By noting the protest, notaries could date certificates when they were received, making it easier to comply with time restrictions associated with protesting.

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

Stephen King is an author of post-apocalyptic fiction.

‘So you are not a dumbie, mistress, you are not deaf and dumb?’ / ‘Dieu soit loué, no. Why do you think so? No, I am a French girl that was come to Scotland to find my relations, and they have failed me—that is all.’ / ‘He thought you were a dumbie connected with some show (his head is aye running upon dumbies), and that you might be glad of a night’s of a night’s quarters.’ / ‘Is he mute—deaf and dumb?’ / ‘Na, but he has a dumb dochter, and her mother’s gone. Well, mistress, shall we row you back to Leith?’