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Paper cuttings made by 17th-century schoolgirls discovered beneath floorboards
- pulvinar 2y agoThere's no mention in the article as to why the cuttings were beneath the floorboards. My guess is one girl got mad at another and slipped her classwork between the boards. Possible since this predated tongue & groove (the technology angle).
- floam 2y agoAccording to another article, they just slipped through the cracks on the floor from time to time and accumulated over the years. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/sutton-house-and-breakers-yard/lost-by-schoolgirls-a-display-of-17th-century-papercuts https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/sutton-house-a... I imagine the debris also included coins and the like.
- martyvis 2y agoReminds of this story where they found paper planes in the school house ceiling dating before 1910 - https://youtu.be/A555LYvAPp0?t=16m08s https://youtu.be/A555LYvAPp0?t=16m08s
- romanhn 2y agoEarlier thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41045233 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41045233
- metadat 2y agoThanks! Macro-expanded: Lost by Schoolgirls: A display of 17th century papercuts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41045233 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41045233 - July 2024 (20 comments)
- thih9 2y agoIs there a public script for macroexpanding? Or is parent commenter a moderator? (if the latter, thanks for your work!)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- macintux 2y agoModerator. Check out the profile, especially the end.
- metadat 2y agoHaha, I'm tickled. What aspect of my (intentionally quite long) profile made you think this? I am a regular user who appreciates HN, when something seems off I email hn@ycombinator.com. All my macro-expansions are done manually, it only takes a minute or less. Don't let the programmatic appearance deceive you, I'm just decently consistent. Even at my $dayjob, for PRs people have repeatedly accused me of / assumed I'm running a linter when it's just me and my brain trying to make things easier for future brains down the road. I'll take it as a compliment. Cheers.
- lholden 2y agoMy mom lived in a historical house when she was a kid in the 60s. Since then, the house has become a museum. There are a lot of "artifacts" on display that "came from the 1800s" that are actually just toys my moms brothers made. My mom got a good laugh about it when she took me to visit the place. I'm sure these finds must have dated in some way to verify the authenticity, but I always think back to seeing my uncles toys on display as if they were historical artifacts when I see stuff like this.
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y agoHas your mom got in touch with the museum to tell them that, so they can improve? If not why not?
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y agoIt’s not their mothers responsibility to correct their incompetence, or (imo) more likely negligence and information falsification.
- have_faith 2y agoMaybe they just made a mistake.
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y agoA) I didn't say it was their responsibility B) I don't wanna assume malice where incompetence will do
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y agoIf you walked into a old house and found a random toy, would you automatically assume the toy is as old as the house?
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y agoIf you saw something broken that's not your responsibility would you fix it? I know the answer in your case, but believe me that a lot of people would.
- disillusioned 2y agoMy wife found a cool 1896 Harper's School Geography textbook at an antique shop and got it for me, and it had the original pupil's name and signature (and date of 1897!) written on the front matter, but there are also a few other handwritten notes and the name of the school itself... it's such a neat little self-contained time capsule. It also boggles my mind: 1. How accurate it was, in terms of map fidelity 2. The quality of the illustrations and prints, many of which are in several (what I imagine was offset?) colors! 3. How well it's held up. The cover looks essentially completely trashed, but the interior of the book's pages are almost entirely intact, and in great shape. (I'm not worried of them turning to dust in my hands, for instance.) It's always fascinating to see just how little has changed, especially among schoolkids in nigh on 300 years! Here's essentially the exact book I'm talking about, so it's not _that_ uncommon. Looks to be in almost identical condition, too: https://www.ebay.com/itm/184283104558 https://www.ebay.com/itm/184283104558
- asddubs 2y agolooks like you made a sale. Almost makes me wonder if this was an elaborate ploy to promote your ebay store. In which case, well done
- elygre 2y agoProlly a nitpick, but closer to 100 than 300 years. Rather significantly, too.
- twojacobtwo 2y agoI believe the GP was referencing the posted article with the 300 years comment.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoIs it due to a bias on our part that we think that it's fascinating? Why would people be different? People haven't changed, we just have phones now.
- blowski 2y ago
- honkycat 2y agoI wonder how old they were, they are quite good! I've often wondered if people back then were more skilled at music and art overall since there were fewer mindless leisure activities. But, at the same time, I'm sure a guitar or ink and paper were comparatively expensive, so who knows. Plus people could drink at 10 back then, so I'm sure they found plenty of mindless distraction.
