This is a Popular Science article from 1949 which teaches budding young chemists how to make nitrous oxide. It even helpfully explains that the gas produces “a feeling of exhilaration when inhaled”.
Other articles in this series include:
- The crystal which eliminates the need for sleep.
- The dust that lets you lift a car.
- The weed that makes you feed.
- The liquid that gives you control of time and space
The Gas That Makes You Laugh
Chemists call it nitrous oxide. You can generate this and other oxides of nitrogen in a home laboratory.
By Kenneth M. Swezey
AN ACHING tooth is never tunny, but i. the dentist who yanks it out may well first put you to sleep with a few whiffs of nitrous oxide, commonly known as “laughing gas.”
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Really interesting article from the 40’s about combating VD. Both in terms of medical treatment (the new wonder drug penicillin) and in terms of health education (removing the taboo from talking about VD). It’s also really interesting to see the how little has changed in regards to the balance between curing illness and “promoting sexuality”. This quote from the article:
Not all experts see this as an unmixed blessing. Dr. John Stokes, syphilologist of the University of Pennsylvania, is worried about the effect on morals. “If extramarital sexual relations,” he has said, “lead neither to significant illness nor unwanted parenthood, only a few intangibles of the spirit remain to guide children of the new era from an outmoded past into an unbridled future.”
Is very similar to this one regarding the recent HPV vaccine
“Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV. Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.” – Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council
The basic idea being that people should be punished for having sex outside of marriage.
The New Attack On Venereal Disease
Tent shows, hill-billies and a new drug are some of the weapons which may relegate syphilis and gonorrhea to the text-books in a few years
A carnival tent show in a Michigan State Fair (top photograph and opposite page) and a little bottle of creamy white liquid (above) are the new shock troops in a two-front war against venereal disease. Between them, they may wipe out this scourge of mankind within the next ten or twenty years.
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Friday animals for profit blogging:
Raising Milk Goats Is Profitable New Hobby
AT SYRACUSE, N.Y., a few weeks ago, men and women from all over the United States gathered in solemn conclave to discuss the joys and problems of one of the fastest-growing and strangest business-hobbies in the country— the raising of blue-blooded milk goats. It was the third annual meeting of the American Goat Society, the youngest of three American organizations devoted to goat culture and the registration of goat pedigrees.
Started thirty-odd years ago by a group of goat fanciers who imported a few pure-bred animals from Europe, pedigreed-goat raising now enrolls thousands of fans—including movie stars, farmers, business executives, and housewives. Known officially by the fancy name of capriculture, the hobby already supports three magazines devoted to goat news, three registration societies, and at least a dozen breeders’ organizations. Strange as it may seem to most Americans, who know only the smelly, comical-looking, tin-can-gnawing type of American goat, well-bred European and African milk goats are beautiful, intelligent, and affectionate creatures that remind one strongly of deer. They are scrupulously clean in their eating habits, and make excellent pets. Pure-blooded mature females, or does, bring from seventy-five dollars to $150 each, while a prize winner has brought as much as $2,000. Pedigreed bucks bring even higher prices. Bucks do smell a bit rank, even the well-bred ones, and for that reason must be kept by themselves in their own private barns or stables, but does are entirely odorless.
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Ah yes, the glorious 1950’s when choosing a Geiger counter was part of every boy’s right of passage. People may not remember their first kiss, but they sure as hell remember their first multi-tube scintillation counter.
How to Choose a Geiger Counter
Rate meter? Multitube counter? Scintillation counter? Here an expert advises you on how to buy a uranium-finding instrument.
By Griff Borgeson
HUNTING uranium with a Geiger counter is like stalking game with a well-trained hound. All of the hundred-odd kinds of uranium ore are radioactive, and hardly any other rocks are. So a counter’s ability to “see” radiation can lead straight to pay dirt.
Counters are the great equalizers of the uranium rush. Thev give a tenderfoot an even break with trained mining men. and account for rank amateurs’ successes in history’s greatest metal hunt.
You can pay from about $20 to $2,000 for a counter, and choose from dozens of models. Which will best suit your needs?
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Wow, I never would have thought of any of these uses! Thank you Popular Science! Fricking Geniuses.
9 Uses for Plastic Bottles
- Windshield Washer
- Quick starts in cold weather
- For dusting models (use empty bottle)
- Liquid soap dispenser
- Paint sprayer
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Oil sprayer
- Polish applicator
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Breakproof travel bottles
Glue Dispenser
Man, that woman gets really excited about pliers!
