Thursday, July 12, 2007

1907 - One hundred years ago

1907The year is 1907.  One hundred years ago.  What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1907 :



  • The average life expectancy was 47 years.

  • Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

  • Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

  • There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

  • The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

  • The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

  • The average wage in 1907 was 22 cents per hour.

  • The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .

  • A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

  • More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

  • Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!  Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

  • Sugar cost four cents a pound.

  • Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

  • Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

  • Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

  • Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

  • Five leading causes of death were:
    1. Pneumonia and influenza
    2. Tuberculosis
    3. Diarrhea
    4. Heart disease
    5. Stroke

  • The American flag had 45 stars.

  • The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

  • Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

  • There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

  • Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.

  • Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

  • Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.' ( Shocking? DUH! )

  • Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

  • There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !

  • Now I present this list to you (received from someone else) without typing it myself, and give it to you and others all over the United States,  Canada and the world in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.


IT STAGGERS THE MIND, EH ?


Thanks Joe P

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting stats, but the pic is a bit off. The car is around a 1930 year model, and the condition it is in makes it look to be at least 12 to 15 years old making the time more like 1942-45! OOPS!

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure Snopes.com could discredit a few of those stats.

Anonymous said...

At least some of these numbers are just plain nonsense. And I won't trust the other numbers either.

Some numbers I've got:
paved overland roads in Germany:
1876: 64978km
1900: 95945km
France with one of the best road network at this time:
1869/1906 ca. 38000km "routes nacionales" (Aka Highways)
but(!)
1869: 323400km
1906: 525172km of paved local streets (although there are the paved streets within the cities included)
(And these 2 county at this time each had an area about only 500k squarekm )


So that the USA had only 177 Miles (283 km) of paved roads at this time is bloody nonsense!- paved roads are no invention for cars - sorry dear author, but already the romans knew that you'll need paved roads for any reliable connection even with coaches during winter/rainy times and maintained a vast road network with thousands of miles of paved roads .
And I refuse to believe that in 1907 the USA were less developed than the Roman Empire!

BTW for the cars: on 1.1.1909 there were exactly 41727 cars registered in Germany - so in the US with at least the same penetration so would some 100k?

Anonymous said...

Correctimundo on # of automobiles:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B12FD385A15738DDDA00994DD405B878CF1D3

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