Welcome
~
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Contact Beth Northrop
ejnorth123 AT juno.com
David Webster, Mary Florence ("Lady", "Nana")
Webster,
Benjamin Chester ("Grampy", "Pa" ) Webster ca. 1944
2495 Post Road, Southport, Connecticut
This is the way the home looked when Benjamin and Mary Florence purchased
it in xxxx
Benjamin (The Inventor) Chester Webster
The second son (or at least living son) of William Webster and Ellen Francis Gallagher Mulholland. He had said altogether there were 13 children, but some died quite young. He was born in San Francisco, California on February 2, 1878. They lived close to the water across from the US. Mint. His father was listed as a machinist in the 1880 US Census, but patent listings indicate he was inventing from at least 1874 on with the earliest sewing machine patent I've found so far in 1876. Benjamin is listed as age 1 in the 1880 census. The next year shows father William back in England, but apparently Ellen and the children stayed elsewhere (?Where). At some point everyone returns to England to pursue their education. It must have been before 1884 when Edington H. was born in Armley, but they were not yet in the new home -- the year on Alameda Villa is 1890. There are a few childhood recollections that he spoke of -- Of buying hot baked potatoes from the back of a cart, of playing squails* with his brothers and sisters. And in later years going to English Music Halls. He finished our (US) equivalent of High School at about age 16. He then went to Germany for a short time for training. This would put the year of his German training at about 1894 -- quite early in the teaching of Electrical Engineering. Who knows what other notables shared this training? When he returned to England he earned degress in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
Here's an image of his class when he was in Germany. I've wondered if there are any other notable people in the picture since this was in the earliest days of electrical engineering. A friend from Germany has made inquiries of some german universities know to have held early Electrical Engineering Training-- so far I have not been able to identify the school.
Benjamin C Webster is the tallest one in the back row.
Please contact me if you recognize anyone in the above picture!
It appears the family returned to the US separately. It is likely his return was xxx. There is no record or him going to California upon his return. He was not in the Great San Francisco Eathquake, but it is possible that other family members were there at the time. He recalled working at a bicycle company and may have worked at the lawn mower shop in sing sing. after c1901 and before 1907
Notes from Questions of Beth to Molly.
Was born in San Franciso across from the US Mint. records destroyed in earthquake. Father and mother married in SF. Moved to england as a boy. Finished HS level about age 16 in Leeds? Went to Germany for a short time in training in England. Then went back to England degrees in Mechnical and Electrical Engineering.
In Bridgeport lived on the lower end of East Main Street. Lived with his aunt annie (widowed) eastern Mfg area Bpt. returned to US spent more time with Mon's other grandmother and fatherVisited in California SF where his older brother William was living. Stayed a few mon=ths worked as mechanical sink to BC. Did development work on his ownand did some work in Shelton ( Holmes lived in shelton distant relations.
bibycle and/or lawn mower
Harvey Hubbell
small factory in Long Hill Bpt almost to monroe
Bryant Electric
Maybe harvey hubbel only or again.
Columbia graphophone when it closed (after the war?) got bricks and panelling for side porch
Westinghouse
GE and years later went back to Westinghouse
re picture
Champs farm was on the banks of ash creek between Bridgeport and Fairfield
Margaret "Maggie" Calam
Edward Parker Webster
King Edward and lawsuit
lawsuit clipping
Mary Florence Webster
paintings
I asked a friend who is a collector if these would be "Hudson River School" I'm curious if these were from actual scenes in nature, copied topics or imagined subjects. She probably painted them in the late 1880s or 1890s.
Her response "Thanks for the pictures! They are charming, and I enjoyed looking at them. I am impressed with them. Did you say your great aunt painted these? I am not sure if they are of a specific real place, but they are in conformity with the genre. They depict charming whimsical secenes evoking a romantic and idealistic sensibility. They also convey innocence. If I understand correctly, specificity is not as important as the sensibility that the artist was trying to get across. There are some, however, that do depict a very specific place, but usually with thoses, they contain very recognizable architectural depictions." Clarissa
pond
river
native
island
smallriver
needlework
tea room
Addresses from Lucy's notebook
1900
??!!
