Lights, camera, action ...

On this day in history, Auguste and Louis Lumière give the first public demonstration of the cinématograph.

In Besançon, France, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière was born October 19, 1862 and Louis Jean Lumière was born October 5, 1864 the sons of Charles Antoine Lumière, who ran a photgraphic firm. In 1870 they moved to Lyon, and attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. They later worked for their father, Auguste as a manager, and Louis as a physicist. Louis had made many improvements to the still photograph process. The most notable of these improvements being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.

They had not, though, started to create moving pictures until their fathers retirement in 1892. They patented many significant processes all leading up to their film camera - most notably film perforations as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on February 13, 1985 and the and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory was privately screened on March 22, 1895. Some consider this world's first movie.

The brothers stated that ``the cinema is an invention without any future'' and declined to sell their camera to other filmmakers. Consequently, their role in the history of film was exceedingly brief. They turned their attentions to photography.
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The predecessor of motion picture was laterna magica (magic lantern) and toys called zoetropes. In the Shirt Factory that houses the teashop, there is a graphic artist well-versed in the subject of these devices. If ever you desire a truly entertaining show illustrating laterna magica, please contact my good friend Russell Serrianne!
http://lanternshow.net/index.html
(He's a really great graphic artist, too -- in case you ever need any professional artwork or logo development done)

Dr. Livingstone, I presume ...

On this day in 1871, Welsh journalist Henry Morton Stanley (left) started his famous quest through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone.

In the late 19th century, Europeans and Americans were deeply fascinated by Africa, hailed as the "Dark Continent", and its many mysteries. Few did more to increase Africa's fame than Dr. Livingstone, one of England's most fearless explorers. In August 1865, he set out on a planned two-year expedition to find the source of the Nile River. Dr. Livingstone also hoped to help bring about the abolition of the slave trade, which was devastating Africa's population.

Almost six years after his expedition began, very little had been heard from Dr. Livingstone. Stanley was sent to Africa, by New York Herald editor, James Gordon Bennett, to lead an expedition into the African wilderness to find Livingstone -- dead or alive. At age 28, Stanley had his own fascinating past. As a young orphan in Wales, he crossed the Atlantic on the crew of a merchant ship. He jumped ship in New Orleans and later served in the Civil War as both a Confederate and a Union soldier before beginning a career in journalism.

After setting out from Zanzibar in March 1871, Stanley led his caravan of nearly 2,000 men into the interior of Africa. Nearly eight months passed--during which Stanley contracted dysentery, cerebral malaria and smallpox--before the expedition approached the village of Ujiji, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Sick and poverty-stricken, Livingstone (right) had come to Ujiji that July after living for some time at the mercy of Arab slave traders. When Stanley's caravan entered the village on October 27, flying the American flag, villagers crowded toward the new arrivals. Spotting a white man with a gray beard in the crowd, Stanley stepped toward him and stretched out his hand: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

These words soon became famous across Europe and the United States. Though Stanley urged Livingstone to return with him to London, the explorer vowed to continue his original mission. Livingstone died 18 months later in today's Zambia. He was found in his hut, having passed away during prayer. A monument was erected on that spot, and his heart was buried there. The remainder of his body was taken back to England, where he was buried in Westminster Abbey with pomp and glory.

As for Stanley, he returned to Africa to fulfill a promise he had made to Livingstone -- to find the source of the Nile. He later damaged his reputation by accepting money from King Leopold II of Belgium to help create the Belgian-ruled Congo Free State and promote the slave trade. When he left Africa, Stanley resumed his British citizenship and even served in Parliament, but when he died he was refused burial in Westminster Abbey because of his actions in the Congo Free State.

The obvious birthday ...

George Washington’s first recorded tea order included a request for six pounds of the finest Hyson tea England. His breakfast at Mount Vernon was routinely three cups of tea, no cream or sugar--the correct way to drink green tea, and three hoecakes made from Indian cornmeal with honey and butter.

According to Tea with Presidential Families by Beulah Munshower Sommer and Pearl Dexter, orders for tea were placed for both Mount Vernon and his Philadelphia residence. These orders included requests for Gunpowder green tea and Young Hyson. George Washington drank tea regularly before the American Revolutionary War, after the Boston Tea Party, while he was the commanding general during the war, and during his presidency, as did most Americans.
It is estimated that Americans at the time of the American Revolution drank more tea per capita than any other nation on earth, at times averaging ten pounds of tea yearly for every man, woman, and child. (One pound of tea makes about 200 cups of tea, so that’s 2000 cups of tea yearly!) He loved the best gourmet green tea and continued to buy highest quality teas throughout the war (Dutch ships carrying tea and supplies were allowed in). In the book George Washington’s Expense Account, by Marvin Kitman, records show that he purchased tea costing over $20 a pound (calculated to 1970 prices). I wonder if American Revolutionary War re-enactors know of George's love of tea ...

After he became the first American President, tea was always served for state occasions.
George and Martha Washington brought with them to the Presidency several complete tea sets as well as tea boards, tea tables, tea chests, silver teaspoons, and a silver-plated tea urn.

