Good afternoon everyone,

As the nights fly in (northern hemisphere), let's think about what's good about that. Radiators. Jumpers. Cups of tea. Okay great, there's our Fem Fri.

I just love the quality of heat that a radiator gives out. And were you aware that the first gas powered heating patent was filed by Alice H. Parker. What's amazing about this blog post is that it's from her alma mater who kind of say "given the context, she probably did a STEM degree, but we don't know":

While living with her family in a small, Morristown home, the Parker family found difficulties in heating its entire home at the same time, a dangerous scenario during East Coast winters. Coal and wood, commonly used to fuel heating models in the 19th century, were not readily available. Parker allegedly chose gas since it was a safer, easily accessible alternative and did not require a fireplace.

https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/brought-you-howard-alice-h-parkers-historic-patent-gas-heater-warms-world

Jumpers, then. Here's a lovely article about the history of Victorian knitting manuals (sometimes I wonder if this newsletter is a bit too niche? Surely not):

They provided a general sense of a pattern but you would need to know how to work around them in order to complete. So, as was the case then and still is now, you would need to already be a skilled knitter. In addition some of the notation was notoriously difficult to follow. It is worth checking out Jane Gaugain’s work, for example, Mrs Gaugain’s minature knitting netting and crochet book from 1843 pages 8-9 to fully appreciate the complexity before instructions were standardized. […] due to mass publication and the high demand for these manuals, print runs were rushed out and as a result a number of editing mistakes are evident, which was yet another obstacle that users of the manuals would have to acknowledge and overcome.

https://daily.jstor.org/knitting-manuals-collection/

Well, I hope you liked the cocktail recipe from a couple of weeks ago because I have another one to represent cups of tea. This is called (for reasons not quite interesting enough to go into here) Soon May The Enys Men Come:

50ml bourbon or rye

25ml acorn liqueur (possible substitutions: Frangelico or simple syrup)

25ml chai (chilled)

You'll need to put this on ice, but don't worry you'll be warm because of the heating and the jumpers.

Love,

Alex.