Modern History — 1851 to 1866 AD
pg 1 of 5
- 1850s
- In Great Britain, “a set of harmless lunatics, amused themselves by kicking one another’s shins” as the modern rules of competitive soccer were developed by young men in schools and universities. The earliest soccer balls were made from a pig’s bladder, which was inflated, knotted at the end like a balloon, placed in a leather case treated with dubbin (oil and tallow). The case, of pig of cow hide, reflected the shape and size of the bladder producing a “plum shape” unlike a modern soccer ball. By the 1860s such balls were being replaced by balls with an india rubber bladder and rounder dimensions.
- 1852
- Oct. 23 — Henry David Thoreau, U.S. philosopher and naturalist writes in his journal: “What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.”
- 1855
- Flitching — kneeling on sharp stones at the door of a church and swearing to have been happily married for the last twelve months and thereby winning a prize of a “flitch” or side of bacon — is again revived by novelist Harrison Ainsworth who acted as a judge cross–examining the claimants.
- 1857
- Landscape architect, Frederick Olmsted, newly appointed superintendent of the Central Park, which is under construction for the city of New York, makes an initial survey of the grounds and finds the park site filled with hog farms, bone–boiling works, and squatters’ shacks.
- May 10 — In the golden years of Indian Raj, the Sepoy Rebellion begins in Meerut, India when Britain’s native Muslim and Hindu troops — Sepoys — receive their new breech–loading Enfield Rifles, but refuse to handle the cartridges. Due to an oversight by the munitions factory, these cartridges, the ends of which had to be bitten before they could be used, were packed in a protective coating of either pig grease or beef fat. Muslims consider pigs “unclean” and are forbidden by religious law to eat pork, while the Hindu religion venerates the cow. Thus the religious beliefs of every Sepoy in the army were offended. After a year–long bloody revolt and many deaths, the East India Company forfeited control of the British Empire’s crowned jewel and hands over its duties and treaty obligations, held since 1686, to the British Crown which assumes responsibility for India’s “protected” states.
- 1858
- Meat for London tables becomes fatter and juicier as the Smithfield Market begins receiving rail shipments of ready–dressed carcasses from Aberdeen, Scotland 515 miles away. Pork, beef, mutton, and veal arrive in perfect condition the night after the animals are slaughtered, and the meat is far less tough and lean than if the animals had been driven to market as in the past.
- 1859
- August 28 — Edwin Drake strikes oil in Titusville, PA and is soon producing 400 gallons per day, beginning the first commercial exploitation of petroleum in the U.S. and reducing demand for hog lard, whale oil, coal and gas now used in lamps.
- 1860
- The clinical symptoms of acute trichinosis are noted and defined for the first time by German pathologist Friedrich von Zenker, but the cause–effect relationship remains unknown.
- One year after the discovery of oil in Titusville, John D. Rockefeller founds his oil business at age 20, when he pools his savings with those of his partner Maurice Clark, and buys the hog lard refinery of candle maker Samuel Andrews for the sum of $4,000, converts it, and begins refining petroleum.
- 1861
- As the Civil War rages in the U.S. and demand for pork and beef staples escalates, Chicago, benefiting from superior rail transportation, replaces the “Porkopolis” of Cincinnati as the leading meat processing city in the US.
- Indianapolis grocer Gilbert C. Van Camp, once a tinsmith, has created a new canned food staple and secured an army contract. Van Camp’s Pork and Beans helps sustain Union troops in the field.
- 1863
- Sutlers — army camp followers who peddled provisions to soldiers — provide Union troops with canned pork and beans, condensed milk and vegetables.
- John Stuart Mill, British philosopher and economist, publishes the essay Utilitarianism in which he debates the merits of whether it is better to be a human being dissatisfied, than a pig satisfied.
- La Villette opens at Paris. This central and hygienic pork and beef slaughterhouse has been designed by Baron Georges EugÈne Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine under Napoleon III. Haussmann is the city planner also largely responsible for the city’s present appearance of wide streets, broad vistas, parks and avenues radiating from focal points.
- 1864
- A Milwaukee merchant, Philip Armour, sells short in the New York pork market in anticipation of the Union victory as Grant marches on Richmond. Armour makes nearly $2 million in 90 days and opens the Armour Meat Packing Co.
- 1865
- December 25 – The Chicago Union Stock Yards open on 345 acres of land southwest of the city limits, with pens that can hold 100,000 hogs at any given time. This, and the nine railroads that converge on Chicago, further solidify the city’s presence as the nation’s meat–packing center.
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