April 27, 2008

Hat Is Latest in Cigarette Cases (Apr, 1932)

Hat Is Latest in Cigarette Cases

AN “ammunition” hat designed with tuck in which are inserted twenty cigarettes, is proclaimed by stylists as the latest fad for co-eds. Wearing this hat, shown in the photo at right, the co-ed needs no longer go through the awkward motions of searching through a hand bag for her fags. All she has to do is to reach up and pluck one from her hat.

The cigarettes are arranged to appear like ornaments on the hat. The slots which hold the fags are made extremely rigid so as to prevent breaking.

April 24, 2008

Science Redesigns the Human Body (Aug, 1956)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:54 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1956

Science Redesigns the Human Body

Some scientists, engineers and designers gripe about Nature’s masterpiece and suggest a few improvements.

By Lester David

ON A golf course last Fall, a New York accountant took a healthy swing at the ball, fell to the ground— and couldn’t get up. He spent the next nine weeks in a hospital. Slipped spinal disc.

A mailman in Philadelphia was forced to turn in his resignation when fallen arches made walking unbearable.

In Chicago, an office worker running for a bus suddenly crumpled to the ground. He hobbled to a stoop and sat until help arrived. Dislocated knee, the doctor said.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 23, 2008

Engineer Builds Baby Walker (Sep, 1939)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:20 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1939

This looks like some sort of baby torture device.
“Mach schnell baby! Mach schnell!!”

Engineer Builds Baby Walker
To teach his young son to walk, a Swiss engineer built the curious apparatus shown above. Pairs of wooden arms are strapped at one end to the infant’s legs and at the other to the legs of an adult, so that the latter can control the baby’s leg movements. A harness connected to a pulley on an overhead wire holds the child upright while it is taking its first steps.

April 22, 2008

Beard Clinic Maps Strategy for Shaving (Sep, 1939)

Beard Clinic Maps Strategy for Shaving
HOW men should manipulate their razors to give themselves a smooth, clean shave is explained by dermatologists at the New York World’s Fair after a facial examination with an ingenious apparatus. On human faces, the experts say, the beard grows in different directions, which should be followed by the shaver as he uses his razor.

Read the rest of this entry »

Diver Collects Cash in Drive (Dec, 1938)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 11:16 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1938

Diver Collects Cash in Drive
Dressing a solicitor in the full regalia of a deep sea-diver was the novel means employed recently by the British Lifeboat Institution to attract the attention of pedestrians on the streets of London to their campaign for funds. Fully equipped, from lead-weighted shoes to a heavy steel diving helmet, the solicitor clumped along the sidewalk selling buttons to passers-by. The photograph at the left shows a woman making a contribution to the fund.

April 21, 2008

Tests Reveal Compatibility for Marriage (Jan, 1941)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 9:05 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1941

Tests Reveal Compatibility for Marriage
Checking up on the compatibility of persons about to be married is a predicted use for a system for measuring human relations developed by Dr. Ernest Chappie, of the Harvard University department of anthropology. Dr. Chappie places the couple to be “personality tested” behind a screen through which he can watch them without being seen. While they chat, he records their reactions on a paper tape with a special machine. The instrument could also be used for studying personality problems of individuals.

April 16, 2008

Swimmer Eats While Floating (Dec, 1938)

Filed under: Just Weird, Sports — @ 11:34 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1938

Swimmer Eats While Floating
In training for a projected long-distance swim from Atlantic City, N. J., to the water-front site of the World’s Fair in New York City, Norris Kellam, 381-pound endurance swimmer, is shown at the right practicing the technique of eating while floating on his back. During his swim, Kellam plans to lunch once every two hours.

April 14, 2008

Midget Hot-Water Bottle Soothes Toothaches (Oct, 1939)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:30 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939

Midget Hot-Water Bottle Soothes Toothaches
A doll-size hot-water bottle now on the market is said to be a handy medicine-cabinet accessory for use in the treatment of toothaches and similar ailments. Fitted with a leakproof rubber stopper, the bottle has a neck large enough to admit crushed ice, so that it may also be used as an ice pack.

April 13, 2008

How Scientists Visualize the REAL Flying Saucer Men (Jun, 1951)

Filed under: Cool, Just Weird, Space — @ 10:44 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1951

If you like this article, you should also check these out:

How Scientists Visualize the REAL Flying Saucer Men

When scholars of the universe recreate spacemen along logical scientific lines, even those supposed weird little saucerites seem ordinary by comparison.

By I. B. Neer

PRYING eyes of science are probing into space again in the hope of detecting life on other planets. Armed with new facts, previously accepted theories about what lies beyond the Earth are being discarded by scientists every day and the possibility grows more and more distinct that creatures, more fantastic than our most vivid imaginations could conjure up, may inhabit the planets around us. They make those startling stories of weird little men in flying saucers seem tame by comparison.

Read the rest of this entry »

ELEVEN-POUND MUSHROOM FOUND (Nov, 1936)

Filed under: Just Weird, Kitchen — @ 10:44 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1936

ELEVEN-POUND MUSHROOM FOUND

A single mushroom large enough to supply a banquet has been discovered and placed on exhibition in Switzerland. The phenomenal specimen tips the scales at eleven pounds, and measures more than a foot in diameter. In the illustration above, the giant mushroom is shown being weighed, while an observer checks its size with a centimeter scale.

April 12, 2008

Does Knee Flexibility Test Race? (Nov, 1932)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:09 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1932

I’ve always wondered why my knee joint’s weren’t as supple as I’d have liked. I always I assumed that it was because I’m lazy and shiftless, but apparently it’s just because I’m a Jew.

Damn you gentiles with your supple knees!

Does Knee Flexibility Test Race?
A NEW method of determining racial origin has been discovered by R. F. Ross of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, it is claimed, involving the degree to which persons of different races can rotate their knee joints, twisting their foot and ankle to right and left when the upper part of the leg is held immovable. The average person can rotate the knee joint through an angle of 40 degrees. It was found that members of the Jewish race who were tested had less ability to rotate their knee joints than had the Gentiles, which suggests that this ability has an hereditary or racial basis. Neither gymnastic exercises nor bodily differences such as height and weight seem to have any effect in increasing this variety of suppleness.

April 9, 2008

ELEVEN BLIND MEN RIDE ONE BIG CYCLE (Jul, 1931)

Filed under: Bicycles, Just Weird — @ 11:10 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1931

ELEVEN BLIND MEN RIDE ONE BIG CYCLE

An odd-looking cycle that seemed to have some of the qualities of a railway train was seen on the roads near Upper Norwood, England, the other day. Its twelve riders pedaled along, seated in flexibly connected units of the “multicycle.” This centipede among vehicles is twenty-eight feet long, but its flexible connections enable it to turn corners easily. It was built for use by students at the Royal Normal College for the Blind. An attendant with normal vision steers it.

25 queries. 0.561 seconds.