February 14, 2006

Sun Hat Has Built-in Radio (Jun, 1949)

Filed under: Impractical, Just Weird, Radio — @ 10:27 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1949
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I love the two little vacuum tubes sticking out on top.

Sun Hat Has Built-in Radio

No, that’s not Buck Rogers. It’s just Victor T. Hoeflich and his Radio Hat. The hat works, too—it keeps the sun off your head while you listen to radio programs. The Radio Hat contains a real radio receiver-two miniature tubes, the volume control,
and the antenna (which looks like an oil-can handle) stick out on top. The rest of the circuit is inside the hat’s lining.
The hat weighs only 12 oz. The 7-oz. power supply—a flashlight cell and a B battery—is carried in the pocket. Mr. Hoeflich’s company, American Merri-Lei Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y., makes the talking benny.

February 13, 2006

Home Made TV Station (Aug, 1949)

Filed under: Ahead of its time, Communications, Cool, Impractical, Television — @ 3:03 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1949
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Next time you bitch about trying to get your video blogging software to work, check out what this guy had to scrape together to get an amateur TV station running in 1949. He built a garage full of equipment and had three giant antennas.

Radio ‘Ham’ Builds TV Station

California amateur sends voice and picture over transmitter made from $500 worth of war-surplus parts.

By Andrew R. Boone

PULSING through the California skies from a weather-beaten back-yard shack, the image of a beautiful brunette flows into television receivers around San Francisco Bay. The boys who have seen her call the vision Gwendolyn.

Reproduced by a collection of secondhand tubes and war-surplus video equipment, Gwendolyn represents the first standard TV image broadcast successfully and repeatedly by an amateur. Soon, from the same station, W6JDI-TV, radio ham Clarence Wolfe, Jr. hopes to televise live images.
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February 8, 2006

Soldiers Wear Camouflage (Jul, 1939)

Filed under: Impractical, Personal Appearance, Useless Tech, War — @ 4:51 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1939
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That is some pretty amazing camouflage there. Why, I almost mistook them for trees. Trees with binoculars and handguns….

Soldiers Wear Camouflage
The men in the above picture are not inhavitants of Mars. They are only British soldiers, wearing camouflage in their helmets during a mimic battle.

January 27, 2006

New “Twin Screw Life Belt” Saves Victim at 10 M. P. H. (Mar, 1933)

Filed under: Impractical, Just Weird — @ 10:08 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1933
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New “Twin Screw Life Belt” Saves Victim at 10 M. P. H.

B. NONOMURA, a Japanese lawyer of Los Angeles, had for several years been contemplating a trip to his native country. So remembering his stormy voyage to this country years ago, and being unable to swim, Nonomura turned inventor and at an inventor’s exhibit at Los Angeles recently he proudly displayed a new self-propelled life preserver, on which he has succeeded in obtaining patent papers.
Going around the waist and fastening over the shoulders in the regular manner, his preserver has the added feature of twin screws in the rear which are turned by hand with cranks. His device will not only keep the man erect in the water, but can move forward at the rate of ten miles per hour. Mr. Nonomura is seen with his new style life preserver in the photo at the left.

January 26, 2006

Suck the hair right out of your head (Apr, 1939)

Filed under: Advertisements, Impractical, Medical, Personal Appearance — @ 1:13 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1939
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This reminds me of the playdough barber shop I had when I was a kid. The one where you stuffed a plastic head with playdough then rammed it through holes in the scalp like a pasta machine.

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THE CROSLEY CORPORATION
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Safety Holder for Fag Smokers (Mar, 1933)

Filed under: Cool, Impractical, Just Weird — @ 10:39 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1933
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The fact is, Jean Luc Picard can make anything look cool.

Safety Holder for Fag Smokers

For men whose wives complain about ashes on the rug, the invention of a Cincinnati, Ohio man will prove a great boon. This new “safety smoker,” as the gadget is called, consists of a small box like affair of light metal, with top and sides covered by a light screen. The fag is inserted and held as shown.

January 24, 2006

Hand Light Aids Night Driving (Oct, 1934)

Filed under: Automotive, Impractical, Just Weird, Personal Appearance — @ 12:48 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1934
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The stylish alternative to blinkers.

Hand Light Aids Night Driving

The confusion over driving signals when motoring at night is largely eliminated with a new device which straps to the back of the hand.

A rubber half glove is fitted with a red reflector of Bohemian glass which makes hand signals easily visible at all ordinary distances.

January 22, 2006

Neon Signs Identify Police Patrol Cars (Apr, 1939)

Filed under: Automotive, Crime and Police, Impractical — @ 9:17 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1939
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Neon Signs Identify Police Patrol Cars

Police cars assigned to the park districts of Chicago, Ill., are now fitted with roof-top neon signs so that motorists may identify them on the road at any time during the day or night. Within park areas, the police automobiles travel at legal speeds so that drivers may spot them and judge their own speed accordingly. Even in heavy fog, the rooftop signs are easily visible, as shown in the photograph reproduced
at the left.

January 17, 2006

Old And New Communication Methods Combined (Oct, 1939)

Filed under: Communications, Impractical — @ 3:28 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939
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Old And New Communication Methods Combined

Old and new methods of communication were combined recently when a Cincinnati radio station used carrier pigeons to speed pictures of a baseball game between Cincinnati Rends and Pittsburgh Pirates to its studio for immediate transmission.

January 12, 2006

Automation Edges out Tunesters, Writes Songs Wholesale (Sep, 1956)

Filed under: Computers, Impractical — @ 11:29 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1956
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Automation Edges out Tunesters, Writes Songs Wholesale

The pianist above is playing a tune as it is composed by the electronic brain he gazes at wistfully. The complicated Burroughs machine can turn out 1,000 tunes an hour – all mathematically calculated to be popular. It picks off a series of coded numbers, matches them with melodic formulas, rejects sour notes.

January 10, 2006

Bat Car (Aug, 1950)

Filed under: Automotive, Cool, Impractical, Just Weird — @ 10:19 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1950
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This is the coolest freaking car. It’s like a combination of the Batmobile and a land speeder from Star Wars.

Ground-Hugging Motor Car Being Made in Sweden

Cruising the streets of Stockholm is a new Swedish car, built so low it seems to glide along the ground. The little car seats two and is designed to sell for about $386. When the plant is in full operation, about 50 of the cars will be turned out each week.

Auto Seat Gives Infant Comfort – AKA “Kiddie Catapult” (May, 1936)

Filed under: Automotive, Impractical, Origins, Scary — @ 9:59 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
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It seems to me that this should be called the “Kiddie Catapult”, because if you’re ever in an accident your child is going to fly right through the windshield.

Auto Seat Gives Infant Comfort

When the very young members of the younger generation go motoring they may now ride in comfort, thanks to a new auto seat especially designed for infants.

The device is, in effect, a small chair which is placed on top of the regular seat cushion. Side arms give the child support and a convenient footrest keeps small shoes from scuffing the seat upholstery. The seat provides the child with full vision and is said not to come loose or jar out of place. Straps furnish the necessary adjustments.

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