Jack the Ripper Tech

[Shaggyrand]

Ediswan lamps were developed electrical lamps were produced, a joint project between Swan and Edison in 1887. Pity there weren't some in the alleys of Whitechapel!

The Ediswan lamp was completely unreliable and gave off little light for open street locations, they were designed more for indoor use. Even if all of Whitechapel had been festooned with them, they most likely would have had little effect.
Also, it wasn't a joint venture- Edison & Swan were a single company after Edison failed to crush Swan with patient infringement lawsuits.

[Rosella]

Ediswan lamps were developed electrical lamps were produced, a joint project between Swan and Edison in 1887. Pity there weren't some in the alleys of Whitechapel! Dunlop invented pneumatic tyres in 1888, and Tesla constructed an electric motor. In 1889 it was proven (by Von Mehring and Minkowski) that the pancreas secretes insulin, so they were at least on the road to understanding diabetes.

[Shaggyrand]

Hertz was still playing with radio waves and totally missing their practical importance. He just thought it was an interesting phenomena that couldn't lead to anything useful.

[sdreid]

There was no actual radio in 1888 but there was some experimenting with a sort of cable radio. That is, there were some tests involving the sending of news and entertainment via telephone. Although it worked in a limited way, needless to say, the medium never caught on.

[GUT]

A friend of mine just survived an emergency c-section while in early labor (this is what a PROM baby is, BTW-- it means "premature rupture of membranes" and has nothing to do with high school dances), and an infection due to a blood clot (not a doctor's error, in other words); she's fine, the baby is fine, but she needed surfectant for a couple of days, and she is getting a preemie supplement along with breastfeeding.

My son was actually fine, but they took precautions with him, because he had to have his breathing started, and could have aspirated meconium. That's a major cause of newborn pneumonia. He was in an isolette for 12 hours, and had a shot of antibiotics. He didn't get pneumonia. But that's three different ways he probably would have died if he'd been born just 100 years earlier.

Incidentally, I think home births are nuts.

Great that they are all fine.

[RivkahChaya]

A friend of mine just survived an emergency c-section while in early labor (this is what a PROM baby is, BTW-- it means "premature rupture of membranes" and has nothing to do with high school dances), and an infection due to a blood clot (not a doctor's error, in other words); she's fine, the baby is fine, but she needed surfectant for a couple of days, and she is getting a preemie supplement along with breastfeeding.

My son was actually fine, but they took precautions with him, because he had to have his breathing started, and could have aspirated meconium. That's a major cause of newborn pneumonia. He was in an isolette for 12 hours, and had a shot of antibiotics. He didn't get pneumonia. But that's three different ways he probably would have died if he'd been born just 100 years earlier.

Incidentally, I think home births are nuts.

[sdreid]

Congratulations Stan a bouncy big girl by the sounds of it.

Thanks GUT and yes.

[GUT]

And the way medicine is going she will probably make it into the middle of next century.

[GUT]

That must have been incredibly frightening and sad for mothers back then.

Btw, my second granddaughter and my fifth grandchild was born 3 weeks ago today by c-section. She was 10 pounds 9 ounces so another little Ripperologist coming up for the rest of this century and the first part of the next.

Congratulations Stan a bouncy big girl by the sounds of it.

[sdreid]

When my son couldn't fit through the birth canal, not even with forceps, I had a c-section. Without it, which is to say, the solution up until about 1905, was to wait for the baby to die, then remove it piece by piece. You had to hope the experience didn't give the mother a stroke, seizure or organ failure. Mothers who survived waiting for the fetus to die then sometimes ended up being nicked with the knife, and died of sepsis a few weeks later.

My son will be nine next month.

I've got a friend who had the same problem, and had four children by c-section.

That must have been incredibly frightening and sad for mothers back then.

Btw, my second granddaughter and my fifth grandchild was born 3 weeks ago today by c-section. She was 10 pounds 9 ounces so another little Ripperologist coming up for the rest of this century and the first part of the next.

[RivkahChaya]

Before that, something like an appendicitis was often a death sentence.

When my son couldn't fit through the birth canal, not even with forceps, I had a c-section. Without it, which is to say, the solution up until about 1905, was to wait for the baby to die, then remove it piece by piece. You had to hope the experience didn't give the mother a stroke, seizure or organ failure. Mothers who survived waiting for the fetus to die then sometimes ended up being nicked with the knife, and died of sepsis a few weeks later.

My son will be nine next month.

I've got a friend who had the same problem, and had four children by c-section.

[sdreid]

I don't know how afforadable they were to the average citizen.

[sdreid]

There were no electronic calculators in 1888 but there were mechanical adding machines on the market.

[sdreid]

The only treatment for serious infection was often surgical removal.

And, that "treatment" was mostly when the infection was in a limb.

[Ginger]

The [today] trivial things that took life is amazing.

At the age of 13, I had an infection in my chest cavity (doctors had no idea how that happened) that would almost certainly have killed me without antibiotics. Had I been born a few decades earlier, or in some backward part of the world, I'd not have lived into my teens.