  Well and well-sweep. Water was rarely piped into houses and barns. Lacking a brook or spring a well was dug near the house. Pumps were expensive and not often used, but a device like this for lifting water from a well could easily be made. The pole, or sweep, was so weighted at the large end that it would almost lift the vertical stick and the bucket at the other end when the latter was full of water. A moderate pull on the vertical pole carried the bucket down to the water. When the bucket had filled a moderate lift on the pole brought it to the top. A chain from A to B gave room to lift the bucket over the curb. FIGURE 2Candlesticks were often of brass, though the poorer people used those made of wood, iron or tin; and three nails driven into a bit of board could serve very well. Those of brass were often beautiful. The knob on the upright of the stick at the left slid up and down in a slot and carried with it a movable base; with this device the candle was lifted out of the upright as it burned, until the base came to the top and the last atom of the candle burned. The central stick shows a like device, and has also a thin projecting arm of brass which could be put into a socket in the wall. The third one has its candle covered by an extinguisher, a hollow cone, dropped on a lighted candle to put it out. The upstanding extension of brass has a hole in its end, and by this can be hung over a nail in the wall. FIGURE 3A porringer or shallow bowl, often of pewter and sometimes of silver, with a handle which was commonly decorated with perforations. The perforations helped to keep the handle cool. The porringer was chiefly used on the table as a dish, though food was often cooked in it also. It was most often used for serving food to children. FIGURE 4A cast-iron skillet with legs to lift it above the coals and ashes. As all cooking vessels were FIGURE 5A tin kitchen or roaster. A box of tin standing on legs and with one side open. A steel spit was stuck through the meat and the meat was fastened to it by skewers, which passed through the meat and through small holes in the spit itself. All was then placed in the roaster, which was set before the fire. The spit was turned from time to time as the cooking required. Gravy was caught in the hollow below, and some of it was now and then taken up in a spoon and poured on the meat. This was “basting.” The task of turning the spit by the crank on one end of it was often given to a boy. In the homes of the wealthy and in taverns the one who thus minded the roast was often called a turn-spit. By means of simple tread-mill devices a dog was often used to turn the crank, and he then became a turn-spit dog. FIGURE 6A plate-warmer. This was a box of tin or sheet iron on legs, with a door in one side. It stood near the fire and in it were placed dishes to be warmed, and food that was cooked and ready to eat but needed to be kept hot until the rest of the meal was prepared, or until all the family had gathered and were ready to sit down to the table. In very cold weather the kitchen sometimes could not be kept warm, no matter how big and hot the fire in the fireplace. It was then a comfort, and almost a luxury, to have hot dishes from which to eat the food which the cold room soon chilled. FIGURE 7A wool spinning-wheel. The spinner walked back and forth in using this wheel, and her walk was often many miles in a day’s spinning. A band of stout cord goes around the big wheel and around the spindle. A strand of wool, very light and loose, is gently drawn by hand from the distaff to the end of the finished thread which is wound about the spindle. This strand is held loosely in the left hand. The right hand on one of the spokes of the large wheel gives it a smart turn. The spinner then FIGURE 8A cradle. Few colonial babies had rocking cradles as luxurious as this; indeed, few had cradles at all. FIGURE 9A wooden churn. Its like is used to this day. In former times churning was one of the tasks that many a farmer’s boy had too much of. On the lower end of the handle, which passed down through a hole in the center of the cover, was a disk of wood, perforated and fitting loosely in the tall tub. The tub was FIGURE 10A flint-lock gun. The flint was fastened into the hammer and, as it drove down against a curved shield, it raised a shower of sparks and at the same time lifted the shield and exposed to the sparks the powder in the pan. The powder, being thus ignited, the fire followed it through the hole into the barrel and exploded the powder in the “charge” behind the bullet or shot. All flint-locks “hung fire.” That is, the pulling of the trigger did not discharge the gun as quickly as it does in modern guns where the exploding cap is connected directly with the charge in the cartridge. A flint-lock pistol. This operated just as did the flint-lock gun. FIGURE 11The warming-pan. In most houses the only warm place was by the kitchen fire. In winter the bedrooms were about as cold as the weather out of doors. This made the beds far from FIGURE 12Snuffers. Here, as in many of the other pictures in this book, a tea-cup and saucer are placed near the drawing of the object to be described. This is added to give a correct idea of the relative size of the objects represented. In each case the object to be described and the tea-cup are drawn to the same scale; and, as you know about how large a tea-cup is, you get a clear idea of the size of the object by which it stands. Snuffers were used to snip off the end of a candle wick. As the tallow or wax melted and burned, the top of the wick, although it was burned to a mere black bit of coal, held