What questions do you have about stuff from History, or am I the only one?

[EverySongbirdSays]

Hi all, HQ here. We're moving this thread over to History Club now where Songbird will be starting a Part 2 thread for more History quizzical shenanigans

The main history thing I've been pondering for the last couple of days since the weather shifted is the history of clothes.

So... how did Early Man manage in the winter, how did they make clothes out of animal skin?

After that, I understand that clothes production as we know it today began with the industrial revolution.

But how did people manage for clothes you know before we had cotton or machinery

How/when did we realise you could knit wool to make a jumper?

I'm sorry if it's a bit of a stupid question

Has anyone got any stupid questions I might know the answer to ?

The "How did they decide idea to make bread" and things is down to collaboration. I heard something on R4 I think. The point is, one person didn't suddenly decide to add ingredients together. But unlike many other animals we developed language and discussed. And through trial and error, accident and collaboration we started to notice that mixing certain things, or grinding could be beneficial.

Glass=beach + lightening

Glass is mental. Apart from lightning what on earth gave them a clue.
Most of chemistry is odd

It could be simple experimentation. If I burn this is catches fire, of I burn this it melts etc.

Hence "and later" Zack

There's a quote from somewhere from I think Arthur C Clarke about Science being advanced enough to seem like Magic and Merlin was simply dead good at Science and Maths.

Eg If Henry VIII could see TV today he would be like

TIS WITCHCRAFT

but to us it's commonplace

I've always wondered how the fudge computers were first made who knew how to make all the circuit boards and what went where? It blows my mind.

I read somewhere (sorry, no refernece!) That up to a third of women died in their childbearing years in the middle ages, as the risk of dying per child was 1-3% so if you have up to 10 kids its very risky. Horrifying really.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

Horrifying yes but before the medicalisation of childbirth they may have gone about it in a very different way, so less intervention, different positions, moving around with no epidural. I imagine childbirth was totally different before hospitals.

There is an interesting book called 'Flow' by Elissa Stein & Susan Kim which is worth a read.
Women used to use moss to absorb blood and also as a type of nappy for dc.

Yes, this was all pre infection understanding, so I think a lot were from infection rather than the birth itself.

How well would any of us function if in home electricity was a thing of the past?

Yet people were terrified of it at the time and that's only 100 years ago!

It' not actually that long ago and I don't know how people coped without freezers.

It's said we're wasteful but a lot of food must have been wasted

Women used to write little letters and booklets for their unborn children, to be given to them in the event of the mother dying and the child surviving, giving them all the motherly advice they would miss out on. Imagine spending your last trimester writing that, it puts having to write a birth plan into perspective.

RE Lives of womenback in very very olde times (Old Testament old) I'd recommend The Red Tent by Anita diamant

that book sounds interesting cheers.

Re dying in childbirth b/c infection, they also had very dodgy ideas as to how to treat stuff so blood letting etc and leeching

Cutting womens hair off if they were ill is another

If you were rich you could afford to have the doctors come and torture you to death. The deaths of Edward VI and Charles II were horrific.

How Henry VIII lived as long as he did when his leg was basically rotten is really weird - it was a supperating puss filled wound but he didn't die for years - he should've died quickly from sepsis really.

His Dr must have been quite good.

On the Margaret Beaufort front

Edmund Tudor was basically a paedophile. Margaret was 12 and small for he age when he married her. He was told to "leave it a while before having her" and went ahead anyway Carrying and birthing Henry destroyed her physically and she was never able to conceive again. He died before Henry VII was born so luckily her torment at his hands was shortlived. She adored her son though, and he only got the crown through her hard efforts

On the

"Who thought that one up? front

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

What the fuck did you need to be experimenting to get musical instruments to happen?!

Yes I'll just get some cat gut and tightly compress it to some wood, that'll be a tool to entertain for the ages!

Yy I often think how do you manage period if you're in your pretty regency frock at a ball. Do you just stand with your back to a wall all day?

I suspect women with heavy periods didn't go to balls if there was any danger of leakage

Women were possibly better supported in childbirth in the past, surrounded by women and not having to be flat on their backs. No pain relief other than alcohol and hard drugs, but experience and companionship. Plus they would have seen birth before they delivered themselves.

