The Acme Worm Bouncer

ADvent Calendar Day 19ADvent Calendar Day 19

This wonderful product name conjures up an image of Wile E Coyote speeding along a dirt road on a go-kart-mounted trebuchet, firing little worms at Road Runner until the cart hits a stone and tumbles into a lake, attracting thousands of ravenous fish to the bait. Well, that’s what it conjures up for me, anyway.

.

Acme Worm Bouncer, from the Morning Sun News Herald, Iowa, 22 December 1927

The Worm Bouncer was an animal feed supplement comprising charcoal, sulphur, iron oxide, iron sulphate, salt, sodium sulphate and Epsom salts. It could be used for poultry and horses as well as hogs and sheep, and was said to prevent 90% of disease.

So if you can think of any ‘blood-sucking, profit-stealing parasites’ that need removing, this is the product for you.

A glass bottle containing sand.

A Fortune Built on Sand: Health Grains

In early 20th-century New York, a mailman introduced a new patent medicine called Health Grains for indigestion – but the ingredients were far from beneficial. Mrs Bertha Bertsche, a 38-year-old widow, could often be found supervising the pans on the kitchen range at her home in Glebe Avenue, Westchester Square, New York. Inside the pans, […]

Read More

Dangerous beauty: Madame Anna Ruppert

A box of confectionery arrived at the green room of the Princess’s Theatre, Oxford Street, on 6 November 1894 … with no well-wishes attached. The recipient was Anna Ruppert, whose new venture as a theatre manager and actress was a departure from a long career as a beauty specialist. Anna Ruppert ate a considerable quantity […]

Read More
Dr Batty's Asthma Cigarettes

Victorian asthma cigarettes: who was Dr Batty?

While browsing your local newspaper in the 1890s, an asthma-cure advertisement might distract you from tales of the latest sensational crimes. ‘Agreeable to use, certain in their effects, and harmless in their action, they may be safely smoked by ladies and children,’ ran the promotional copy. The product was Cigares de Joy, handy little cigarettes […]

Read More