10 Simple Yet Brilliant Lifehacks From 100 Years Ago

By | April 20, 2015

In the late 1880s, cigarette manufacturers began inserting stiffening cards into cigarette packs to strengthen the paper container. Later on they decided to put artwork, famous people, pretty girls, and trivia onto those cards, making them into a collectible series.

Production of these stiffening cigarette cards continued until the 1940s and are highly valuable today. The most expensive one was sold for $2.8 million in 2007. It was a card bearing the face of Honus Wagner, an anti-smoking baseball player.

In the 1910s, Gallaher Ltd of Belfast & London and Ogden's Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co printed "How-To" series onto the cards, providing clever hints on how to handle many of life's problems - from steaming out a splinter to making an emergency water filter.

Here are some of those 100-year-old lifehacks printed onto vintage, and definitely valuable cards.

 
1. How to make a fire extinguisher

100 yr old lifehacks - fire extinguisher

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2. How to extract a splinter

100 yr old lifehacks - splinter

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3. How to preserve eggs

100 yr old lifehacks - preserve eggs

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4. How to fell a tree

100 yr old lifehacks - fell a tree

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5. How to stop a mad dog

100 yr old lifehacks - stop a mad dog

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6. How to keep plants watered while away on vacation

100 yr old lifehacks - plants

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7. How to light a match in the wind

100 yr old lifehacks - match

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8. How to make a chair to cross a stream

100 yr old lifehacks - chair

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9. How to rescue someone from electric shock

100 yr old lifehacks - electric shock

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10. How to make an emergency water filter

100 yr old lifehacks - emergency water filter

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via MentalFloss