What the...? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Frozen Charlie

This beautiful porcelain doll was named Frozen Charlie and there was a female version known as Frozen Charlotte. The name originated from an American folk ballad named "Fair Charlotte" that laments the sad story of the death of a young girl. The ballad describes how a real New York girl named Charlotte went riding to a winter ball with her beau named Charlie.

She left home without her wrap against her mother's wishes and by the time they reached the ball, she had frozen to death. Charlie then died of a broken heart and they were buried together in one tomb.

Some of these dolls were made to be played with in the bath while others were not. They came in different sizes and many a small child of the time spent hours playing with these beautiful dolls.

Answer: Hair comb

Grandmother told me that this is a decorative hair comb. She added that these were very popular when women wore their hair up in public. In the past, women usually did not cut their hair, and this type of comb was designed to hold up large amounts of hair.

They were made of wood, stone, ivory, coral, and metal. They were considered valuable and were often handed down from mother to daughter. Today, they are usually made of plastic, which is considered disposable.

Answer: Corporal punishment at school.

My Scottish grandmother explained to me that a Lochgelly tawse was a leather strap used for corporal punishment in schools. For the younger players on the site, being swatted at school was once a common punishment, not very long ago. Paddles and/or straps were usually used and certain behaviors were assigned a set amount of licks.

As anyone who has ever had the displeasure of having been spanked at school, these were not light swats on the bottom or hand, they really hurt. This leather strap usually was split so that it had two or more tails to make it hurt more.

It was also used by the judiciary for corporal punishment on juveniles. This type of punishment went out of favor in the last third of the 20th century in both the U.S. and Britain. (The tawse was specifically Scottish.

In England, the cane was used instead).

Answer: Bustle

I learned from my grandmother, that this clothing object was known as a bustle. It was designed to be worn directly under a skirt or dress at the back. This framework device was usually made of steel wiring covered in a cotton fabric. The bustle was meant to keep the heavy dresses, popular at the time, from dragging on the ground in the back.

The bustle echoed the crinoline, that replaced the hoop skirts that had been popular in the previous decades. The fronts and sides of the dress were flat while the back of the dress was gathered and laid over the bustle created a distinctive fullness at the back of the dress.

Answer: Chamber pot

Before indoor plumbing, most homes had chamber pots which were used as urinals at night. They were often stored under the bed or in a special cabinet. This is thought to be the origin of the term "potty". They were usually made of wood, metal, or ceramic. Some were simple and utilitarian, while some were elaborately decorated. The other three options are all types of sieves or colanders.

Answer: They are an early form of a sound recording

These unusual looking objects are an early form of phonograph record. These wax cylinders were used on Alexander G. Bell's gramophone/"graphophone". These wax cylinders could be played over and over, which was an improvement over Edison's tin-foil phonograph. On Edison's device the recording could be played once and the tin-foil record was destroyed. Gramophones and their wax cylinders can still be bought today on antique sites, and most of these cylinders still work. Do not expect the same sound quality that you would get with 21st century technology.

Answer: No

My grandmother is a real jokester, and this machine, known as a wringer was not used for straitening curly hair. It was used to wring the water out of wet laundry after it had been rinsed in clean water. Although it looks somewhat benign, this was a dangerous contraption that could cause severe damage to any fingers that got caught between the rollers. Later washing machines had this feature attached to the top of the machine.

This was before the advent of the spin cycle, which made the wringer obsolete.

Answer: Yes

This is an old mill stone. They were once used in pairs at a mill to grind grain. In today's highly mechanized world, most grinding is done in factories. These large stones are now often used for decorative purposes in lawns and gardens. Mill stones were commonly made from burrstone, or limestone.

The surface of the millstone usually displayed carved furrows, which provided a cutting edge as well as helping to channel the ground product into appropriate containers.

Answer: Printing press

This is an 19th century printing press. At one time, books were an extremely valuable commodity. The moveable type printing press helped make books available to the general public and went hand in hand with the spread of literacy and later with introduction of compulsory education.

By the mid-19th century, the wealthy would buy a house press, similar to this one. It was used to print greeting cards, business cards, and the like. There is no doubt that the moveable press was one of the most important inventions for mankind.

Answer: Water

This innovative water heater was produced around 1910. It allowed water to flow into the canister, where it was heated. It was then allowed to flow out into a tub. This was at a time when bathing usually involved heating water in a pot over a fire. Bathing was cumbersome and often not readily available to most people. Only the wealthy could have afforded this convenience.