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Back in the old days anything they could stuff in a wall was insulation. I was a volunteer firefighter years back. We had a call in the old part of town, with b

Back in the old days anything they could stuff in a wall was insulation. I was a volunteer firefighter years back. We had a call in the old part of town, with buildings dating back to the 1700s (George Washington slept here!). We had to open up the walls in a few spots and really cool old bottles, papers, and other stuff came out.

meric 12y ago
I wonder if Alan Turing installed that insulation himself.
huxley 12y ago
Seaweed was a pretty common insulator in old houses in fishing communities along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US.
msutherl 12y ago
I used to work in the largest brick building in Canada. In parts of the building that were under renovation, the walls were open and hundred year-old seaweed and/or newspapers were falling out. Pretty cool.
- DonHopkins 12y ago
  I was re-plastering the walls of my house in Berkeley, and I found a bottle of "Shinola"! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola Now I can say that I know shit from Shinola. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola
jeffwass 12y ago
When we redid the bathroom in my 100 year old Baltimore house, we found some pretty rad stuff. Old crumpled newspapers from the time of construction were shoved in the walls. These were interior walls, I think to assist with holding the plaster in the laths. I was able to salvage part of one page with a comic strip. You wouldn't have even thought the comic was much out-of-date either. <even more off-topic> So at some point one of the prior owners decided to 'modernize' the bathroom and turn the original clawfoot tub into a modern recessed bath. They did this by buding a brick surround around it, covered with tiles. Weighed a TON. But underneath when we demished the surround, we saw planks of wood lying next to the tub. Turns out they weren't wood but dusty marble trim that originally surrounded the walls along the floor. Original charm from the original house! We had no idea the tub was even a clawfoot, much less there was marble trim.
- RyanMcGreal 12y ago
  > I was able to salvage part of one page with a comic strip. Is it posted somewhere?
  - jeffwass 12y ago
    No, this was about 7+ yrs ago. I should have it somewhere in storage though. IIRC it showed a disheveled older man, with a big beard and dressed like a stereotypical 'hobo', eating some food out of a tin can and making some snarky comment which I don't remember. The drawing, in black and white, had a bit of feel like the older Mickey Mouse or Tom and Jerry style to it, but didn't seem too obviously out of date.
  - RobAley 12y ago
    I hope not, at only 100 years old it should surely be still "protected" under copyright!
  - jonathantm 12y ago
    > Is it posted somewhere? How very 2015 ;)

meric 12y ago

I wonder if Alan Turing installed that insulation himself.

huxley 12y ago

Seaweed was a pretty common insulator in old houses in fishing communities along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US.

msutherl 12y ago

I used to work in the largest brick building in Canada. In parts of the building that were under renovation, the walls were open and hundred year-old seaweed and/or newspapers were falling out. Pretty cool.

DonHopkins 12y ago
I was re-plastering the walls of my house in Berkeley, and I found a bottle of "Shinola"! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola Now I can say that I know shit from Shinola. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola

jeffwass 12y ago

When we redid the bathroom in my 100 year old Baltimore house, we found some pretty rad stuff. Old crumpled newspapers from the time of construction were shoved in the walls. These were interior walls, I think to assist with holding the plaster in the laths. I was able to salvage part of one page with a comic strip. You wouldn't have even thought the comic was much out-of-date either. <even more off-topic> So at some point one of the prior owners decided to 'modernize' the bathroom and turn the original clawfoot tub into a modern recessed bath. They did this by buding a brick surround around it, covered with tiles. Weighed a TON. But underneath when we demished the surround, we saw planks of wood lying next to the tub. Turns out they weren't wood but dusty marble trim that originally surrounded the walls along the floor. Original charm from the original house! We had no idea the tub was even a clawfoot, much less there was marble trim.

RyanMcGreal 12y ago
> I was able to salvage part of one page with a comic strip. Is it posted somewhere?
- jeffwass 12y ago
  No, this was about 7+ yrs ago. I should have it somewhere in storage though. IIRC it showed a disheveled older man, with a big beard and dressed like a stereotypical 'hobo', eating some food out of a tin can and making some snarky comment which I don't remember. The drawing, in black and white, had a bit of feel like the older Mickey Mouse or Tom and Jerry style to it, but didn't seem too obviously out of date.
- RobAley 12y ago
  I hope not, at only 100 years old it should surely be still "protected" under copyright!
- jonathantm 12y ago
  > Is it posted somewhere? How very 2015 ;)