100-Year-Old Life Hacks That Are Surprisingly Useful Today

For your viewing pleasure, we’ve compiled a list of the most clever and practical 100-year-old life hacks that are still useful today.

23 100-Year-Old Life Hacks That Are Surprisingly Useful Today

These images are the life hacks people used to get in their cigarette packs, coupled with a little instructional sheet which we’ve quoted for you below each one.

1. How to Extract a Splinter

 

 

“A splinter embedded in the hand is often very painful to extract. A good way to accomplish this is to fill a wide-mouthed bottle with hot water nearly to the brim, and press affected part of the hand tightly against mouth of bottle. The suction will pull down the flesh, and steam will soon draw out the splinter.“

2. How to Cut New Bread into Thin Slices

 

 

“The difficulty of cutting new bread into thin slices can readily be overcome by the following expedient. Plunge the bread knife into hot water and when thoroughly hot wipe quickly. It will be found that the heated knife will cut soft, yielding new bread into the thinnest slices.“

3. How to Revive Cut Flowers

 

 

“To revive choice blooms that have faded during transit, plunge the stems into hot water, and allow them to remain until the water has cooled. By that time the flowers will have revived. The ends of the stems should then be cut off and the blossoms placed in cold water in the usual way.“

4. How to Make a Fire Extinguisher

 

 

“Dissolve one pound of salt and half a pound of sal-ammoniac in two quarts of water and bottle the liquor in thin glass bottles holding about a quart each. Should a fire break out, dash one or more of the bottles into the flames, and any serious outbreak will probably be averted.”

5. How to Test Butter

 

 

“A good way of testing butter is shown in the picture. Rub a little of the suspected compound upon a piece of paper and set the paper alight. If it is pure butter, the odor will be daintly and agreeable, while the presence of Margarine is made known by an unpleasant tallowy smell.”

6. How to Judge the Weather

 

 

“The traveler, setting off in the early morning, will find a fairly sure guide as to the weather he is likely to encounter by watching a very small distant cloud. If the cloud grows gradually larger, then unsettled, rainy weather will probably come. But if the cloud decreases in size, the day should be a fine one.”

7. How to Treat Sprains

 

 

8. How to Light a Match in the Wind

 

 

“The familiar difficulty of lighting a match in wind can be to a great extent overcome if thin shavings are first cut on the match towards its striking end, as shown in the picture. On lighting the match, the curled strips catch fire at once; the flame is stronger, and has a better chance.”

9. How to Clean Oil Paintings