Safety Belt Moors Baby in the Bathtub (Oct, 1939)
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939
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Strapping your kid into the bathtub just seems like a bad idea. How about they just change the first sentence to: “It’s dangerous to leave a small baby unattended in the bathtub, so don’t do it.”
Safety Belt Moors Baby in the Bathtub
It’s dangerous to leave a small baby unattended in the bathtub, and yet, when the telephone rings or the doorbell must be answered, it is sometimes inconvenient not to be able to do so. Carl H. Fischer, a Council Bluffs, Iowa, engineer and father of three youngsters, solved this problem with the ingenious device pictured at the left. The baby is strapped in a harness that is attached to a metal bar. When the bar is turned, rubber pads threaded to the ends press tightly against the sides of the tub and hold the safety bar firmly in place.
When I was a kid I would have a fit if my parents tried draining the bath tub before I got out. I must have been frightened I would go down the drain. I am going to show this to my mother.
Comment by Mike — August 4, 2008 @ 5:00 am
Yeah, this is safe. There’s NO POSSIBLE WAY the baby could somehow flop backwards and end up upside-down with its head underwater (and possibly a broken back).
Comment by fluffy — August 4, 2008 @ 10:39 am
Sure, my baby’s life is important. But if the phone rings, I have to answer it, right?
Comment by xritlxritl — August 5, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Possibly, just possibly, a person could not answer the phone or door when the baby is in the tub?
Comment by beagledad — August 7, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
>Possibly, just possibly, a person could not answer the phone or door when the baby is in the tub?
What are you suggesting? The phone MUST be answered — at ALL costs!!
Comment by Don — August 7, 2008 @ 6:25 pm
surly the solution is to fill the bath right up to the childs chin, thus making it imposable for it to fall backwards, if the child is buyant enough it could even float a little
then even if you need to pop off and answer the phone, you could pop a bucket over its head and let it play diving bells, voyage to the bottom of the bath, this would also reduce the noise it would make alowing easyier conversation
Comment by phil — August 13, 2008 @ 8:56 am
This is a far more practical invention then some I have seen on this site. I saw another invention that used a wire recording device to leave messages by phone. Why not just mail the tapes? Some people have no common sense!
Comment by Morgan — September 4, 2008 @ 9:59 pm