AL NEILSEN
Since I was a kid I always had my nose to the ground looking for anything old, interesting or cool. The bottle bug hit me hard at the age of 14. A field separated our house from an old 1890's house that still didn't have indoor plumbing. I was walking along the edge of the field and found a clear square machine made unembossed cork medicine and I was hooked!
For the next few years I would hop on my bike, shovel across the handlebars and go digging at sites I knew about. When I got my driver's license my range greatly expanded. I remember talking with a customer of the company I worked for and he knew about the Park City dump. That was in 1970 and the beginning of many fun and fruitful digs. I met some great people and diggers at Park City. Some whose names you might recognize - Rick Holt and his friend Kip, Jack Tapp and Charles Murie, Dick Bartlett, Max Davis and Bob Conrad, and Jerry Harris to name a few. When I think back we sure had a lot of places to dig in the '60's and '70's. We owe a lot to the pioneer Collectors who amassed big collections of amazing bottles and their history. Bob Wooley, Fred Ronnebeck, Blackie Owens, Stan Sanders, Ken and Earl Fee, Richard Smith, Ben Loader, Roger Terry and so on. But hats off to the newer generation of diggers and Collectors. They are keeping the fire burning. Thinking back, my biggest cryer was a light grass green Kelly’s Old Cabin Bitters with the bottom blown out that we dug in Bear River City, Wyoming. Bottle collecting has also matured into a hobby for those who have the money to acquire the the rare pieces. I moved into the buying and selling end with bottles in the early 80's so I have none of my early finds left, but have acquired a few nice pieces my wife won't let me part with. The most sought after nails are those made by the Townsend Company of Ellwood City, PA. and the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company of Pueblo, CO. The most prolific producer of nails was the American Steel & Wire Company, which later became U.S. Steel.
I have complete and nearly complete sets of most Utah railroads and utility companies. That would include the Southern Pacific, Bingham & Garfield, Salt Lake Garfield & Western, Utah Railway, Salt Lake Route (SPLA&SL RR & Union Pacific), Utah Power & Light, Utah Light & Traction, Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph and Telluride Power. I am still adding to my Oregon Short Line RR and Union Pacific sets. |
On a visit to Ken Fee's home in the early 70's, I noticed a small board on a coffee table that had some nails with numbers stamped in the heads mounted on it. That is how I found out what date nails were. I was now hooked on another hobby. I started walking the rails of local railroads and checking power and telephone poles wherever I went. When I started working for the railroad at Kennecott in 1976 I was in data nail heaven. They drove nails in their ties from 1922 to 1947 after which they ceased using them. The B&G 1922 and the copper 34 are two of the rarest nails in the country as there is only one known of each. I cobbled together some good sets, but in 1992 a whole new world opened up for collecting when I learned that there is actually a club dedicated solely to the hobby called the Texas Date Nail Collectors Association. Since then I have found new friends and lots of nails.
Like places to dig bottles, date nails are scarce and getting harder to find. Many of the old sidings, spurs and ties are long gone or have been picked clean. Little is left of the old Bingham & Garfield line since Kennecott demolished the mills on the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains. We have evolved into using metal detectors to find them along the old grades. Luckily they deteriorate slowly in our dry desert soils.
Bottles will always be my first love but I am also a rock hound and wood crafter. I am always interested in adding new items to my railroad sets, including padlocks and switch locks, especially from local lines. If any of you treasure hunters out there want to part with or find an item to sell or trade keep me in mind. Contact me Cityroute4@live.com |
What is Florida Water?
Florida Water is an alcohol-based cologne first used in the early 1800’s as a perfume, an American version of Eau de Cologne or Cologne Water. It has the same citrus basis as Cologne Water, but with more emphasis on sweet orange (rather than the lemon and neroli of the original Cologne Water), and adds spicy ingredients including lavender and clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountain of Youth, which is said to be located in Florida, as well as the “flowery” nature of the scent. According to current trademark holders, Lanman & Kemp Barclay, Florida Water was introduced by the New York City perfumer (and founder of the original company) Robert I. Murray, in 1808. In 1835 Murray was joined by David Trumbull Lanman and the firm became Murray & Lanman, then David T. Lanman and Co., and in 1861 became Lanman & Kemp. The company states that their product, now sold under the Murray & Lanman brand, still uses the original 1808 formula, and that the current label is also a slightly modified version of the 1808 original. Florida Water was regarded as a unisex cologne, suitable for men and women alike. Victorian etiquette manuals warn young ladies against the “offensive” impression made by a strong perfume, but Florida Water and Eau de Cologne were recommended as appropriate for all, along with sachets for scenting the linen and fresh flowers in the corsage. Large quantities were also used by barbershops as cologne and aftershave. In the 1880’s and 1890’s Murray & Lanman Florida Water was advertised as “The Richest of all Perfumes” and “The Most Popular Perfume in the World”. Like other colognes of the era, Florida Water was valued for its refreshing and tonic nature as well as its scent, and could be used as a skin toner or as what we would now call a “body splash”. It was also used as a toilet water (Eau de toilette), by adding it to the bath or wash water.
