120 Years Ago: DEATHS BY THE SCORE- Great Mortality Due to Heat

Library of Congress ^ | Aug 11, 1896 | New York Tribune

[Lurker]

Big deal. 600 died in Chicago just a few years back.

Here’s a tip. NEVER eat at McCormick Place. That’s where they stored the bodies until they could be autopsied.

L

[Rockpile]

A New Englander in about 1820 came up with the idea of cutting iceblocks
in wintertime, insulated with sawdust and shipping the ice to the Southern states, Caribbean and with clipper ships even as far as India. Amazingly they would get to India with about half the cargo unmelted.
A common recipient of ice shipments also was New Orleans.

One thing folks would do, especially for the sick, would be to mount ice above the door so that the breeze blowing in through the transom would blow over the ice and cool the rooms a bit. It helped even in humid climates.

PS, I worked with a retired Marine Sgt. Major who as a kid and young man in the 1920s-30s helped his dad with the family ice business in Texas.

[Rockpile]

Regular weekly sailings.
A line typically needed three to four ships to maintain a regular schedule.
An obvious example of that was White Star ordering Olympic,Titanic
and Britannic for their planned service of fast ships.

[The Great RJ]

Note that there are are still thousands of deaths in Europe whenever there are summer heat waves.

[ADemocratNoMore]

In reading the article I notice that, for the most part the temperatures were between the mid 80’s and mid 90’s. The last week or so in Cleveland has seen similar weather. I carry around enough blubber that it must be equivalent to wearing a winter coat all year & yet I find that the excessive heat is not a bother as long as I don't add to my heat burden by doing any physical labor & being retired this is not a problem. In fact I haven't bothered putting in the window air conditioner since 2013.

I'm not up on the mode of dress in 1896 but if you go back to Gettysburg, the battle was fought with temperatures in the mid 90’s and the troops were wearing wool uniforms and wool long sleeved jackets as well. I cannot even begin to imagine what marching and fighting would have been like under that kind of a handicap. I imagine that the average office worker fully dressed , probably wearing a suit must have suffered quite a bit as well.