Uncle Ben Address
118 Spring Street
Sing Sing, NY
1901
Benjamin Webster
1117 Kousuth Street
East Bridgeport
Bennie Webster
157 East Pittsburgh, Penn
Bennie Webster
1122 North Avenue
Wilkinsburgh,PA
But before 1907
WEBSTER B C M 1903 Liverpool USA New York VIEW VIEW
record of departure from UK
http://www.findmypast.com/passengerListPersonSearchStart.action?submit=1&forenameSearchType=1
The address in Berkeley when Mom was born was 1701 Woolsey, Berkeley, CA
Ross Benjamin Webster
picture of house
My mother "Molly" was not always the best correspondent. Thank goodness she sometimes wrote drafts of letters or left the letters unsent. Her are some passages from her letters...
Letter to Wilma just before Mom and Dad went on a trip to England. "Wm.'s wife was Eliza Parker. She was almost 6 ft tall and apparently a very strong dominant person."
"There was also my father's brother Eddington (younger brother) but my Dad did so much over the years to try to find him that he finally concluded he was dead."
"..our grandmother, Ellen Francis (Gallagher) Webster. Both she and out grandfather were widowed when they married. Each had a daughter. Hattie Gallagher was our dad's half-sister and m dad always regarded her with a great deal of love. I've been told (can't remember by whom and I've never been able to verify it) that int he 3 families - Ellen's, Williams and Theirs" - there were 13 children, but quite a few of "theirs" died very young both in SF and in England."
Believe the house they lived in when first in Fairfield was the back house from The Daily Post Publisher and Propirietor GW Hills on Unquowa Road which was later the Knights of Columbus building.
Margaret Longhorn Calam B Eastrington, Yorkshire.Burial 3/14/1923 Lakeview Cemetary, Bpt, CT
pictures
Bridgeport Community ?Historical Society exhibit of picture postcards,
collector and photograher Robert Berthelson
Columbia
In May 1900, Emile Berliner, the actual inventor of the disc gramophone,
visited the English Gramophone Company, and so admired the painting, that
he returned to the United States and began using the trademark before
he had even registered it. Ultimately, he registered it as "Nipper
and the Gramophone" in the U.S. on May 26, 1900 and also in Canada.
Berliner founded the company that later became the Victor Talking Machine
Company - later acquired by RCA. Nipper is proudly displayed on each of
the Victrolas the Victor Talking Machine Company manufactured.
Meanwhile, Francis Barraud spent much of the rest of his working life
painting 24 replicas of his original painting, as commissioned by "The
Gramophone Company".
The image conveys a deeper meaning and tells a story - the details of
that story left to the imagination of the viewer. Perhaps that's all part
of its universal appeal.......
For well over a century, the Dictaphone name has been synonymous with excellence and innovation in business communications equipment. The company can trace its history back to 1881, when Alexander Graham Bell and two associates, took on their first team project -- finding a practical way of recording sound for the newly invented telephone.
1881 Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner
Tainter, a scientist and instrument maker, after working in the late 1870's
on the problem of recording and reproducing sound for use with the telephone,
produced the first recording device that used a rotating cylinder on whose
wax coating a steel stylus would cut up-and-down grooves.
1888 Bell and Tainter formed the Volta Graphophone Co. in Bridgeport, Conn., and began to manufacture machines for the recording and reproduction of sound by businesses in office settings.
1907 the patent was sold to the American Graphophone Co., which eventually became the Columbia Graphophone Co, and the Dictaphone was trademarked by Columbia.
1923 Dictaphone Corporation was created from the old Columbia Graphophone
Corporation. The new company flourished, creating the popular Dictaphone
Telecord central telephone recording.
1939 the first electronic dictation machines were introduced.
1942 Dictaphone joined the war effort, as the U.S. government asked the company to develop a new technology that would record enemy communications to assist the military in their code-breaking efforts. As a result, Dictaphone developed the first specialized recording equipment, which soon became the world’s first voice loggers.
1947 Dictaphone applied this new recording technology to commercial logging applications used in public safety and other commercial telephone recording applications. On the dictation front, the company introduced the Time-Master dictation machine, which replaced the older wax cylinder with the new plastic DictaBelt record.
1952 the first National Secretaries Week is proclaimed in June, with Dictaphone as the first sponsor. New innovations in recording continued as Dictaphone firmly established dictation as a time saver over handwriting and stenography among attorneys, physicians, and other professionals.