Instruments I can understand - stretch some string, play around with it, find it gets a better sound from being stretched over a box... Think about blowing a blade of grass between your thumbs - not that far removed from an oboe (and a very similar sound ). Drums have been around pretty much forever.

How hungry would someone have had to be to eat an oyster? I love them, but that's because I know they are delicious...

What I find interesting is that in the UK a nuclear family made up of a husband, wife and children solely from that marriage is very much a 20th century construct. Prior to then - and well into the early 20th century - blended families were pretty common, given early mortality especially the risk of dying in childbirth. Into the 21st century and there is a growing proportion of single parent families, either from the start or following a relationship breakdown, along with blended families with "yours, mine and ours" children. I wonder if in the future it will be looked back on as a real anomaly in social history

How did things rot before maggots/flies evolved?

Who was the first person to mix butter, eggs, flour and sugar and stick it in an oven?

An angel gave the recipe to a woman in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Pudding
Eh waiter, excuse me a minute
I'm not findin' fault, but dear me
'taties is lovely and beef is alreit
But what sort of pudding can this be?

It's what? Yorkshire Puddin'? Now cum cum cum cum
It's Yorkshire Puddin' yer say?
I'll grant yer it's some sort o' puddin', owd lad
But not THE Yorkshire Puddin', nay, nay.

Now reit Yorkshire Puddin's a poem in batter,
T'mek it's an art, not a trade
So just listen t' me and I'll tell t' thee
How t' first Yorkshire puddin' were made

A young angel wi day off from 'eaven,
Were flyin' abaht Ilkla Moor,
When t' angel, poor thing, got cramp in a wing
An' cum down at an owd women's door

. T' owd woman said "Eee - it's an angel.
By 'eck, I'm fair capped to see thee.
I've noan seen yan afore - but tha's welcome,
Come on in, an' I'll mash thi some tea."

T' angel said, "By gum, thank you kindly."
Though she only supped one mug o' tea,
She et two drippin' slices and one Sally Lunn.
Angel's eat very lightly yer see.

Then t'owd woman looked at clock sayin'
"Ey up, t'owd feller's back soon from t'mill.
You gerron wi' yer tea, but please excuse me,
As I'll atter mek puddin' fer Bill."

Then t' angel jumped up and said gie us it 'ere,
Flour, water, eggs, salt an' all,
An' I'll show thee 'ow we meks puddins,
Up in 'eaven for Saints Peter and Paul.

So t' angel took bowl and stuck a wing in,
Stirring it round, whispering "Hush"
An' she tenderly ticked at t'mixture,
Like an artist ed paint wi a brush.

Then t'owd woman asked " 'ere wor is it then,
T'secret o' puddins made up above?"
"It's nowt i' flour or watta, said t'angel,
"Just mek sure that tha meks it wi' luv."

When it were done , she popped it i' t'oven,
"Gie it nobbut ten minutes", she said.
Then off t'angel flew, leavin' first Yorkshire Puddin',
That ivver were properly med.

An' that why it melts in yer gob just like snow.
An' as light as a maiden's first kiss,
An' as soft as the fluff on t'breast of a puff,
Not ELEPHANT'S LEATHER like this.

I've always wondered how the fudge computers were first made who knew how to make all the circuit boards and what went where? It blows my mind.

Boolean algebra was first published in 1847 - computers still use it, it's just the technology has got smaller and smaller and much much cheaper.

One of my classes have just created a 'half adder' on a simulator, next week they will be doing it using a bread board and LEDs, when I first made one it was torch light bulbs.

The rise of antisemitism in Europe came when one of the Popes can't remember which during the reign of one of the Edwards, can't remember which, banned Christians from lending at interest because it was unChristian. As they were not Christian Jewish people didn't have to uphold this rule, this led to Jewish people becoming money lenders and therefore rich which bred resentment across Europe for centuries to come

I have a slightly different version of those events. Usury (taking interest on money) is forbidden to Christians, Jews and Muslims by the Bible, the Torah and the Koran as is paying interest on money. Jewish thinkers interpreted this prohibition as only applying among Jews and, in the Middle Ages Christians interpreted this prohibition as only applying to lending, but not applying to borrowing. So Kings and noblemen borrowed like mad and there came a point when they couldn't repay their debts, which was a convenient time to become anti-semetic and run the Jews out of the country.