fast to the part of the wick which still continued to draw up the melted tallow into the flame. If this black end was not now and then picked off with the snuffers, or some other instrument, or The snuffers are like a pair of scissors, with a box on one blade and a cover for the box on the other. When used they were handled like a pair of scissors and the black end of the wick was snipped into the box out of sight and harm. The pointed end of one blade was used to prick up the wick if it did not stand straight or was too tightly twisted. The three legs kept the snuffers, which were sooty on the under side from being stuck into the candle flame, away from the table or the tray where they were usually kept. The candles of to-day do not often need to be snuffed, because as their wicks, which are carefully twisted, are burned free of the tallow, wax or paraffin, they bend a little in the effort to untwist. This bending thrusts the used-up end sidewise into the hot, outer flame and there it is quite burned up. In old days the wicks were not twisted much, if at all, and so, as the candle melted from them,—they stuck up into the dull, smoky, non-burning part of the flame, and stayed there until they hung over or fell off. FIGURE 13A reel for winding the thread into skeins, from the spindle which was taken from the spinning-wheel as soon as it was filled. By means of a cog wheel and a worm screw within the box, and a pointer on its side, the number of turns of the reel were easily counted, and that told the length of the thread wound on it. As the wheel revolved it made a loud click for each of a certain number of turns. FIGURE 14Kettles were usually made of iron; these had to be cast and not wrought, but, as they were usually thick and heavy, most large kettles were made of thin brass, sometimes of copper. These tarnished easily and one of the many and not very pleasant tasks of the housewife was to keep them clean and bright. FIGURE 15In the fireplace was hung a swinging crane of iron. Suspended from it were hooks on which pots and kettles were hung. The hooks could be moved along the crane and were of different lengths and sometimes adjustable. The crane could thus hold several kettles at once, some in the very heat of the fire and some When a house was built and the chimney and fireplace finished, the “hanging of the crane,” the final step in preparation for housekeeping, was sometimes part of a ceremony, with Bible reading, hymns and prayers, followed by feasting and rejoicing. FIGURE 16All sewing was done by hand. A sewing-bird was often fastened to a table by a thumbscrew. The cloth was caught in the beak as desired and this made the sewing easier. FIGURE 17Andirons or fire-dogs were used in every house, for all fires were of wood and in fireplaces. The poorer people were content with very simple andirons, made of wrought or cast iron and without any ornament. In these, the standards are made tall and they have as ornaments little vase-forms of brass at their tops. Tongs and shovel were as necessary as the FIGURE 18A toasting rack. Slices of bread were placed on edge between the curved bars, and the rack was then set before the fire. The flat strip of iron to which the bars were fastened could be made to revolve on the bar below, attached to the handle so that when one side of the bread was toasted, the other side was easily turned to the fire. FIGURE 19A gridiron, used not only for cooking meat but also as a rest on which to set cooking utensils of any kind, raising them above the coals below. All utensils of this type stood on legs to lift them a little above the coals and ashes. FIGURE 20Knife-tray, used also for spoons. It was handy and took the place of a drawer. In many of the home-made tables for the kitchen there was no drawer. The tray was usually made of wood and very simple. FIGURE 21Spectacles and Bible. The rings at the ends of the frames gripped the head behind the ears a little and helped to hold the spectacles more securely. The rims and frames were often made of iron and were then very heavy. A big Bible like this, with brass corners and clasps, was in many colonial homes. From it the head of the house read aloud every morning or evening. In it, on blank leaves between the Old and New Testaments, was kept the “Family Record,” that is, a list of births, marriages and deaths with dates, sometimes going back for several generations. FIGURE 22A wheel for spinning flax. At this wheel the spinner, almost always a woman, sat to spin. The process was quite similar to that followed with a wool-wheel; but the wheel was made to revolve by a pedal like that on a sewing machine. FIGURE 23A powder-horn. Powder was almost always carried in a horn. The horn was usually home made and very simple. A cow’s horn, which is FIGURE 24A swift, which was fastened to the edge of a table by a thumb-screw. A skein of yarn was placed on it just as it was expanded, like an umbrella, and then, the swift turning as the yarn was pulled, the yarn could be easily wound from it into a ball or on to a spool. FIGURE 25A spider or skillet with a bail by which it could be hung over the fire from the crane. It also has legs for standing among the coals. FIGURE 26This house is suggested in part by a picture of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in Alice Morse Earle’s Child Life in Colonial Days, but chiefly by the floor plan in Abbott’s “Rodolphus,” Harpers Magazine, Vol. 4., 1851, page 441. FIGURE 27This floorplan is taken from Abbott’s “Rodolphus,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 4, 1851, page 444.
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