1878 Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. Five stock holders, including Gardiner
G. Hubbard (the father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell), bought Edison’s
tinfoil phonograph patent for $10 000 & guarantee of 20% of future
profits. It leased out demonstration rights for promotional purposes.
1885 Volta Graphophone Co. Established by Bell & his associates to
demonstrate and promote the graphophone.
1886 American Graphophone Co. Established by Bell & Tainter to manufacture
and sell graphophones in the United States and Canada under licence from
the Volta Graphophone Co.
1887 Edison Phonograph Co. Edison bought back the assets of the Edison
Speaking Phonograph Co. and reorganized as the Edison Phonograph Co.
1888 North American Phonograph Co. Established by Jesse Lippincott to
set up a sales network of local companies to lease phonographs & gramophones
as dictation machines. Lippincott invested $200 000 in the American Graphophone
Company and agreed to purchase 5000 machines per year, in return for sales
rights to the graphophone (except in Virginia, Delaware, and the District
of Columbia). He also bought control of Edison patents for $500 000, and
exclusive sales rights of the phonograph in the United States from Ezrah
T. Gilliand (who had previously been granted the contract by Edison) for
$250 000, leaving Edison with the manufacturing rights.
Edison Phonograph Works Established to manufacture and develop the phonograph
while patents and sales rights were held by North American Phonograph
Co.
1889 Columbia Phonograph Co. A group of men, licenced by the American
Graphophone Company to sell graphophones in Washington, D.C., established
the Columbia Phonograph Company. Also licenced by the North American Phonograph
Company to sell phonographs in the same area.
1893 United States Gramophone Co. Established by Emile Berliner to attract
investors for the gramophone. He hired Fred Gaisberg, who had prior recording
experience, to help him in that capacity. They found investors in Philidelphia
to contribute $25 000.
American Graphophone Co.
Columbia Phonograph Co. Control of the American Graphophone Company acquired
by the president of Columbia.
1894 Pathé Frères Company founded in Paris by brothers Charles
and Émile Pathé to manufacture their own talking machine,
first called Le Coq, and then the Pathéphone.
1895 Berliner Gram-o-phone Co. Established in Philidelphia to manufacture
all equipment and discs under licence from Washington based U.S. Gramophone
Co.
American Graphophone Co.
Columbia Phonograph Co. The two companies were, in effect, consolidated,
the Graphophone Co. concerning itself with development and manufacturing
and Columbia handling distribution and sales.
1896 National Gramophone Co. Established by Frank Seaman to undertake
distribution and advertising of the gramophone and given exclusive sales
rights.
National Phonograph Co. Edison dissolved the North American Phonograph
Company and, salvaging his phonograph patents, established the National
Phonograph Co. to manufacture and distribute phonographs for home use.
1898 The Gramophone Company (England) Established in London by William
Barry Owen and E. Trevor Williams to manufacture gramophones and records
in Europe.
1899 E. Berliner, Montreal Established by Emile Berliner to hold exclusive
manufacturing, sales and distribution rights to gramophones and discs
in Canada.
1900
R.S. Williams & Sons Around this time, R. S. Williams, an instrument
manufacturer based in Toronto, begins Canadian distribution for Edison.
The Gramophone & Typewriter Company Ltd. The Gramophone Company (England)
changes its name.
1901 Victor Talking Machine Co. Established by Eldridge Johnson to take
over the Berliner interests in the United States.
1904 Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada E. Berliner, Montreal reorganized
and renamed. Incorporated with Emmanuel Blout, Joseph Sanders, and Herbert
Berliner as directors.
Columbia Phonograph Co. Begins operations in Canada with headquarters
in Toronto and offices in Hamilton, Montreal and Brantford, ON.
1906 Columbia Graphophone Company The American Graphophone company is
reorganized and the name changed to reflect its identity with Columbia.
1907 The Gramophone Company (England) The Gramophone & Typewriter
Company reverts to its former name. The company moves its base of operations
from London to Hayes.
1909 Berliner Gram-o-phone Company Emile Berliner assumed presidency of
Berliner of Canada which underwent reorganization and was renamed. The
company begins issuing records on the His Master’s Voice label using
masters imported from The Gramophone Co. in England and France. The His
Master’s Voice label was later used for series of Canadian recordings
in English (1916) and French (1918).
