The World in 1890 the year the kitchen ran on fire and ice
~25M tonsIce cut from frozen lakes each winter (US)
~$5A ton of coal delivered (US)
~10¢A gallon of lamp kerosene (US)
~5dA four pound loaf of bread (UK)
72 daysNellie Bly's trip around the world
8,296 ftLength of the new Forth Bridge
19 yrBismarck's run as German chancellor
300Seats in Japan's first parliament
~1%Share of Japan allowed to vote
Ice crews sawed about 25 million tons out of frozen lakes and rivers that winter. That is close to 800 pounds for every person in the country, packed in sawdust and sold back to them in July.
Life back then
A cast iron stove ate coal all day. Somebody had to shake the grate, carry out the ash and keep the fire even enough to bake bread. Cold came from a wooden icebox lined with tin, filled twice a week by a man who hauled a dripping block up the back steps with tongs. Meat was bought on the day it was eaten. The melt ran into a pan underneath, and forgetting to empty it was how you flooded the floor.
The year in 8 events
- 🚉Mar 4 The Forth Bridge opens in Scotland, carrying trains across the firth on steel cantilevers.
- 👑Mar 18 Otto von Bismarck resigns as German chancellor after 19 years. The young Kaiser Wilhelm II wants to run the country himself.
- 🖥️Jun 1 The US census starts counting people with Herman Hollerith's punched card machines, saving years of work.
- 🗳️Jul 1 Japan holds its first general election. Only men who pay a high tax may vote, about one person in a hundred.
- ⚖️Jul 2 The Sherman Antitrust Act becomes US law, aimed at breaking up business monopolies.
- 🎨Jul 29 Vincent van Gogh dies in France at 37, two days after shooting himself. He had sold almost no paintings.
- 🌍Sep 12 British settlers raise a flag at Fort Salisbury in southern Africa, starting the colony that becomes Rhodesia.
- 🕯️Dec 29 US soldiers open fire on a Lakota camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Hundreds of Lakota are killed, among them women and children.
pageType:year friendlyName:1890 onDate:in 1890