Putting 100-year-old life hacks to the test
Looking for a way to light a match in the wind or make your own water filter? Do you need to keep your plants watered while you are away or painlessly remove a splinter? Sounds like you need a life hack. Finding quick and clever solutions to household problems is nothing new. Tips and tricks are often passed from one generation to the next and even printed on cigarette cards.
According to Theresa Oneill for The Week: "In the late 1880s, cigarette manufacturers began inserting stiffening cards into their paper packs of cigarettes to strengthen the containers. It wasn't long before they got the idea to put artwork, trivia, famous people, and pretty girls onto those cards, grouped into collectible series. The cards, which continued into the 1940s, are highly valuable now, with the most expensive (bearing the face of stringent anti-smoking baseball player Honus Wagner) selling for $2.8 million in 2007.
In the 1910s, Gallaher Ltd of Belfast & London and Ogden's Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co printed 'How-To' series, with clever hints for both everyday and emergency situations. From steaming out a splinter to stopping a mad dog, these cigarette cards told you the smart way to handle many of life's problems."
According to Avery Thompson for Popular Mechanics: "Youtuber Household Hacker recently got his hands on a number of lifehacks from 1916 and decided to test them out to see if they still work 100 years later. Although some of them had to be modified slightly in order to remain relevant, they all still generally hold up.
These tips run the gamut from DIY tips on how to remove long nails from wood, create a makeshift level, and measure lengths without a ruler to domestic tips like getting stains out of a shirt, easily polishing a boot, or quickly cooling a drink. All of these tips are time-tested as well as tested by the Household Hacker, and every one holds up well."
To learn more, read "How Well Do 100-Year-Old Lifehacks Hold Up?" from Popular Mechanics and "Cigarette cards: The life hacks of 100 years ago" from The Week.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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