1910 Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Edison’s various manufacturing enterprises
were reorganized and brought together into one corporation.
1913 Canadian Vitaphone Company Established in Toronto and headed by W.R.
Fosdick, former manager of His Master’s Voice Ltd. in Toronto. It
manufactured the Vitaphone, a disc-playing machine with a wooden tone-arm
and stationary sound box, and imported Columbia records for release on
its own label.
1914 Pathé Frères Begins distribution in Canada through
J.A. Hurteau & Co. Ltd., Montreal and M.W. Glendon, Toronto.
1915 Starr Piano Co. Begins issuing vertical-cut records in the US.
1916 Brunswick-
Balke-
Collender Co. Begins issuing vertical-cut records in the US.
1917 Brunswick-
Balke-
Collender Co. of Canada Opens factory in Toronto to manufacture Ultona
talking machine. In 1920, begins manufacturing records as well.
Canadian Phonograph Supply Co. Begins importing Starr records.
1918 Compo Company Established in Lachine, Quebec by Herbert Berliner
to press records in Canada for independent companies (e.g. Starr and Starr-Gennett
labels for Starr). Later pressed its own labels (Sun, Apex).
Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company Columbia reorganized.
Pathé Frères Phonograph Co. of Canada Established in Toronto.
1924 Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc. Louis Sterling of the Columbia Phonograph
Co., Ltd. of London, bought out Columbia and reorganized it.
Victor Talking Machine Company of Canada Victor Talking Machine Co. (U.S.)
acquired controlling interest in the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company, changing
its name.
1888 North American Phonograph Co. Established by Jesse Lippincott to
set up a sales network of local companies to lease phonographs & gramophones
as dictation machines. Lippincott invested $200 000 in the American Graphophone
Company and agreed to purchase 5000 machines per year, in return for sales
rights to the graphophone (except in Virginia, Delaware, and the District
of Columbia). He also bought control of Edison patents for $500 000, and
exclusive sales rights of the phonograph in the United States from Ezrah
T. Gilliand (who had previously been granted the contract by Edison) for
$250 000, leaving Edison with the manufacturing rights.
Edison Phonograph Works Established to manufacture and develop the phonograph
while patents and sales rights were held by North American Phonograph
Co.
1889 Columbia Phonograph Co. A group of men, licenced by the American
Graphophone Company to sell graphophones in Washington, D.C., established
the Columbia Phonograph Company. Also licenced by the North American Phonograph
Company to sell phonographs in the same area.
1893 United States Gramophone Co. Established by Emile Berliner to attract
investors for the gramophone. He hired Fred Gaisberg, who had prior recording
experience, to help him in that capacity. They found investors in Philidelphia
to contribute $25 000.
American Graphophone Co.
Columbia Phonograph Co. Control of the American Graphophone Company acquired
by the president of Columbia.
1894 Pathé Frères Company founded in Paris by brothers Charles
and Émile Pathé to manufacture their own talking machine,
first called Le Coq, and then the Pathéphone.
1895 Berliner Gram-o-phone Co. Established in Philidelphia to manufacture
all equipment and discs under licence from Washington based U.S. Gramophone
Co.
American Graphophone Co.
Columbia Phonograph Co. The two companies were, in effect, consolidated,
the Graphophone Co. concerning itself with development and manufacturing
and Columbia handling distribution and sales.
1896 National Gramophone Co. Established by Frank Seaman to undertake
distribution and advertising of the gramophone and given exclusive sales
rights.
National Phonograph Co. Edison dissolved the North American Phonograph
Company and, salvaging his phonograph patents, established the National
Phonograph Co. to manufacture and distribute phonographs for home use.
1898 The Gramophone Company (England) Established in London by William
Barry Owen and E. Trevor Williams to manufacture gramophones and records
in Europe.
1899 E. Berliner, Montreal Established by Emile Berliner to hold exclusive
manufacturing, sales and distribution rights to gramophones and discs
in Canada.
1900
R.S. Williams & Sons Around this time, R. S. Williams, an instrument
manufacturer based in Toronto, begins Canadian distribution for Edison.
The Gramophone & Typewriter Company Ltd. The Gramophone Company (England)
changes its name.
