RANDOM FACT #14 - A 100-YEAR-OLD 'Lifehack' For Removing Splinter Involved Steaming the Flesh Over Hot Water

A splinter embedded in the hand is usually more often than not, very painful to extract. A good way to accomplish this, (at least back in the early 1900s), was to "fill a wide-mouthed bottle with hot water nearly to the brim, and press affected part of hand tightly against mouth of bottle. The suction will pull down the flesh, and steam will soon draw out the splinter."

This 100-YR-OLD lifehack as illustrated, is an actual card from a series of 'How-to' cigarette cards published by Gallaher Ltd of Belfast and London and Ogden's Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co in the 1910s.  The first cigarette cards, depicting famous people and trivia among other things, were originally put in cartons to stiffen the packaging in the 1870s.

George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "How to extract a splinter." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed September 21, 2015. 

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