On October 29, 1893, it was reported that a new ring turning fad had been sweeping the nation.

Here’s how it supposedly worked: When a young lady meets a young man with a ring on his finger, she is to politely turn the ring two or three times. She does the same to the next young man and so on until she has turned the rings a total of twenty-four times.

Once that task has been completed, the young lady needs to go up to a married person, male or female, and turn the wedding ring twice.

Then, just then, the next man that she shakes hands with will be her future husband.

The article reported that so much time had been wasted at one factory doing this, that the boss was forced to hang up a sign that read “Any employee caught practicing the ring-turning business will be immediately discharged.”