The Red Handkerchief...

[Joshua Rogan]

If it was impossible to discern colours under gas lighting, does that mean any other witnesses who described red clothing were also lying?

[DJA]

Actually, after enlarging that photo, there appears to be a fourth lamp further down (just visible under the 3rd lamp), then across the road almost parallel a large lamp, which just might be the one outside Crossinghams.
(I suspect that "lodginghouse lamp" outside Crossinghams is the one mentioned by Elizabeth Prater)

The fourth lamp is visible just above the back of the head of the woman pictured below the third lamp.

Therefore, that fourth lamp is more likely to be the one adjacent to Millers Court passage.

The photo was taken for Jack London's "The People of the Abyss",as you know.

Looked at many "versions" and suspected that was another lamp.

The questions are,where exactly was it and could a handkerchief be discerned as being red?

Also could not make out the corner of number 35 previously and surmised the two women and child were three doors further down the street.

Thanks very much.

[Wickerman]

Actually, after enlarging that photo, there appears to be a fourth lamp further down (just visible under the 3rd lamp), then across the road almost parallel a large lamp, which just might be the one outside Crossinghams.
(I suspect that "lodginghouse lamp" outside Crossinghams is the one mentioned by Elizabeth Prater)


Borrowed this photo (East End Photographs and drawings, post 3388), please ignore red writing.
The fourth lamp is visible just above the back of the head of the woman pictured below the third lamp.

Therefore, that fourth lamp is more likely to be the one adjacent to Millers Court passage.

[DJA]

"There is another well frequented lodging-house next door to M'Carthy's, and within a yard or two to the entrance to the court is a wall lamp, the light from which is thrown nearly on to the passage."

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/irish_times/18881110.html

There's a photo of Dorset St. in the "Ultimate", you can see three wall lamps along the north side of the street. The third one down is likely the one referred to in the article.

That would,in theory,be 28-29.
Sometimes referred to as McQueen's
That's more than "a yard or two" from Miller's Court entrance.

Reckon the solitary lamp on the South side, under which Hutchinson was purportedly standing, is the closest.

[Wickerman]

Where was this lamp?

There was one across the road at 16 where Hutchinson purportedly waited.

Honestly never been able to locate the Millers Court lamp,except the one near Mary Ann Kelly's room.

"There is another well frequented lodging-house next door to M'Carthy's, and within a yard or two to the entrance to the court is a wall lamp, the light from which is thrown nearly on to the passage."

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/irish_times/18881110.html

There's a photo of Dorset St. in the "Ultimate", you can see three wall lamps along the north side of the street. The third one down is likely the one referred to in the article.

[Rosemary]

Ask them how the facial cuts are connected.

Eyelids,Maxillary sinus,upper lip,nose,Infraorbital nerve,etc.

He didn't appear to be very interested & questioned why I was interested in macabre history. He just thought, as did his friend, that some amount of anatomical knowledge was necessary, such as a pathologist's assistant if not a doctor or med student.

[DJA]

Don't duck and cover, Rosemary, I have found it really doesn't help.

I am undecided about the question. I still lean a bit more to Jack having at least some basic anatomical and medical skill

Personally,I strongly suspect he taught anatomy.

Watched "Sherlock Holmes : A Game of Shadows" recently.

Prof. Moriarty had a nice big green board crammed with research in a neat schoolboy hand.
Takes a while to do that.
Might explain the chalk carrying graffito writer the night before the new term.

Also liked the kilted pipers wearing white spats

[DJA]

Still, mostly in the French Quarter, & they are not great at illuminating. I consider them decorative & not much else.

I asked my husband about the Eddowes' murder. He's a physician who began his residency in surgery & then switched to another field (he found surgery boring) & a friend who is an ER trauma surgeon, if, given the time & lighting constraints whether someone without training could have committed the Eddowes' murder, & both said they didn't see how anyone without training could have. I'll duck & cover now.

Ask them how the facial cuts are connected.

