this stone before, but it may not have caught your attention as it isn’t in one of our buildings. Believe it or not, the stone out front is actually an artifact in our collection – one very large, heavy and rugged artifact that has thus taken its place outside of our museum.

            William Redstone moved to Springfield Parish in 1836 along the Joliff Brook. Some land he purchased and some he leased from the Trinity Church in 1837. It was here that he built two watermills, one a gristmill and the other a sawmill, both on the Joliff Brook. One was located at his home, where the water came from a head pond at the foot of Bull Moose Hill Road. The water flowed down a flume or ditch to the gristmill. The second mill was across the highway from where Roy Northrup lived. This mill, with its undershot wheel, was used for sawing lumber and in its later days it may have been used for grinding buckwheat.

These mills were taken over by William Joliff, an Englishman. He came to New Brunswick in the year 1830, a son-in-law to William Redstone. Mr. Joliff did very well with his mills until his interest turned to prospecting. Later this place became home to Thomas Marr who was the last to operate the mills. Eventually, it became the property of the donor, William Tremain.

Following is some brief information on how millstones actually work. Millstones come as two pieces, a base or bedstone that doesn’t move and a runner stone that sits on top of the base and does the grinding of material. The runner stone is connected to different pieces that lead to the source of power – water. The surface of the millstone is divided into furrows that continue on as smaller grooves, called feathering or cracking. Our millstone only seems to have furrows – it doesn’t appear that the grooves get smaller continuing outwards. When the two stones are set against each other the patterns and movement allow for the stones to create a grinding action.

Next time you’re in be sure to stop and check out the millstone by our door! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millstone

Happy Canada Day!

             Today’s post is a little bit different, but in light of the Canada Day celebrations taking place today we thought it fitting to share with you a piece from our collection with details of Confederation. As stated within the first few pages of the book titled ‘Confederation’, “This book was compiled from reproductions of actual newspapers of the day for the Rolland Paper Company Limited as its contribution to the celebration of Canada’s 100^th birthday.” Most already know the facts and dates of Confederation, so we wanted to share a few excerpts from newspaper articles that may be of interest. Since none of us were around to grab the daily paper in 1867, we thought it might be neat to highlight some lines from different papers.

            

          Toronto, Monday, July 1, 1867 – The Globe, “With the first dawn of this gladsome midsummer morn, we hail the birthday of a new nationality, A united British America, with its four millions of people, takes its place this day among the nations of the world. Stamped with a familiar name, which in the past has borne a record sufficiently honourable to entitle it to be perpetuated with a more comprehensive import, the DOMINION OF CANADA, on this First day of July, in the year of grace, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, enters on a new career of national existence. Old things have passed away. The history of old Canada, with its contracted bounds, and limited divisions of Upper and Lower, East and West, has been completed, and this day a new volume is opened, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia uniting with Ontario and Quebec to make the history of a greater Canada, already extending from the ocean to the head waters to the great lakes, and destined ere long to embrace the larger half of this North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”

          

             Halifax, July 1, 1867 – Morning Chronicle, “DIED. Last night, at twelve o’clock, the free and enlightened Province of Nova Scotia. Deceased was the offspring of old English stock, and promised to have proved an honour and support to her parents in their declining years. Her death was occasioned by unnatural treatment received at the hands of some of her ungrateful sons, who, taking advantage of the position she had afforded them, betrayed her to the enemy. Funeral will take place from the Grand Parade this day, Monday, at 9 o’clock. Friends are requested not to attend, as her enemies, with becoming scorn, intend to insult the occasion with rejoicing.”

            Friday, July 12, 1867 – The Ottawa Citizen, “Confederation Day appears to have been generally well-observed throughout the Dominion. But in Nova Scotia, in the strongholds of Anti-Unionism, the day passed over without jubilation. This, of course, is no more than we might have predicted, for, weeks ago, Mr. Howe and the anti-Confederate journals recommended that the day should be devoted to fastings and humiliations. The recommendation of Mr. Howe was followed by at least one Quebec Rouge – a Mr. Laberge – who, as mayor of Dorchester, withheld his sanction and authority for the holding of a celebration. When asked to convene a public meeting to take into consideration the celebration of the day he refused to do so on the ground that he believed Confederation to be a public misfortune, and that , before rejoicing, the people should wait at least one year to see how the Union should work.”

            Montréal, Samedi, 6 Juillette 1867 – La Guêpe, “L’Évènement de la Confédération est signalé par les signes les plus étranges, les choses les plus inouïes et les monstruosités les plus étonnantes.”

            As most know, Confederation Day wasn’t all smiles– there were many different emotions on this day 149 years ago. Some happy, some not so happy, and in Montreal, some just in awe at what was happening!

           

             We will be open until 4pm today if you want to stop and visit the Old Jail or our new Steamship Exhibit! We hope you enjoy a wonderful Canada Day, though, wherever you may be celebrating!