These 100-Year-Old Life Hacks Work Even Today, You Won’t Guess Who Published Them
Life hacks are simple techniques that significantly improve our lives. These nifty tricks help us cut short procedures and vastly optimize the mundane tasks. In the early 20th century, cigarette companies, of all companies, released cards with amazingly simple life hacks. Surprisingly, they are still valid today.
In a perfect example of irony, each pack of cigarettes brands like Gallaher, Wills and Ogden’s would come with a handy “life hack” card containing useful life-saving tips. Remarkably, these life hacks can still be used quite effectively today. Below is the entire collection.
How To Extract A Splinter:
Create a “suction” by completely filling a wide mouthed bottle with hot water, press the splintered part of the hand tightly against the bottle’s mouth. The suction and hot water will draw out the splinter. As water cools down, its volume reduces & creates a vacuum that, quite literally, sucks.
Image Credit | Imgur
Boil Cracked Eggs Without Any Mess:
Cracked eggs can be boiled without their innards spilling out. Simply add vinegar to the water being used to hard-boil eggs. Adding vinegar to the water helps the proteins in the egg-white coagulate faster. This plugs the cracks.
Light A Match In The Wind:
Cut thin shavings on the match towards its striking end, as shown in the picture. On lighting the match the curled all strips will catch fire at once, and the flame is stronger, and has a better chance.
Image Credit | Guff
Rescue Someone From Electric Shock:
If you’re rescuing a person touching a “live wire”, do not attempt to take hold of him if he is still grasping the wire, unless your hands are protected by rubber gloves, a waterproof coat or several thicknesses of dry cloth! Stand on glass or dry wood, and try and have the current switched off, and call for medical assistance.
Image Credit | Livedoor
Stop A Mad Dog:
Hold a stick, your jacket/shirt or even a hat before the dog, it will attack your defense before biting, while giving you the opportunity of disabling him with a kick!
Image Credit | Imgur
Make A Fire Extinguisher At Home:
If there’s a fire outbreak, throw one or more bottles containing a retardent solution into the flames. It will extinguish and prevent the fire from spreading. Recipe: Dissolve one pound of salt and half a pound of sal-ammoniac in two quarts of water and bottle the liquor in thin glass bottles holding about a quart each.
Image Credit | Boredom Therapy
How To Preserve Eggs:
Eggs for preserving must be newly laid, and by simply putting these into a box or tin of dry salt-burying the eggs right in the salt and keeping it in a cool dry place — it is possible to preserve them for a very long period. No air whatever should be allowed to get to the shell.
Bonus Tip: To check for freshness, place an egg in a bowl of water. If the egg lies on its side at the bottom, it is very fresh. If the egg lays upright on the bottom, it is still fine to eat, but should be eaten very soon, or hard boiled. If the egg floats to the top, do not eat.
Image Credit | Guff
How To Cut A Tree:
Decide which side you want the tree to fall, cut alternatively a downward and inward cut as shown. “When about half through, proceed to cut the other side a few inches higher, and finally pull tree down by means of ropes.”
Image Credit | Viral Nova
How You Make A Chair To Cross A Stream:
Fasten a strong rope to a tree and let a boy swim across the stream and fasten the other end to a tree on an opposite bank. Make the chair, fasten it to a running look or a block pulley, and by means of a light rope fastened to the middle of (the) chair and held by a scout at each end, those unable to swim are safely passed over.
Image Credit | Imgur
Make A Water Filter Inspired By Mother Nature:
A handy filter can be made out of an ordinary perfectly clean zinc water bucket! The water percolates through the layers of fine and coarse sand, and clean picked gravel and stones, with which a bucket is filled. Water exits out the bottom in a clear state through a hole that’s drilled and fitted with a small pipe.
Keep Plants Watered While Away For A Few Days:
Fill a bucket with water slightly above and near as many plants as practical. Loosely braid two or three strands of wool together, immerse completely in water. Place one end of the braid in the bucket, weighted, and touching the bottom. Rest the other end on the soil. Use separate braids of wool for each pot.
Image Credit | Boredom Therapy
These vintage life-hacks are quite simple & keep in mind the conditions that may be prevalent during the time they may be needed. Unfortunately, these life saving tips came with one of the most harmful products commercially available.
[Featured Image Credit | Handy Tips and Tricks]