Born in Russia in 1831, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky claimed to possess psychic prowess from an early age and, after abandoning her husband at the age of 17, spent the next decade traveling the world. When she returned to her homeland in 1858, she popularized tales of two years spent studying beneath Tibetan Masters in the Himalayas and her ability to contact other such “Mahatmas,” who resided in various remote sites throughout Asia.
Despite its imposing length and obtuse language, Isis Unveiled gained Blavatsky an imposing degree of influence on both sides of the Atlantic and, in July 1878, she became the first Russian woman to gain US citizenship. Nonetheless, Olcott and the Madame soon took off for India, where they intended to study Eastern religion and esoterica.
Some of those letters eventually made it to the press and allegations of fraud once again surfaced, forcing Blavatsky to flee to Europe. While in exile from the majority of her followers, and in declining health, she penned The Secret Doctrine. Upon its publication in 1888, Theosophy followers revered it as her greatest work, while critics leveled accusations of plagiarism. 
When we think of streetcars most of us picture San Francisco cable cars or a streetcar in New Orleans and though these are among some of the oldest systems in operation they were not the first systems developed in America. In fact, the first mass transit vehicle in America was called an omnibus which resembled a stagecoach and was drawn by horses. Horse drawn carriages were not a new thing but what was different is these vehicles operated on a predetermined route and charged a small fare. The first omnibus ran along Broadway in New York City during 1827. Initially, the operator of the omnibus rode on top just like a stagecoach and riders would tug on a leather strap connected to the driver to signal they wanted to get off and those who wanted to get on would simply wave their hands to notify the driver. These systems ran in cities across America until around 1905 when the design was improved upon by the development of the streetcar.
Initially streetcars were also drawn by horses but these vehicles ran on rails that were put in the street which meant it was more comfortable and a single horse could pull a larger car that would hold more people. The wheels were made of steel so they would not jump off the rails and the first one began operation in 1832 along Bowery Street in New York. New Orleans was the next city to have the new streetcars in 1835. Usually they were operated by two men, one was a driver who controlled the horses and had a brake handle for stopping. The other person was a conductor who collected the fares, assisted people entering or leaving the car, and signaled the driver by ringing a bell attached to a rope.
| Cable cars were introduced in 1873 and used a cable that ran under the city streets operated by a steam engine. The change from horse power to the new automated system required digging under the tracks and installing the cable with a system of pulleys so the operator could attach to the cable to start moving the car and detach from the cable to stop. The first city to have cable cars was San Francisco but Chicago had the largest number of cars in operation and by 1890 they were common in most big cities. As technology improved so did the streetcar and | |
| beginning in 1888 cities started converting to electricity. The wire was installed overhead, generators turned by steam engine would supply the electricity, and the streetcar would use a pole to reach them. The electrically powered vehicles came to be known as trolley cars and are still in operation in a few cities but the development of the personal automobile signaled the demise of streetcars as a major form on transportation. | |
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Most of us think of using a tourniquet to stop bleeding in emergency situations. The device is often used in life saving measures but like many medical items it has an interesting history. The development of the tourniquet would not have been possible without the work of English surgeon William Harvey who deciphered the human circulation system in 1628. Jean Louis Petit developed the first tourniquet in 1718 to stop blood flow at surgical sites. His invention used a screw device to apply the pressure and he named it after the French verb tourner which means to turn.
Generally, Joseph Lister is credited as being the first to use a tourniquet apparatus to create bloodless surgeries in 1864. In 1873 a tourniquet was developed by Friedrich von Esmarch that did not use screws to stop the blood flow and was a popular device but was shown later to occasionally cause limb paralysis.
In 1908 August Bier developed a technique that employed two tourniquets to provide regional anesthesia to isolate a limb and then infuse it intravenously. This technique was refined as a single tourniquet application by Hamilton Holmes in 1963. Currently the two tourniquet technique is applied often and is commonly known as the Bier Block or Bier’s method. In the 1980s James McEwen developed a tourniquet controlled by microprocessors which has dramatically increased the safety of tourniquet use. The first patent for an electronically controlled device in the U.S. was issued to McEwen in 1984.
