true bubbles & Merry Andrew cards

[George Thompson]

Something like this must be the answer.

GAT

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Re Water Street: when Water St was on the water (it is now a block
> inland) it would have been lined on the inland side by warehouses.
> Might the early numbering have referred to warehouse stalls rather
> than building numbers?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 4, 2011, at 4:40 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      true bubbles & Merry Andrew cards
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >            Sometime ago, JB and I posted some stuff here regarding the
> > beginnings of the use of house numbers in U. S. cities; specifically
> Boston
> > & NYC, of course.  The connection with dialectology isn't obvious,
> perhaps,
> > but we can see it.  But lately we have been sneaking about, discussing
> the
> > topic behind your backs.
> >
> >            Trying to elucidate the puzzling fact of very early references
> > to shops on Water street with numbers above 1000, I tried searching the
> > EAN/AHN database for "water-street, no." (the numbers seem generally to
> have
> > followed the street name, prefaced by "no.")
> >
> >
> >
> >            One of the fruits of this are a word not in the OED, and a
> > mystifying phrase.
> >
> >
> >
> >            JOSEPH ROSE, Living a few Doors East of Peck's Slip, in Water
> > Street, No. 1046, HAS just imported . . . Tea Cups and Saucers, Bowls,
> > Plates & Dishes, And Articles of Queen's Ware, With a large and neat
> > Assortment of CHIMNEY TILES, Also a few Setts of true BUBBLES for proving
> > the strength of Rum, and what it will bear.
> >
> >            Royal Gazette, September 6, 1780, p. 2, col. ?
> >
> > The OED has nothing under "bubble" that satisfies this.
> >
> > It has:
> >
> > bubble-trier n. an instrument used for testing the accuracy of the tubes
> of
> > spirit-levels.
> >
> > a1877    E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech.,   Bubble-trier, an instrument
> for
> > testing the delicacy and accuracy of the tubes for holding the spirit in
> > leveling-instruments.
> >
> > 1890    W. F. Stanley Surveying Instruments 88   The Bubble Trier is a
> bar
> > or bed 12 to 20 inches long, with two extended feet ending in points at
> one
> > end, and a micrometer screw, the point of which forms a resting foot, at
> the
> > other end, thereby forming a tripod.
> >
> > bubble-tube n. the glass tube of a spirit-level containing spirit and
> > enclosing an air-bubble.
> >
> > 1888    Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin.,   Bubble Tube, or Spirit Glass,
> the
> > tube of a spirit-level which contains the enclosed spirit.
> >
> > 1890    W. F. Stanley Surveying Instruments 86   Level Tubes, or Bubble
> > Tubes as they are technically termed, are used in nearly all important
> > surveying instruments.
> >
> >
> >
> >           Also, an ad from a grocer who had just received a shipment of
> > stuff, which he lists in two columns.  In the midst of a very
> miscellaneous
> > stock, he offers Merry Andrew cards.  What the hell were they?  (I know
> what
> > a "Merry Andrew" was.)
> >
> > Because it's an item from a list, there is no context.  I am giving the
> > items just above and below, which don't clarify anything.
> >
> >
> >
> >            THOMAS ROACH, In Water-street, No. 942, next but one to the
> > corner of the Fly-Market, has for sale wholesale and retail, [Madeira,
> > sherry, port, claret, rum, and groceries, spices; also ". . .
> >
> > Irish and Scotch snuff,
> >
> > Chambers best smoaking tobacco,
> >
> > Merry Andrew cards,
> >
> > Raisins and currants,
> >
> > Olives, capers,
> >
> > Anchovies. . . "]
> >
> >            New-York Gazette; and W Mercury, September 1, 1777, p. 4
> >
> >
> >
> >            For those of you who share our fascination with the history of
> > house numbers: there is no way that Water street was long enough then to
> > have counted a thousand house lots, starting with no. 1.  What was being
> > counted is as yet a mystery.
> >
> >
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > --
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ.
> > Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org