Talk:Sylvester Graham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
Maintenance An appropriate infobox may need to be added to this article, or the current infobox may need to be updated. Please refer to the list of biography infoboxes for further information.
This article is being improved by WikiProject Rational Skepticism. Wikiproject Rational Skepticism seeks to improve the quality of articles dealing with science, pseudosciences, pseudohistory and skepticism. Please feel free to help us improve this page.

See Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ.

Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale.
(If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

Contents

[edit] Ordained when?

Although The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and drink in America says that Graham was ordained in 1846 (I don't have it, so if you need more info you can ask User:Othello), I did a quick google search, and it looks like the information here before was correct, viz. He was ordained in 1826.[1][2][3](britannica 1911)(newer britannica, look at the summary 2nd to the bottom so you don't have to pay to see it ;) -Frazzydee| 23:45, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I used the weblinks for most of my additions for this article on Graham, in addition to the OED of Food & Drink. The OED entry was helpful, and I did refer to it quite a bit. I am tempted to add the literary references that the OED author used, however, I question if this is appropriate - as I haven't read the books. In addition, I did not use any primary sources. For example, I did not go to research old newspapers (which are referred to in the article). I relied on other people's research, instead of doing my own. I think that is worth consideration in evaluating the article's content and for future revisions. Otto 16:33, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Dead, how?

The fact that Mr. Health Nut died at 58 piqued my interest; after some superficial research I can't find anything referring to his cause of death. If nobody knows then the article should say so. Would anybody with a more thorough knowledge of Graham know his cause of death?

Old death files get a new life By Trudy Tynan, Associated Press | April 25, 2004

AMHERST -- When Sylvester Graham died in 1851 the cause of death was listed as "Congress waters and tepid baths." According to the records in Northampton City Hall, the eccentric health food pioneer remembered for inventing the graham cracker died at the age of 57 from drinking too much mineral water and ignoring his own advice to take bracing cold baths.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2004/04/25/old_death_files_get_a_new_life/

What does "congress waters" mean? Maikel (talk) 14:09, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
I would like to add to Maikel's questions asking also what does "bracing cold baths" mean? I looked up the word "brace" (i.e. 'to fasten tightly') and word for word I easily understand but the whole phrase, "bracing cold baths", what does it mean? --213.250.11.157 (talk) 09:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Special K

The article says: "Graham influenced notable figures in America, including Horace Greeley and John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Sanitarium fame, and founder of Kellogg's." It was actually John Harvey Kellogg's brother, Will Keith Kellogg that founded the company that became Kellogg Company after they argued. Here's the reference from the John Harvey Kellogg article:

With his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, they started the Sanitas Food Company to produce their whole grain cereals around 1897. ... John and Will eventually argued over the addition of sugar to the cereals and in 1906 Will started his own company called “the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company”, which eventually became the Kellogg Company. They never spoke to each other again. John then formed the Battle Creek Food Company to develop and market soy products.

74.108.134.84 06:10, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I'll remove the "founder of Kellogg's" part of the sentence. Tweisbach (talk) 04:14, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Grahamites here

I propose that the article "Grahamites" should be merged here as it is essentially redundant. Could be made into an intro to this article here. What do you think? Maikel (talk) 13:25, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Graham diet here

Same for Graham diet, it would make more sense as a chapter of this here article. Maikel (talk) 09:13, 22 January 2008 (UTC)