Colonial life involved a lot of clever stuff that was part of early Americans’ ordinary routines. Sure, some of it sounds strange now, but those gadgets made daily chores a lot easier for them. Here are six everyday items from that time that you may not know about. Which of these would you like to have in your home?
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Bed key for tightening rope beds
Sleeping used to be a lot harder than simply throwing some sheets on because their beds were made with a lattice of ropes pulled through the frame. Over time, those ropes would start to sag, like an old hammock. That’s where a bed key came in handy. Essentially, it was a chunky wooden handle that twisted the ropes tight again & gave the bed a good cranking.
Sugar nippers for breaking a loaf
Sugar packets didn’t exist in colonial America. Instead, sugar came in heavy cone-shaped loaves, almost like solid bricks, and families kept a pair of iron sugar nippers to snap off chunks of it. These nippers were like strong little pincers. While some people chipped the loaf, others used the tool to squeeze it, then they’d crush the bits into finer grains if needed.
Betty lamp for grease-fed lighting
A betty lamp is an open flame fed by animal fat or fish oil that would be placed in a shallow metal dish. The lamp itself had a spout that looked like a beak. Yes, it was messy and certainly smoky, but it got the job done. Early Americans hung them from hooks & adjusted the cloth wick with a pick. They’d also have to keep the grease topped up so it didn’t sputter out mid-evening.
Pounce pot for drying ink and prepping paper
Sure, today, you can just grab a pen to write. But for colonial Americans, it was a lot harder, as the paper was rough & the ink was slow to dry, which made any mistakes smear quite quickly. Enter the pounce pot. This was a little shaker full of fine powder, like ground cuttlefish bone or resin, that they’d sprinkle over the page. It kept their writing neat without blots.
Niddy-noddy for winding measured skeins
A niddy-noddy wasn’t as weird as it sounds. It was a tool for people who spun their own yarn & needed to measure it somehow, and it was essentially a short stick with two crossbars set at right angles. They would loop the yarn in a repeating pattern and count turns to get an exact skein length. It was also useful for dyeing.
Tin reflector oven for hearth roasting
A tin reflector oven looked like a curved metal box with one side open toward the flames, and it was used for open-fire cooking. The colonists would put the meat on a spit. Then, the shiny interior bounced heat around to roast the food evenly, and the drippings collected in a tray. Someone had to keep turning the spit to keep things cooking right.
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