In honor of George's great love for green tea, particularly gunpowder green tea and Young Hyson, I'm placing both on sale through the end of the month (02/28/09) at 10% off. If you are placing an online order, please make reference to ``blogspot 022209'' in the Special Comments section of the online form. If you are making an in-ship purchase, please remind me of the sale. The highlighted words oin the articles I write are links to either my website or other sites of interest and/or relevance.

The Lady with The Alligator Purse

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 in West Grove near Adams, Massachusetts, the oldest of seven children. Under her mother’s influence and her father’s open-mind, this precocious child grew up to be a lasting inspiration as a rights leader extraordinaire. (Abolitionist, prominent player in the temperance movement, women’s rights activist, suffragist for blacks and women, and more!)

She lived most of her life in a brick house located at 17 Madison Street in Rochester, NY, sharing it with her mother and sister, while other extended family members lived next door and across the street. This house is also the site of her famous arrest for voting in 1872.

This house is only a few blocks from where longtime friend Frederick Douglass had lived during his time in Rochester, when he was publishing his abolitionist newspaper The North Star. A block away from the Susan B. Anthony house and halfway to where Douglass’ house stood there is a sculpture in a park-like setting of Douglass and Anthony having tea, which represents the cordial relationship that they had in real life. (Can you imagine the conversations they must have had?!)

Another tidbit about Susan B. Anthony …
Did you know that Miss Anthony carried an alligator purse with her everywhere she traveled? It’s on display at the Susan B. Anthony house in Rochester. Could she have been ``the lady with the alligator purse’’ chanted about in clapping games and jump roping? So say the guides at the Susan B. Anthony house.

Miss Lucy called the doctor,
Miss Lucy called the nurse,
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.

Mumps, said the doctor,
Measles, said the nurse,
Vote! said the lady with the alligator purse.

This isn’t how I remember it … it’s not even how I recall imagining an alligator purse. This is how I imagined the purse …


Oooo ... is the blog starting to prove how my mind and imagination works? Oh well, you can see I fully enjoy humor (and I have no real fashion sense)!

I first learned of Susan B. Anthony when she was mentioned in a ditty called Sufferin’ til Suffrage on my favorite childhood program, Schoolhouse Rock. You can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGHGDO_b_q0

The beginning of Assam in Britain

Two Scottish brothers, Major Robert Bruce and Sir Charles Alexander Bruce started tea cultivation in India in 1817. In 1823 Robert discovered an indigenous plant used by the people of the Assam region of India. Originally it was rejected as being just another form of the flower, Camellia sinensis. Before his death in 1825, Robert passed the information about the plant on to his brother Charles. When presented more thoroughly in 1830 by Charles, the find was declared ``the most important and valuable'' ever made on agricultural or commercial resources of the British Empire. In 1835, the first tea company, the Assam Tea Company, opened.

On January 10, 1839 a shipment of 159k of tea (about 300 lbs of Assam tea shipped in May 1838) from the Assam region of India became available in Britain for the first time. Until this time, the nation had seen only tea from China, and that had become very expensive. As India was a British colony, there was no duty on the Indian tea and it quickly became more affordable than the Chinese tea. This lead to the popularity of tea drinking in Britain.

Today's CelebriTea is Rod Stewart
Lyrics excerpted from ``Every Picture Tells a Story'', 1971

Paris was a place you could hide away
if you felt you didn't fit in
French police wouldn't give me no peace
They claimed I was a nasty person
Down along the Left Bank minding my own
Was knocked down by a human stampede
Got arrested for inciting a peaceful riot
when all I wanted was a cup of tea
I was accused
I moved on ...

Happy 64th Birthday, Rod!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9GaFZw-czY

Sherlock Holmes and his cup of tea

Sherlock Holmes was born in this day in history in 1854. That is to say, of course, that is character was born. Let’s remember that Sherlock Holmes was a character, not a real person. It is widely accepted that lapsang souchong was the tea of choice for Sherlock Holmes. However, while it is clear that Sherlock was definitely a tea drinker there is no reference to lapsang souchong in any of the Sherlock Holmes book. All the same, we are confident that the tea, lapsang or not, led him to all those brilliant deductions. Don't you agree? Lapsang souchong (Chinese term is Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong) black tea from the Wuyi region in the Fujian province of China. It is a distinctively smoky tea, due largely to the fact that it is smoked. Tea leaves are placed in cypress baskets and smoked over pine fires. The scent is not unlike that of a campfire. While it is safe to say it is certainly an acquired teas, lapsang souchong is a fabulous with which to cook. When making soups and stews, substitute lapsang souchong for a smokier taste that is fat-free, calorie-free and vegan. Lapsang souchong can also be great when used in place of water for making rice. You might, though, want to consider a little salt, as you will be lacking all the sodium the commercial broths contain.

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Other cool stuff!

