Keeping Up With Change

Imagine living through the late 19^th century and trying to keep up with changing technology! Now, we think it’s a challenge to have our smart phone out of date when the latest model comes out, but

how challenging would it have been to adjust to the actual technology of telephone service for the first time. And electricity! Some people actually preferred sticking with their candles and oil lamps. That is the situation encountered by the characters in my most recent book, Torn in Toronto.

Some things were probably easy to adopt, such as plumbing.

The City of Toronto had a public water system in place as early as 1872, but many homes in the city were not connected to it. Some residents still used well water or shared an outdoor city water faucet with neighbours. Backyard privies were still commonplace, and when they leaked or overflowed, they contaminated water in nearby wells. Some houses had no toilet facilities at all and residents simply threw the contents of their chamber pots into street gutters or their yard. (Ew!)

 The first two medical officers of health, Dr. William Canniff and Dr. Charles Sheard, understood that many diseases can be transmitted by bacteria-contaminated water. They had a strong influence on the development of a clean water supply and wastewater disposal system for Toronto. Both doctors wanted wells and privies eliminated, and all buildings connected to new city water mains and sewers.

By 1900, most of this work was completed, improving living conditions for many people.

This was a fantastic development. Except so much of the downtown area was already built! Imagine trying to hook up this new system to an established house/neighborhood?

What about electricity?

Toronto emerged from the shadows thanks to the pioneering efforts of its first electricity company and its leading light, J. J. Wright.

Electricity was rare in the late 1870s, but it wasn't a total novelty in Toronto - it had been employed years earlier for sending telegraphs and powering telephone lines. Without a generator or a central supply network, the messaging companies, including the Toronto Telephone Despatch Co., the producers of the city's first phone book, relied on simple batteries.

A few years later, in 1881, John Joseph Wright built the first Canadian-made generator in a spare room at his father-in-law's box factory. Wright installed his generator near King and Yonge and sold the piercing light of the early bulbs to Eaton's department store and a handful of other local businesses keen to appear technologically advanced. In doing so, Wright became the first person to generate and sell electricity commercially in Toronto.

Providing light to the city became a competitive business as various companies vied for contracts to light the streets. As electricity became more common in residences, there also became available household “High-tech” products for the ‘families that kept no servants,’ as the company advertised. Things such as electric irons, toasters, waffle irons, coffee urns, cooking ranges, and vacuum cleaners.

Read more about how this type of thing affected people in my latest book, Torn in Toronto.

Could love be the greatest adventure of all?

Caitlyn Doherty wanted more adventure than her proper life in upper class Toronto allowed. It took a struggle against her parents’ restrictive views for her to be able to accept a position as telephone operator. She wanted to experience more than just finding a rich husband to marry.

Connor Dalton was too busy overcoming his childhood of poverty by becoming a fabulously wealthy businessman to even consider starting a family. But he feels so drawn to his telephone operator, it puts him in a very awkward position.

When Caitlyn’s mother pushes her toward Connor’s business rival, Connor and Caitlyn must both decide what they value most.

If you like sweet, swoony love stories set in the adventurous, late 19^th century, then you’ll enjoy every minute of reading Torn in Toronto.

Get it on Amazon - click here.

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How Quickly Times Changed!!

I’m currently writing my first “modern” book set in 1881. It’s such a thrilling time period! Until now, my most “modern” time period was the 1850s. It’s shocking how much technology changed in those twenty to thirty years! What a thrill it would have been to live then. But trying to keep up would have been a challenge and makes for interesting character development for some. A great time period for a historical writer <grin>

For example, in my current manuscript, my heroine is answering the newly invented telephone for the hero’s industrial company. His company is involved in running the wires on the streets for the newly developed electricity. And heroine’s mother hates all this modernizing and didn’t want the wires coming to her house. Thankfully, her husband insisted that for the future property value of their house, they had to at least have the wires run while the company was working on their street. My heroine tries to reason with her mother by asking how she would like to be without the indoor plumbing that they now take for granted but had only been run through their city in the last thirty or so years.

These are things that we take for granted nowadays, but it’s fascinating to think about how some

might have resisted these “newfangled gadgets”!

Even transportation! When I was writing my Proxy Brides books, I had to keep researching just how far West the train would have gotten in the year I wanted. Connecting the East and West coasts by train travel changed everything! And in the twenty-five years between my eras, train travel times shrunk exponentially. When they first connected the coasts, it took two weeks or more to make the trip which was still extremely fast compared to travelling by ox pulled wagons, but by the 1880s it only takes a few days!

Fortunes were gained and lost even more quickly with the advancement of technology. Those who could adapt, thrived. Those who could not, lost out. This is a thrilling time period for historical authors. I personally read and write for the escapism of it. Because of that, all my books have an extreme. Usually extreme wealth – the hero is a duke or an earl or a wealthy land owner or struck it rich with the gold rush. I think the 1880s will allow for many extremes as so many were learning and discovering new and improved things.

If you want to stay abreast of when this particular book releases, please sign up for my newsletter or join my Facebook group.

In the meantime, please enjoy one of my Proxy Brides books, A Bride for Ransom:

They find themselves married...but can they be a family?

Ransom is just looking for a mother for his orphaned niece. The fact that she’s from Boston is a bonus. Their arrangement allows him to get out of town.

Hannah needs a husband. Her new name will protect her siblings. The fact that he lives in the back of beyond gives them a place to hide. She hadn’t counted on him being so appealing.

But what happens when they realize how very permanent their proxy marriage truly is?

Available from Amazon, included in your KU subscription.