1901 Victor Talking Machine Co. Established by Eldridge Johnson to take
over the Berliner interests in the United States.
1904 Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada E. Berliner, Montreal reorganized
and renamed. Incorporated with Emmanuel Blout, Joseph Sanders, and Herbert
Berliner as directors.
Columbia Phonograph Co. Begins operations in Canada with headquarters
in Toronto and offices in Hamilton, Montreal and Brantford, ON.
1906 Columbia Graphophone Company The American Graphophone company is
reorganized and the name changed to reflect its identity with Columbia.
1907 The Gramophone Company (England) The Gramophone & Typewriter
Company reverts to its former name. The company moves its base of operations
from London to Hayes.
1909 Berliner Gram-o-phone Company Emile Berliner assumed presidency of
Berliner of Canada which underwent reorganization and was renamed. The
company begins issuing records on the His Master’s Voice label using
masters imported from The Gramophone Co. in England and France. The His
Master’s Voice label was later used for series of Canadian recordings
in English (1916) and French (1918).
1910 Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Edison’s various manufacturing enterprises
were reorganized and brought together into one corporation.
1913 Canadian Vitaphone Company Established in Toronto and headed by W.R.
Fosdick, former manager of His Master’s Voice Ltd. in Toronto. It
manufactured the Vitaphone, a disc-playing machine with a wooden tone-arm
and stationary sound box, and imported Columbia records for release on
its own label.
1914 Pathé Frères Begins distribution in Canada through
J.A. Hurteau & Co. Ltd., Montreal and M.W. Glendon, Toronto.
1915 Starr Piano Co. Begins issuing vertical-cut records in the US.
1916 Brunswick-
Balke-
Collender Co. Begins issuing vertical-cut records in the US.
1917 Brunswick-
Balke-
Collender Co. of Canada Opens factory in Toronto to manufacture Ultona
talking machine. In 1920, begins manufacturing records as well.
Canadian Phonograph Supply Co. Begins importing Starr records.
1918 Compo Company Established in Lachine, Quebec by Herbert Berliner
to press records in Canada for independent companies (e.g. Starr and Starr-Gennett
labels for Starr). Later pressed its own labels (Sun, Apex).
Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company Columbia reorganized.
Pathé Frères Phonograph Co. of Canada Established in Toronto.
1924 Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc. Louis Sterling of the Columbia Phonograph
Co., Ltd. of London, bought out Columbia and reorganized it.
Victor Talking Machine Company of Canada Victor Talking Machine Co. (U.S.)
acquired controlling interest in the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company, changing
its name.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/gramophone/m2-3009-e.html
squails
Giles did not, however, only translate t'an ch'i as tiddlywinks. The full entry in his 1912 dictionary was "a kind of Chinese 'tiddlywinks'; squails." What is squails? With this word we traverse time and space, like Kubrick's brilliant associative cut from bone to spaceship in 2001 moving from Han China to Victorian England. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "a table-game in which counters or disks are propelled toward some mark by snapping. App. introduced in 1857 by Mr. John Jaques, London." As with t'an ch'i, snapping suggests tiddlywinks if there is a squidger mediating between hand and counter, but only boccie if there is none. The Young Folks' Cyclopaedia of Games and Sports by John D. Champlin Jr. and Arthur E. Bostwick (1890) gives a good account of squails, but it seems to be a slightly different game there. Four or six people, playing as two teams, sit alternately around a table with a smooth top, in the center of which is a short metal column. Each player has two squails (small wooden discs), which he propels toward the column by striking them (another book talks of pushing) with the open palm of his hand. If they go off the table, a turn is missed. A variation of this game, called cachinole [Footnote 1], involves a circular board and snapping with fingers (probably the middle finger) from the board's edge. Both squails and cachinole seem to resemble indoor curling or bowls in their play. Webster's Second New International Dictionary (1934) lists squails as a "formerly common" game, "now rare," in which the discs are "driven or snapped."
It's All in the Game by James J. Shea and Charles Mercer (1960), the history of the Milton Bradley Company (which does not even mention winks), devotes a page to squails, adding no information about the method of play but including a few interesting facts. Squails was introduced to America by Mr. Bradley himself in 1867 and was a "boisterous" affair billed as "the jolliest game ever invented." It was hundreds of years old [Footnote 2] and had at times been as popular in English taverns as darts or bowling. Bradley devised new rules for both team and individual play. The game was not initially popular and died out, but was later revived and was "well received" for a time before fading again.
