h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What was invented, the day that Government Inspectors came to visit Wilson's 'Fair-Dealin' Meatpackers in City of Troy on October 1st 1812?

There are klaxons, naturally. You've been warned.

So strive to be bold, preferably interesting but never obvious.

Good Luck.

Thinks......

Ways of packing meat so that it does not go bad.....

Appert did bottling and boiling to preserve the contents in France in the early 19th century. It is not that...

Gamble, Donkin and Hall did canning in Britain ten years later....


Not that either then.........

So what??

Some kind of identification mark? Packed in the USA????


GT

>Gamble, Donkin and Hall did Cans.<

I say, that's Quiet Interesting - have a QI Bonus +6


>Some kind of identification mark?<

Have a DGI Bonus +1 for that.

So, a 'Trade Mark' then....

I refuse to go for a certain 'number' that is a trade mark, as that is bound to be a klaxon!!

Will need more inspiration, I think....



GT

Oh dear - he giveth and he taketh away.


Trademark -5

Oh Dear!!

You missed the 'I refuse to go for...' bit, as I knew it was a klaxon!!!


N'est ce pas???



GT

I have my klaxon list before me.

"trademark" is definitely klaxoned. You were on the right track though with "an identifying mark" it just isn't a trademark.

I knew 'trademark' was a klaxon, and indicated that I knew that!!!

'Thinking out loud' it is called.....

So, it must be some kind of mark saying 'This belongs to "X" ', as in the mark like an arrow in the UK saying it is Government, or Armed services property...



GT

>>So, it must be some kind of mark saying 'This belongs to "X" ', as in the mark like an arrow in the UK saying it is Government, or Armed services property...<<

I'm not unkind but strive to be fair. In post 2 you said I.D mark - that was fine, post 4 - thinking aloud or not - you said trademark, it's klaxoned: you get walloped.

However, you still have a positive score (albeit diminished)

But take heart you can win those points back, observe:

Have 2 DGIs for 'a mark belonging to X' and 'Armed Forces'



Time to Ask - why do you think the Inspectors were in, and who came with them?

'Ang on a minute: Read the Q again, GT

1812!!

Post 2 reads 'USA'

Didn't exist as such in 1812!!!

Our Mr. Wilson. Would his first name be Steven, Samuel or Sidney???

If so, I think I got it!!!

OMG, OMG, OMG!!

The barrels were being branded 'US'. Perhaps then, that combination of lettering may have meant what they still mean today; Un-Serviceable, meaning not fit for purpose.

So why 'US'?

Sam Wilson was well liked by his workers, and respected. So the marking that was put on the barrels was meant to infer "Uncle Sam's"

And we all know what 'Uncle Sam' refers to nowadays, don't we???


0320 Hrs, dropping to sleep. Had to get the above off my chest first, though!!

G'Nite!!



GT

Ah. I see you know the story. (always the way innit? months spent researching some curious factoid - and some bugger knows it! )

Sam Wilson was indeed the legendary 'Uncle Sam' who came to personify the United States.

Points (the list will be short) and a full explanation to follow after I've had some breakfast!

Speaking of Nicolas Appert, after he discovered airtight food preservation, he actually shared the procedure with the world (by publishing an article, "L'Art de conserver les substances animales et végétales"), instead of keeping it a secret as was the more usual way in those days (and somehow nowadays by means of trademarks).

I'll give that a QI Bonus +6.

Just sneaking in under the wire!

And I heard that just last week in the radio

During the war of 1812 with the British Americna troops were stationed just outside of Troy, the meat-packers of Troy were contracted to supply them with food.

On October 1st 1812, Sam Wilson the owner, an former postmaster, Pheodorus Bailey, serving in he army (who would later recall the event to Historian Thomas Gerson, as it's only surviving eyewitness) the day two Government Inspectors came to the warehouse.

Seeing the barrels of pork stamped with "US" 'for the then as yet non-existant United States, The worker joked they stood for Sam Wilson's famously avuncular character "Uncle Sam."

Eventually anything supplied by the state would come by way of "Uncle Sam" So that's how the legend got started. How we got from a New York Meat-Packer to the emblem of a nation is a bit more protracted.

The first "Uncle Sam" illustration to appear was 8 years later in a New England Newpaper, he was clean shaven, and wore a black stove-pipe hat and black tailcoat.

It wasn't until Andrew Jackson become President (1829–1837) that Sam was given a splash of colour in the guise of Red trousers.

Abraham Lincoln (1861 – 1865) was the next big influence on the design
Sam acquired a beard, but it was a cartoonist Thomas Nast who made Sam tall, gangly, and hollow-cheeked - also borrowing from the image of Lincoln. Other cartoonists down the years would combine the features of America's flag into the overall design with stars and stripes galore.

His possibly defining moment came is the James Montgomery-Flagg paining "I want you for the US Army", finger pointing out of the canvas.

The real Sam Wilson died aged 88 in 1854, after spending his remaining life in politics.

There is a tombstone erected to him in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy which reads: "In loving memory of 'Uncle Sam', originating with Samuel Wilson."

The 87th Congress (1961 - 1963) passed an act the text of which reads: The Congress salutes 'Uncle Sam' Wilson of Troy New York as the progenitor of America's National Symbol."

QI - Prototype
------------------------


Correct (+3)
------------------------
Gandalf's Twin (10) - "Sam Wilson."


QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------
Gandalf's Twin (2) - "Canning"
Toybox (12) - "Appert's difficulties with trademarking."


DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
Gandalf's Twin (2) - "Some kind of I.D"

Gandalf's Twin (8) - "This belongs to X"
Gandalf's Twin (8) - "Army Issue"

Klaxon (-5)
------------------------
Gandalf's Twin (4) - "A Trademark"


Elf Bonus (+2)
------------------------
Clive.




Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------
Gandalf's Twin +7
Toybox +6
Clive +2


So GT gets sausages for tea with a sizzling +7

Getting to see how the sausage is made for Toybox on +6

And I you humble QI Elf - when downwind still redolent of the piquant odour of offal in the summertime; the things I do for you people!! - I'm off to the coast to retire with sea breezes on a modest stipend of +2.

Difficulties with trademarking? I think it was a deliberate selfless act.

So pardon me if I'm a bit slow today, but what did the US marking mean then? A hopeful "United States", or a jocular "Uncle Sam", or "UnServiceable"...?

Oh sorry I misunderstood I thought you meant he did it by mistake.

From what I heard on the radio I gathered it was selflessness (in any case the hosts were finding it a gallant act). But maybe it was me (and them) who misunderstood