- salad-tycoon 2y agoCan’t remember where I first heard but in the 18th century in England they had wooden cat gin vending machines. You walk up, say a magic phrase, put a coin in and it would pour gin through its paw. This was apparently a way to skirt a licensing law. https://www.gin1689.com/blogs/news/puss-mew https://www.gin1689.com/blogs/news/puss-mew
- jon_richards 2y ago> the first vending machine was specifically created to serve gin The first vending machine was actually first century and dispensed holy water. It was actually mechanized similarly to pre-electronic vending machines. https://www.logicvending.co.uk/history-vending-machines https://www.logicvending.co.uk/history-vending-machines
- Archelaos 2y ago> But, at the same time, I'm sure a guitar or ink and paper were comparatively expensive, so who knows. When I once came across the price for paper in mid 18th century Germany (I did not keep a reference unfortunately), I compared it to the estimated average annual wage of that time and used today's average annual wage to calculate a price in Euro. The result: the price of a DIN A4 sized piece of paper (623.7 cm²) was aprox. 1 Euro. Not cheap, but in principle still affordable in low quantities for most people. And this is half of today's typical price for one such sheet of handmade paper.
- ofalkaed 2y agoThe majority of instrument makers of that time had to work almost solely to the market which was primarily working musicians who generally did not make much money, they did not have a massive middle class buying their instruments like we have today so most instruments were not terribly expensive. But music did not become a past time for the average person for a couple centuries with the rise of the guitar which was cheap on a whole new level and much cheaper than the lutes it replaced. The guitar gave us a good sounding instrument that was easy to make and easy to play without years of training and all the luthiers, musicians and composers were hopping on that band wagon to make a little extra cash which only fueled the romantic era guitar craze. The vast bulk of innovation when it comes to the acoustic guitar happened in this period and most of the "new" ideas we see these days were actually done centuries ago and a surprising amount of it by Rene LaCote who does not get anywhere near the recognition or credit he deserves.
- tomcam 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tempodox 2y agoToo bad “hean” was a misspelling. A hitherto unknown mythical bird would have been even more interesting. Or was it a species that became extinct?
- veltas 2y agoStandard spelling was only being proposed around this time, so it's not a misspelling.
- SoftTalker 2y agoI was suprised to see that claimed as a misspelling. The lettering was very neat, nearly perfect otherwise, so with that evident attention to detail I thought a misspelling was unlikely. I assumed it was just an older variation of the spelling.
- mseepgood 2y agoWhy where they so much more skilled than today's schoolchildren?
- tetraca 2y agoIf the only way you could entertain yourself is either make something interesting or (maybe) read the Bible, you'd be very good at making things.
- firtoz 2y agoWere they?
- mseepgood 2y agoLook at the perfectly printed writing, even in italics, and the delicate crosshatching shading.
- latexr 2y agoYou’re judging two wildly different generations of children based on one of them being able to do something the other one wasn’t even thought. Imagine training a chihuahua to do tricks, then looking at an untrained golden retriever, not even try to teach them, and saying “why are chihuahuas so much smarter than golden retrievers?”
- lolinder 2y agoNo one said "smarter", they said "more skilled". A perfectly legitimate answer to that question might be that we stopped teaching them.
- Wytwwww 2y agoWell, presumably outliers exist. I don't think we have a large enough sample to conclude anything. Pretty sure there are plenty of children these days who are significantly more "skilled" (just like back then). Of course modern writing/drawing utensils are on an entirely different level and paper was very expensive back then e.g. an average labourer supposedly only made enough per day to purchase less than 100 sheets, so practising was expensive.
- markatkinson 2y agoWe used to hide fruit in sockets with a small piece of paper signed "Decay Inc". Looking forward to a Smithsonian article about it in 350 years.
- amelius 2y agoSorry but that paper looks too white.
- tokai 2y agoYou have no idea of the white balance settings used.
- amelius 2y agoI'm assuming they use correct settings.
- qwytw 2y agoIIRC paper was mainly made from linen or cotton back then and it actually was less likely to turn yellow than more modern wood pulp paper (which was only invented in the early 1800s) Paper made from textile is slightly alkaline and contains very little lignin which is highly reactive and causes paper to turn yellow over time. Pulp paper is also more acidic which also makes it more susceptible to degradation.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]