None of these sources associates squails with tiddlywinks (although there is one book which suggests that winks could be used as squails counters), as well they should not if there is no squidger. The squails connection only strengthens the probability that Giles was confused about his games. He could not have translated t'an ch'i as both a kind of tiddlywinks and as squails unless he thought there could be tiddlywinks without squidgers, or unless he saw some foreshadowing of winks in a certain kind of squidger-less game. I am going again to appeal to the presumption of Giles' non-cretinism and conclude that the latter possibility is the correct one, and that t'an ch'i therefore has some claim to consideration as a precursor of tiddlywinks, since at least one scholar seems to have thought so, although just what about it resembled winks l cannot say. If "snapping" your fingers can be interpreted to mean pressing downward with the fingernail, then t'an ch'i is definitely Chinese tiddlywinks.
Having lingered too long on speculative origins that are mostly diverting dead ends, I turn now to more solid ground. Leslie Daiken implies in Children's Toys Throughout the Ages (1953) that tiddlywinks originated in England, and perhaps he is correct. Marchant Games Ltd. wrote to Cambridge pioneer Bill Steen in 1955 that "unlike most board games it is of English origin. This company has been manufacturing Tiddleywinks for over 100 years." (Steen asserted after associates had canvassed the British Museum and Cambridge libraries that "the game was quite well known in the middle of the nineteenth century in Europe, but thot it tended towards obscurity at the turn of the century.") The Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh has an exhibit on winks which indicates that the game dates to about 1860. The museum also, though, displays a fish-shaped squidger, dated at 1850 [Note from Rick Tucker in August 1998: These dates are not substantiated and may be considered suspect; no substantiated tiddlywinks sets are known prior to 1888.] . This is the earliest real evidence of tiddlywinks, but a somewhat older history cannot be ruled out: one one book about toys calls winks in 1883 [Note from Rick Tucker in August 1998: This date is also suspect.] an "old English game," as do other references around the same time or slightly later, often speaking of its traditionalness and popularity. The 1883 quote is the first known use of the word itself (the O.E.D., in a pretty disappointing performance for a work of such overwhelming outhority, gives 1898 as the earliest example). [Footnote 3]
In contrast to the mystery surrounding Chinese and English origins (not to mention the Continental "flea-game," about which no one knows anything), the birth of American tiddlywinks is completely known. In 1883, "several elderly English ladies" entered the New York store of F.A.O. Schwarz "and asked for the game of 'Tiddley Winks.' None could be found in America, so Schwarz undertook to have some rather crude sets made for them. These caught on, and when American manufacturers began making (tiddlywinks) Schwarz stopped" (quote from Toys in America by Inez and Marshall McClintock, published in 1961, based on Schwarz' later recollections).
By 1890, a scant seven years later, "Tiddledy Winks," as American game companies like to call it, had become quite developed. The rules given in the Young Folks' Cyclopaedia show some surprising similarities to modern winks. It was played on thick cloth on a table. Four people played as partners and sat opposite each other. There were six winks of the same color per player. Potting was rewarded with an extra turn. A covered wink could not be played until it was uncovered but note that intentional squopping was illegal). A wink shot off the table was replaced one inc from the edge. Finally, one variation nf the basic game included a form of boondocking.
Richard Hussong discovered an 1890 set of "Tiddledy Winks"
manufactured by McLoughlin Bros., New York (later bought out by Bradley).
The rules for this game featured four or six players playing as pairs
on a table "with or without a thick cloth." The idea of potting
was called "novel" here. Two different games were described,
an "English" and an "American" one. In the former,
play began with winks in a row near the table edge, there was a free turn
after potting and replacement at tho edge, and "if one (wink) lies
on his and he has no other to jump," a player "must wait until
the opponent removes the wink before he can play. Another's wink must
not be purposely covered." (This latter provision corresponds to
the Cyclopaedia rule and to the Marchant rule which inspired the modern
game.) The latter differed in the use of a small mat as a surface and
in the mechanics of winning.
