Visit to Mackenzie House

Today, Mom and I went to Mackenzie House. We didn't plan to visit but we were close by and decided to stop by. It's always fun going there. We always learn something new. :-)

We noticed the belt strop for the very first time (the black thing on the table). It was used to clean razors.

We took a look at the books on the shelf.
I think this was one of Mackenzie's favourite series.

Mom noticed this book, but we didn't ask what it was. (We'll have to remember to ask about it the next time.)

When Alex lit the gasolier, we found out that they would use soot and linseed oil to make ink for printing.

It was interesting that we talked a lot about water today.

There was no well in the Mackenzie household. But, they had to get water from somewhere. It must have been very hard to go for water, every day.

We also found out that a Toronto printer by the name of Collins described the water from the well he used around the time of the Cholera epidemic as being the colour of a leek. (Yuck!)
Francis Collins, his wife and their child died from Cholera.

During that Cholera Epidemic of 1834, Mackenzie himself - the Mayor of Toronto - would drive a cart to take sick people to the doctor.  This was at a time when most officials were fleeing the city. He himself got cholera but he was able to recover.  After that they passed bylaws to clean up the city which included making it illegal to dump waster or garbage onto the streets or Lake Ontario, and they included plans to construct proper sewers. This was before they even knew what caused cholera!

Last week I read the book, "Patient Zero" by Marilee Peters and it talked about Dr. John Snow who researched cholera in London. In 1854 he figured out that drinking infected water would spread cholera and they needed to boil it to kill the germs. He noticed that Monks who boiled water while making beer didn't get sick even though they shared a pump with people who got sick. That's when they found out that it was the water!