Eyelids,Maxillary sinus,upper lip,nose,Infraorbital nerve,etc.

[Pcdunn]

Medical training or not?

Don't duck and cover, Rosemary, I have found it really doesn't help.

I think the idea that the Ripper was a doctor (and therefore of the educated classes) was pooh-poohed at the time by some of the medical examiners. One said a butcher or horse-slaughterer could have done the same thing. (This, of course led to a Casebook discussion on the differences between human and livestock anatomies.)

I have inquired how much human anatomy was taught in the LVP to most people, except for medical students. It seems not a lot, though many lower-class men might have served in the war, and have seen plenty of the insides of a human.

I am undecided about the question. I still lean a bit more to Jack having at least some basic anatomical and medical skill

[Rosemary]

Lamps

Any old gas lamps without mantles left in the streets and lanes of N'Orleans?

You may well be able to cast some light on our dilemma.

Still, mostly in the French Quarter, & they are not great at illuminating. We live 3 hours away now, & converted our gas lanterns to electric after Hurricane Rita. I consider them decorative & not much else.

I realize I've not read much, & I'll probably get reprimanded by posters with strong feelings & much more time invested than I have, but I asked my husband about the Eddowes' murder. He's a physician who began his residency in surgery & then switched to another field (he found surgery boring) & a friend who is an ER trauma surgeon, if, given the time & lighting constraints whether someone without training could have committed the Eddowes' murder, & both said they didn't see how anyone without training could have. I'll duck & cover now.

[DJA]

You have no intention of accepting there was a light available within a few feet that "could" have helped Hutchinson see what he claimed to see.

Where was this lamp?

There was one across the road at 16 where Hutchinson purportedly waited.

Honestly never been able to locate the Millers Court lamp,except the one near Mary Ann Kelly's room.

[DJA]

That would be me, a newbie.

Any old gas lamps without mantles left in the streets and lanes of N'Orleans?

You may well be able to cast some light on our dilemma.

[Bridewell]

Incidentally,who changed the hotel in Hutchinson's Police statement from the Ten Bill (sic) to the Queens Head Public House without initialing it?

Hard to say. My guess would be that it was Hutchinson himself when he read through what had been written and realised that he had been misunderstood.

[Sam Flynn]

For completeness and since it has been stated that the gas mantle was invented in 1891, here´s the alternative truth:

"The first effective mantle was the Clamond basket in 1881... exhibited in the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1883.

Well, electricity had been around for decades before most districts had it installed. Here's a lovely piece of social history, from just up the road from me: Electricity Comes to Ystradfellte

[Fisherman]

For completeness and since it has been stated that the gas mantle was invented in 1891, here´s the alternative truth:

"The first effective mantle was the Clamond basket in 1881, named after its inventor. This device was made from a cleverly produced matrix of magnesium oxide which did not need to be supported by a platinum wire cage, and was exhibited in the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1883.

The modern gas mantle was one of the many inventions of Carl Auer von Welsbach, a chemist who studied rare earth elements in the 1880s and who had been Robert Bunsen's student. Ignaz Kreidl worked with him on his early experiments to create the Welsbach mantle. His first process used a mixture of 60% magnesium oxide, 20% lanthanum oxide and 20% yttrium oxide, which he called Actinophor, and patented in 1885.

These original mantles gave off a green-tinted light and were not very successful. Carl Auer von Welsbach's first company established a factory in Atzgersdorf in 1887, but it failed in 1889. In 1890 he discovered that thorium was superior to magnesium and in 1891 he perfected a new mixture of 99% thorium dioxide and 1% cerium dioxide that gave off a much whiter light and produced a stronger mantle. After introducing this new mantle commercially in 1892 it quickly spread throughout Europe. The gas mantle remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s."

Clearly, somebody is having all sorts of trouble with history here. Some enlightenment seems much needed. Lucky, then, that it has been around in such wealth for such a long time.

I have nothing more to say on the subject.