Miscellaneous historical items

The first frontal lobotomy
In 1848, a man named Phineas Gage suffered a brain wound which has rendered him as the index case of personality change after frontal lobe injury. During work on the construction of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, an unplanned explosion propelled a rod, about a meter long and three cm in diameter, through his head. The entrance wound was in the right cheek; the exit was in the midline near the intersection of the sagittal and coronal sutures. Against expectation, Gage survived.
Initial published reports of the accident and its treatment emphasized on Gage's survival. The mental change he suffered, from his original capable and responsible self into a man who was profane, fitful, and obstinate - in short, a man who was "no longer Gage" - makes the case noteworthy today. Although the change in Gage was noted almost immediately after the accident, for 20 years his case gained notoriety as one of incredible damage to the brain with complete mental recovery. It was not until 1868 that Gage's personal physician, John M. Harlow, reported his patient's transformation.
The reasons for this delay are briefly explored. Of the two initial reports of Gage's case, the first was published by Harlow himself. This paper hinted at Gage's mental difficulties, but the medical professional scoffed at the case as patently impossible. The second report, by Professor Henry J. Bigelow of Harvard University, was more widely accepted. This report, however, emphasized Gage's mental recovery was complete. The influence of this publication was such that the case was consistently quoted until 1868 as proof that the cerebral hemispheres had no relation to intellectual function.
In 1868, Harlow again published an account of the case, this time with full details of Gage's mental state following the accident. This account, although published in an obscure journal, quickly changed the concept of the case as reflected in contemporary American publications.
Harlow and Bigelow clearly saw the case from widely divergent viewpoints. Both physicians were young men at the time of the accident. Whereas Harlow as educated in Philadelphia by men whose interest in phrenology is well documented, Bigelow donated his own copies of phrenological works to the Harvard College Library and traveled to Paris where he studied under the most prominent antilocalizationist of his time. Bigelow's status as a newly appointed professor at Harvard, trying to follow in the footsteps of John Collins Warren (who was ardently interested in phrenology), would have been confirmed by a demonstration of the latest Parisian theories of cerebral function. Those theories predicted that Gage would be mentally intact, and Bigelow consistently presented him as such - even before he had met the patient. Bigelow's influence lasted for the next 20 years. If Harlow had not chased his patient across two continents, eventual obtaining both his exhumed skull and the rod that caused the injury, the case would have long since perished in the annals of medicine.
Harlow's version of the case, however, finally gained prominence when quoted by David Ferrier as part of the first modern theory of frontal lobe function in the 1870s.

A special 1889 clock
Over the next century, refinements led in 1889 to Siegmund Riefler's clock with a nearly free pendulum, which attained an accuracy of a hundredth of a second a day and became the standard in many astronomical observatories.

An event or an object is more memorable when it has sounds, pictures, texture and particularly smell associated with it.
This way for memories -- Like most people, you have probably had the odd experience of smelling, say, an old piece of furniture and being reminded of something that happened to you in the distant past. Smell has a particularly strong connection with memory, perhaps because the part of the brain that deals with smell is close to the hippocampus, which is where it is believed long term memories are formed. If you deliberately surround yourself with a particular smell when trying to memorize something, that smell is likely to help trigger the memory later when you need to recall it.

omphaloskepsis: Contemplation of one's navel.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”
Spies Online Tips and Tidbits -- Does the person you are looking for have any hobbies or special interests? Most associations publish member directories and maintain mailing lists for their newsletters.
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"Dogs don't make mistakes." -- Sherlock Holmes (The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place)

NEVER NEVER NEVER QUIT - Winston Churchill

PIN MONEY
The term "Pin Money" originally applied to the annual allowance given to women by their husbands or guardians for the purchase of pins. In the nineteenth century supplemental income earned from the sale of needlework became "pin money."
Americans relied on English imports of pins until the War of 1812 restricted imports making supplies scarce. During the war, convicts at the Greenwich Village State Prison in New York City began manufacturing pins under the direction of some English entrepreneurs. They continued production until the end of the war when imports resumed. In 1832 John J. Howe patented the first successful American pin machine and twenty years later introduced a machine to mount them in sheets for retail sale.
"Pin-Money." Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, January 1853.

DRESS PATTERNS
"Our Practical Dress Instructor, Evening-Dress."Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine. November, 1854.
With the introduction of the sewing machine periodicals recognized the need for dress patterns, but those provided were often confusing and difficult to make. To prepare a pattern it was necessary to scale it up and resize it for the wearer, then draw it on paper. Madame Demorest's Emporium of Fashion and E. Butterick & Company introduced paper patterns scaled to size after the Civil War.

INVENTION & INNOVATION
The annual number of patents increased dramatically between 1790 and 1850, from an average of 77 per year to 2,525. The items illustrated here offer a glimpse at the variety of inventions intended to improve the craft of needlework. The home knitting machine, largely a failure in the nineteenth century, resurfaced in the twentieth century and developed a substantial following of crafters. Cobalt lenses also found new life a century later as a fashion trend. The original intent of this optical marvel was to ease eyestrain when working on white needlework. Inventions such as the sheep-shearing chair and carpet rag looper were quickly outmoded.
"Lamb Knitting machine" from Horace Greeley's The Great Industries of the United States. 1872.
"McCall's Patent Sheep Shearing Chair." Barnesville, Ohio: C.H. & J.J. McCall, 1876. Centennial Exhibition Trade Card.Naylor and Jefferies.
Perfect Sight: How to Retain It. Imperfect Sight: How to Restore It. Philadelphia: James W. Queen & Co., Opticians, 1876.
Cobalt Eyeglasses. Late Nineteenth Century. Lent by the Ketcham Family.
"The Great Centennial Carpet Rag Looper, patented April 13, 1875." Philadelphia: Girard Printing House, [1875].James W. Queen and Co.