Bay Rum
Bay rum is a type of cologne or aftershave lotion. The exact origin is unknown, but it is thought to have been used by pirates and sailors to mask the smells of the sea and being on ships for months at a time. Other uses include as an under-arm deodorant and as a fragrance for shaving soap, as well as an astringent. It is a distillate that was originally made in Saint Thomas and probably other West Indian islands from rum and the leaves and/or berries of the West Indian bay tree, Pimenta Racemosa. John Maisch identified the leaf in the herbarium at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, collected in St. Croix, by the late Dr. Griffith, which was identified Myrcia acris, now transferred to the genus Pimenta. Maisch added that it was very probable various species are made use of for the same purpose. According to an 1889 reference, other ingredients may be citrus and spice oils, the most common lime oil and oil of cloves, with cinnamon and nutmeg also being added. A drop of oil of cloves is added to two parts bay oil and one part pimento oil in one of two recipes for bay rum; the aromatics are steeped in alcohol and as a last step an equal part of good rum is added, and cinnamon. It was first made fashionable in New York and other American cities before it was available in Europe. Bay rum from the prohibition era was labeled “for external use only”, but with 58% grain alcohol it was often used as a legal, if somewhat toxic, source of beverage alcohol. Proprietary bay rum lotions are produced by labs in several West Indian countries, as well as American and European fragrance companies. The original bay rum from St. Thomas made by A.H. Riise continues to be produced locally in the U.S. Virgin Islands by the West Indies Bay Company. The bay laurel, the bay leaves in common culinary use, are from a completely unrelated species, Laurus nobilis, and not the West Indian bay tree. Bay laurel can be used to produce a similar, although not identical, product.
Florida Water is an alcohol-based cologne first used in the early 1800’s as a perfume, an American version of Eau de Cologne or Cologne Water. It has the same citrus basis as Cologne Water, but with more emphasis on sweet orange (rather than the lemon and neroli of the original Cologne Water), and adds spicy ingredients including lavender and clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountain of Youth, which is said to be located in Florida, as well as the “flowery” nature of the scent. According to current trademark holders, Lanman & Kemp Barclay, Florida Water was introduced by the New York City perfumer (and founder of the original company) Robert I. Murray, in 1808. In 1835 Murray was joined by David Trumbull Lanman and the firm became Murray & Lanman, then David T. Lanman and Co., and in 1861 became Lanman & Kemp. The company states that their product, now sold under the Murray & Lanman brand, still uses the original 1808 formula, and that the current label is also a slightly modified version of the 1808 original. Florida Water was regarded as a unisex cologne, suitable for men and women alike. Victorian etiquette manuals warn young ladies against the “offensive” impression made by a strong perfume, but Florida Water and Eau de Cologne were recommended as appropriate for all, along with sachets for scenting the linen and fresh flowers in the corsage. Large quantities were also used by barbershops as cologne and aftershave. In the 1880’s and 1890’s Murray & Lanman Florida Water was advertised as “The Richest of all Perfumes” and “The Most Popular Perfume in the World”. Like other colognes of the era, Florida Water was valued for its refreshing and tonic nature as well as its scent, and could be used as a skin toner or as what we would now call a “body splash”. It was also used as a toilet water (Eau de toilette), by adding it to the bath or wash water.
Bay Rum
Bay rum is a type of cologne or aftershave lotion. The exact origin is unknown, but it is thought to have been used by pirates and sailors to mask the smells of the sea and being on ships for months at a time. Other uses include as an under-arm deodorant and as a fragrance for shaving soap, as well as an astringent. It is a distillate that was originally made in Saint Thomas and probably other West Indian islands from rum and the leaves and/or berries of the West Indian bay tree, Pimenta Racemosa. John Maisch identified the leaf in the herbarium at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, collected in St. Croix, by the late Dr. Griffith, which was identified Myrcia acris, now transferred to the genus Pimenta. Maisch added that it was very probable various species are made use of for the same purpose. According to an 1889 reference, other ingredients may be citrus and spice oils, the most common lime oil and oil of cloves, with cinnamon and nutmeg also being added. A drop of oil of cloves is added to two parts bay oil and one part pimento oil in one of two recipes for bay rum; the aromatics are steeped in alcohol and as a last step an equal part of good rum is added, and cinnamon. It was first made fashionable in New York and other American cities before it was available in Europe. Bay rum from the prohibition era was labeled “for external use only”, but with 58% grain alcohol it was often used as a legal, if somewhat toxic, source of beverage alcohol. Proprietary bay rum lotions are produced by labs in several West Indian countries, as well as American and European fragrance companies. The original bay rum from St. Thomas made by A.H. Riise continues to be produced locally in the U.S. Virgin Islands by the West Indies Bay Company. The bay laurel, the bay leaves in common culinary use, are from a completely unrelated species, Laurus nobilis, and not the West Indian bay tree. Bay laurel can be used to produce a similar, although not identical, product.