The World in 1888 the year you mailed the whole camera back

The Kodak came loaded for 100 pictures, and when you had used them all you posted the entire camera to the factory to be emptied and refilled. At $25 it cost an American worker close to three weeks of pay.

Life back then

Offices were starting to clatter. Business letters had always been written out by hand by a male clerk, and now a typewriter sat in the corner and a woman was usually the one working it. Nobody agreed on how to use the thing. In July a court reporter named Frank McGurrin beat a rival in a public speed contest in Cincinnati by keeping his eyes off the keys, and touch typing slowly won the argument. Copies still meant carbon paper, and a mistake meant starting the page again.

The year in 8 events

• 🌍Jan 13 The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington by a group of explorers and teachers.
• 🕯️Mar 11 A blizzard buries the US East Coast for three days. More than 400 people die.
• 🕊️May 13 Brazil abolishes slavery. It is the last country in the hemisphere to end it, and about 700,000 people go free.
• 👑Jun 15 Wilhelm II becomes German emperor after his father dies of throat cancer.
• 🌋Jul 15 Mount Bandai blows out its side in northern Japan. Villages below are buried and hundreds die.
• ⚽Sep 8 The first Football League matches are played in England.
• 🎞️Oct 14 Louis Le Prince films people walking in a garden in Leeds, England, the oldest surviving motion picture.
• 🗳️Nov 6 Benjamin Harrison beats Grover Cleveland in the US election, despite winning fewer votes.

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