Today is the birthday of one of the best kids programs in history! Schoolhouse Rock was ``born'' on this day 36 years ago. This is how I think I first came to learn that the independence of our country has something to do with tea. Actually this is how I learned a lot of things when I was growing up (oh yeah ... and I read a lot of books and drank tea, too!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofYmhlclqr4

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is in English folk custom the end of Christmas merrymaking and in ancient Celtic tradition the end of the 12-day winter solstice celebration. On Twelfth Night, it was customary for the assembled company to toast one another from the wassail bowl. In Old English, wassail means "Be in good health," but the term also was applied to the drink itself (usually spiced ale). Leaves me to wonder how many people got sick drinking from the same wassail bowl!



WASSAIL TEA recipe for Twelfth Night Celebration
¾ c. lemon juice
1 ½ c. orange juice
1 ½ c. apple cider
1 ½ c. sugar
1 ½ c. water
3 tsp. of our Organic Pumpkin Spice Black Tea blend
or
7 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 ½ tsp. tea

Combine juices and cider in large kettle. Set aside. Combine ½ cup sugar, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in 2 cups water. Bring to a boil. Remove spices. Add spiced water mixture to juices. Add 1 ½ cups boiling water to tea. Steep for 5 minutes. Strain. Add tea to juices with remaining 1 cup sugar. Add 5 cups boiling water before serving. Heat until piping hot. Do not boil.

GraviTea

On this date in history, Sir Isaac Newton was born in the year 1643. This mathematician, astronomer, physicist, theologian, alchemist, philosopher, all-round-brainiac is considered to be one of the most influential men in history.

GREAT EVENTS THAT NEVER OCCURRED

Sir Isaac Newton was taking tea under the apple trees in the family gardens at Woolsthorpe one summer's afternoon in 1665 when an apple fell from an overhanging branch, plunked him on the head, and immediately provided the inspiration for his law of gravitation. Or so the story goes. It may indeed have happened that way, but no one knows for certain. Even the famed British astronomer Sir Harold Spencer Jones, who publicly stated in 1944 that the story was probably true, later recanted, noting that "one cannot be sure either way." Sir Harold the Waffler …, that is. (Picture from Schoolhouse Rock ... one of the best kids shows of all time!)

Excerpted from the book: Isaac Newton: Live and Legacies, Chapter 3 Of Genius, Fire and Plague

While at Woolsthorpe waiting for Cambridge to reopen, Newton experienced the insight that has since become legend. A year before Newton died in 1727, his friend William Stukeley visited him at his home in Kensington near London. After dining, they went into the garden to drink tea under the shade of some apple trees. "Amidst other discourse," Stukeley wrote, "he told me he was just in the same situation as when formerly the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of the apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.
Isaac Newton -- Lives and Legacies, Christianson, Gale E.
Published by Oxford University Press US, 2005
ISBN 019530070X, 9780195300703

Here at SensibiliTeas, we'd prefer to believe that it was the TEA, not the apple, that helped him develop and describe of principles of universal gravitation (c'mon ... it could have been that way ... ask Sir Harold Spencer Jones)

At any rate, tea and apples are a great combo! Here’s a recipe for a apple tea cake that might even be okay (once in a while & shared with friends) for the resolutionists on their weight loss quests. About 1300 calories in the entire cake (about 190 from fat). Simple enough to encourage the young baker in your life.

Apple Tea Cake, serves 6-10

½ stick of butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup self-rising flour
pinch of salt
½ cup milk
1 apple peeled, cored and thinly sliced
extra sugar
nutmeg
cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 355º.
2. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and beat well.
3. Add flour and salt alternately with milk. Mix until light and fluffy.
4. Pour mixture into a greased, lined cake tin.
5. Place sliced apple on top of cake. Go ahead! Be decorative!
6. Sprinkle with extra sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.
7. Place in oven and bake 30-45 minutes.
8. Allow to cool on rack.
9. Enjoy with tea!
The perfect tea to have with this cake?
A Ceylon tea would be nice, but perfect would be our Cinnamon black tea or our Vanilla Cinnamon Rooibos!
http://www.sensibiliteasonline.com/teaflvblkcinnamon.html
http://www.sensibiliteasonline.com/tearoovanillacinnamonrooibos.html
Had it not been for Sir Issac Newton, we may have never known about a really cool way to make tea -- in a gravity press! What's a gravity press? It's how we make each cup of tea at SensibiliTeas. It is a infuser cup into which you place any kind of time on top of the fine mesh filter. Add hot water and close lid. Steep for the appropriate time. When that time is up, simply place the infuser cup atop the cup from which you will be drinking your tea. The clear brew is deposited into the cup, through a drain beneath the filter in the center of the bottom of the infuser, while all the loose tea leaves remain about the filter. The great thing about this cup, beyond its ease, is its versatility. While a tea ball is really only well-suited to a black tea, a tea press like this has a chamber large enough to handle the largest. most elegant oolong leaves, the filter is fine enough to strain the finest tisanes, such as rooibos. This gadget changed the way I drank tea. It makes it so easy to enjoy loose leaf tea! Below is a link to a youtube video that shows the cup in action. Though not yet listed on the website, they are available for sale. They are $20. The ingenuiTea (on the right) is a 16 oz cup, while the Smart Tea Maker (on the left) is 18oz. A 32oz version of the ingenuiTea, perfect for iced tea is available for $25.00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-c9xELDnBo
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Back to weight loss teas tomorrow.