Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving Season Food Conservation and Recycling during WWI

1918: Rochester was doing it share to help support the troops during WWI during the Thanksgiving season.  This included recycling fruit pits and nut shells for their carbon for use in gas masks.  The U.S. Food administration also encouraged citizens to eat less on Thanksgiving to conserve food for the troops.






 Sources:
  1.  Simmon's Spice Mill Vol. XLI, No. 1, pp 1353 (1918)




Monday, November 24, 2014

November 24

November 24, 1883: Rochesterians, including reporter and amateur astronomer Henry C. Maine, observe the "Red Light" or "Red Sunsets" that have been filling the skies all Autumn.  There is much speculation about the meteorological or astronomical cause of the strange red and oranges glows in the sky that persist after sunset.  The red skies continued for more than two years through 1884 and into the fall of 1885.  Theories about the cause included sunspots and solar disturbances, comets, hurricanes and cyclones, and great lake storms.  The true cause was the August 1883 eruption of  Krakatoa in the Indian Ocean which spewed ash and sulfur dioxide into atmosphere causing global climate changes through 1888.





Sources:
  1.  History and work of the Warner observatory, Rochester, N.Y. 1883-1886, Volume 1, pp 53-70 (1887)  (source of images)
  2. Wikipedia: 1883 eruption of Krakatoa
  3. Rochester History,v9, issue 1 (1947) 
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