"Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing Cross for the Continent."
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 17)
Mechanised rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which made use of the steam locomotive, were critical to the Industrial revolution and to the development of export economies across the world. They have remained the primary form of land transport ever since for most of the world.
"You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the photograph?" (Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 13)
The first permanent photograph was developed by Thomas Wedgwood in 1790, however, it wasn't until 1822 that an actually clear photograph was made by a French inventor, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Thanks to the evolution of chemstry, the process of photo development evolved throughout the 19th century. In the Victorian Era, many chemical process were invented in order to reveal those photographs, examples of which are the collodium process, gelatin process and lifochrome process.
"There was a group of shabbily dressed men smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his wheel, [...]"
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 13)
In the Victorian London it was common to see scissors and knife grinders riding their carts along the streets. The grinding mechanism was fairly simple, it consisted of a pedal moved grinding wheel mounted on a cart. In later models the grinder wheel would be mounted on bicycles in stead of a cart. Links: Image Source Historical references
"It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming of its occupant."
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 13)
The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on January 28, 1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor, and it's mechanicsm was used for building all sorts of lamps throughout the entire Victorian Era. The street gas lights worked the same way as the house gas lights where the flame from the lighted gas heated up a mantle which became incandescent and gave out light.
"I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached-- evidently the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 11)
Different from a landau, a hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Hansom.The hansom cab was a popular choice because it was cheap, fast, very light and agile.
"It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar- shaped roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke- rocket, fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?"
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 13)
Before the era of pressure testing, in the Victorian Era, plumbers used a smoke rocket to detect leaks in pipes. The smoking device was inserted into a pipe and lit up. Smoke would come out from whichever leaks there were in the pipe.
"Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall door and into it.
(Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 11)
A landau is a four-wheeled convertible carriage suspended on elliptical springs invented in the 18th century. It was largely used in London in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it reached its full development. Until today the landal is a popular choice for the british royal family on ceremonial occasions.
"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." (Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 4)
The first cigarette-making machine was developed in 1880 by James Albert Bonsack. The machine, which was able to produce 200 cigarettes per minute, vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, who went from making approximately 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million.
"As to your practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, [...]" (Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 4)
The first version of the stethoscope was invented in France in 1816 by René Laennec. The device consisted of a rigid wooden tube and was monaural. The flexible and binaural stethoscope as we know it, and probably the one referred to in the novel, was invented only in 1852 by George Cammann, who perperfected the design of the instrument for commercial production. The device has become the standard for clinical practice ever since.
"With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner." (Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 3)
The gasogene is a late Victorian device used to carbonate water. It consists of two linked glass globes: the lower contained water or other drink to be made sparkling, the upper a mixture of tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate that reacts to producing carbon dioxide. The produced gas pushes the liquid in the lower container up a tube and out of the device. The globes are surrounded by a wicker or wire protective mesh, as they have a tendency to explode.
"[...], while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature." (Aventure I, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA pg. 3)
While the stimulant and hunger-suppressant properties of coca had been known for many centuries, cocaine was first isolated in 1855 by the German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke. Cocaine is presented as a vice in Arthur Conan Doyle's story, and is often used by Sherlock Holmes to offset boredom and as a way to stimulate his brain.
Sherlock Holmes comic book by Edith Meiser and Frank Giacoia, September 1989.
Sherlock Holmes often participates in other stories. In the image above we can see Sherlock Holmes taking part in a Batman comic book.
The character is referenced in many other comic books, such as the "Muppets" comic books, released by "BOOM! Studios".
Films
Over 46 films have been produced around the character of Sherlock Holmes, the most recent ones are "Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows"(2011) on the right, which is a sequal of "Sherlock Holmes"(2009) on the left, both directed by Guy Ritchie.
Theatre
William Gillette wrote, directed, and starred in a popular entitled Sherlock Holmes in seven different productions on Broadway from 1899.
Television
The television series called "Sherlock"(2010) is a modern adaptation of the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crimes in the 21st century London.
Video games
Over 17 videogames have been created around Sherlock Holmes. On the left the oldest videogame created in 1984, by Beam Software, and on the right the most recent video game, developed by Frogwares in 2012.
Museum
"221b Baker Street London NW1 6XE, England" is the adress where the character Sherlock Holmes lived. In this adress there is a very famous Sherlock Holmes museum, take a tour on the video above.
Internet
Google's banner on the 22nd of May of 2006, the day of the month when Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born.
The story of Sherlock Holmes takes place in London at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of XX century, just before World War I, during the last period of the Victorian Era of British history. Тhe Victorian Era, marked by the peaceful reign of Queen Victoria, was a long period of prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain.
During the same period in France, Belgium and Europe in general there was an atmosphere of optimism and creativity, marked by new technology and scientific discoveries, a period which would later be named "Belle Époque".
In that same period the United States, after the Reconstruction Era after the civil war, were experiencing rapid economic growth and increase in industrialization, and entering an era that would later be called the Gilded Age.
The Victorian London: In Sherlock Holmes' London, after many sanitation reforms, sewage systems had been installed in the city as well as water supply, gas network, lighting and heating.
_Station_with_train_from_Tunbridge_Wells_West_geograph-2686103-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg)