ORIGINS of Tiddlywinks by Fred Shapiro, from Fleas, November 1978.htm
Giles did not, however, only translate t'an ch'i as tiddlywinks. The full entry in his 1912 dictionary was "a kind of Chinese 'tiddlywinks'; squails." What is squails? With this word we traverse time and space, like Kubrick's brilliant associative cut from bone to spaceship in 2001 moving from Han China to Victorian England. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "a table-game in which counters or disks are propelled toward some mark by snapping. App. introduced in 1857 by Mr. John Jaques, London." As with t'an ch'i, snapping suggests tiddlywinks if there is a squidger mediating between hand and counter, but only boccie if there is none. The Young Folks' Cyclopaedia of Games and Sports by John D. Champlin Jr. and Arthur E. Bostwick (1890) gives a good account of squails, but it seems to be a slightly different game there. Four or six people, playing as two teams, sit alternately around a table with a smooth top, in the center of which is a short metal column. Each player has two squails (small wooden discs), which he propels toward the column by striking them (another book talks of pushing) with the open palm of his hand. If they go off the table, a turn is missed. A variation of this game, called cachinole [Footnote 1], involves a circular board and snapping with fingers (probably the middle finger) from the board's edge. Both squails and cachinole seem to resemble indoor curling or bowls in their play. Webster's Second New International Dictionary (1934) lists squails as a "formerly common" game, "now rare," in which the discs are "driven or snapped."
It's All in the Game by James J. Shea and Charles Mercer (1960), the history of the Milton Bradley Company (which does not even mention winks), devotes a page to squails, adding no information about the method of play but including a few interesting facts. Squails was introduced to America by Mr. Bradley himself in 1867 and was a "boisterous" affair billed as "the jolliest game ever invented." It was hundreds of years old [Footnote 2] and had at times been as popular in English taverns as darts or bowling. Bradley devised new rules for both team and individual play. The game was not initially popular and died out, but was later revived and was "well received" for a time before fading again.
None of these sources associates squails with tiddlywinks (although there is one book which suggests that winks could be used as squails counters), as well they should not if there is no squidger. The squails connection only strengthens the probability that Giles was confused about his games. He could not have translated t'an ch'i as both a kind of tiddlywinks and as squails unless he thought there could be tiddlywinks without squidgers, or unless he saw some foreshadowing of winks in a certain kind of squidger-less game. I am going again to appeal to the presumption of Giles' non-cretinism and conclude that the latter possibility is the correct one, and that t'an ch'i therefore has some claim to consideration as a precursor of tiddlywinks, since at least one scholar seems to have thought so, although just what about it resembled winks l cannot say. If "snapping" your fingers can be interpreted to mean pressing downward with the fingernail, then t'an ch'i is definitely Chinese tiddlywinks.
Having lingered too long on speculative origins that are mostly diverting dead ends, I turn now to more solid ground. Leslie Daiken implies in Children's Toys Throughout the Ages (1953) that tiddlywinks originated in England, and perhaps he is correct. Marchant Games Ltd. wrote to Cambridge pioneer Bill Steen in 1955 that "unlike most board games it is of English origin. This company has been manufacturing Tiddleywinks for over 100 years." (Steen asserted after associates had canvassed the British Museum and Cambridge libraries that "the game was quite well known in the middle of the nineteenth century in Europe, but thot it tended towards obscurity at the turn of the century.") The Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh has an exhibit on winks which indicates that the game dates to about 1860. The museum also, though, displays a fish-shaped squidger, dated at 1850. This is the earliest real evidence of tiddlywinks, but a somewhat older history cannot be ruled out: one one book about toys calls winks in 1883 an "old English game," as do other references around the same time or slightly later, often speaking of its traditionalness and popularity. The 1883 quote is the first known use of the word itself (the O.E.D., in a pretty disappointing performance for a work of such overwhelming outhority, gives 1898 as the earliest example). [Footnote 3]
C:\Documents and Settings\owner\My Documents\Genealogy\webstergen\ORIGINS of Tiddlywinks by Fred Shapiro, from Fleas, November.htm
music hall
http://www.musichallcds.com/music_hall_cds_catalogue.htm
1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
BCW and family were back in CT within a couple of years of Mom's birth (1912) so it's unlikely they attended, but it's quite possible William Webster attended the Exposition.
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from http://www.sanfranciscomemories.com/ppie/PalaceOfVariedIndustries.html
There was another in 1939 in SF