July 10, 2007

FORTY-POUND CIGAR IS VALUED AT SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS (May, 1924)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:03 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1924
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Sometimes a cigar is just a big-ass cigar.

FORTY-POUND CIGAR IS VALUED AT SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS

What is said to be one of the largest cigars ever made was shown at an eastern tobacco exposition. It was rolled from broadleaf tobacco from the Connecticut valley and is five feet in length. The value of the tobacco used is estimated at $75.

July 3, 2007

BULL WITH SINGLE HORN IS MODERN UNICORN (Jul, 1936)

Filed under: Just Weird, Other Animals — @ 12:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1936
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This is kind of sad. It almost warrants it’s own unicorn chaser.

BULL WITH SINGLE HORN IS MODERN UNICORN
What might be called a modern unicorn has been produced by Dr. W. F. Dove, University of Maine biologist. From a day-old bull calf, Dr. Dove removed the two small knots of tissue which normally develop into horns. These horn buds he transplanted in the center of the bull’s forehead, thereby inducing the growth of a single massive horn. The bull, now nearly three years old, has developed much of the proud bearing ascribed to the mythical unicorn.

DIY Voodoo Kit (Sep, 1956)

Filed under: Cool, Just Weird — @ 12:01 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1956
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VOODOO DO-IT-YOURSELF

IF YOU know somebody who always beats you at croquet or who likes to swat you on the head and call you, “Old aardvark”—and who doesn’t know someone like that?— then what you need is a voodoo kit. With this you’ll spend many happy hours sticking needles into a little doll and pretending it’s your playmate. Voodoo is West Indian for black magic, which is the art of inflicting pain, sickness, death and bad luck by remote control.

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Engineer Is Safe in Steel Wire Cage Charged With 300,000 Volts (Feb, 1954)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1954
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Engineer Is Safe in Steel Wire Cage Charged With 300,000 Volts
Even though a 300,000-volt electric current surges through the steel-wire ball which encloses him, an engineer in a Munich museum demonstration remains unperturbed. The so-called “Faraday’s cage” protects its passenger even though he’s in the midst of a powerful electrostatic field. The electricity spreads harmlessly around the ball and is then grounded via a cable.

June 29, 2007

Eye-Movement Glasses (Feb, 1954)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:06 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1954
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Eye-Movement Glasses
An extra pair of eyes seems to sprout beneath the cheekbones of a person using a new visual aid. The effect comes from inclined transparent mirrors attached to a pair of glassless spectacles. With the tool an observer can watch a reader’s eye movements and discover the reasons for retarded reading rate or comprehension. It is possible to estimate the length and number of eye pauses, the number of backward eye movements, and the smoothness of eye movement rhythm.

June 25, 2007

ELECTRICITY OPERATES “FIRELESS PIPE” (May, 1936)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 9:46 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
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Electric Hookah?

ELECTRICITY OPERATES “FIRELESS PIPE”

A “fireless pipe,” operated by electricity, has been devised by a Toronto, Canada, physician, who maintains that it prevents the inhalation of harmful carbon monoxide and reduces fire hazard by eliminating the use of matches. Tobacco is volatilized by a heating element and the fumes are breathed in the usual way. One model is shaped like a standard pipe; another, built into a table lamp, has tubes for several smokers at once.

June 14, 2007

BRASS HORN TWELVE FEET LONG PLAYED BY SIX MIDGETS (Jan, 1924)

Filed under: Just Weird, Music — @ 3:42 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1924
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BRASS HORN TWELVE FEET LONG PLAYED BY SIX MIDGETS

Measuring 12 feet in length, a giant horn requires at least two men to play it, as it is so cumbersome that one person cannot carry it. Recently, at a convention in the South, six midget men were necessary to handle the instrument: one at the mouth-
piece, another at the keys, and four to support it. This huge band piece was made in Paris and brought to this country about 75 years ago.

June 11, 2007

Family Of Three Travels In Home-Built “Cyclemobile” (Feb, 1938)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 8:00 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1938
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Family Of Three Travels In Home-Built “Cyclemobile”

TWO bicycles joined together by means of a specially constructed frame and covered by a streamlined, water-proofed canvas hood, serve as a novel and cheap medium of transportation for A. Martin, of Dracutt, Mass. Dry batteries supply current to operate the front and rear lights of the “cyclemobile,” as the odd vehicle has been named.

Resembling an automobile of radical design in its appearance, the cyclemobile’s hood boasts ising-glass windows. The interior is fitted with luggage compartments and a berth for Martin’s 18-month-old daughter. Husband and wife work dual sets of pedals.

June 10, 2007

Rifle Barrel Becomes Bugle for Musical Stunt (Mar, 1938)

Filed under: Just Weird, Music — @ 12:24 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1938
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Rifle Barrel Becomes Bugle for Musical Stunt

Using the barrel for a horn, an English musician can play bugle calls on a rifle. A trumpet mouthpiece is inserted into the muzzle and the bolt removed. The notes produced are shrill and piercing, but are said to be perfect in both tone and pitch. The originator of the idea is shown in the photograph reproduced at the left holding the novel instrument in the correct position for sounding a bugle call.

June 5, 2007

Rosicrucians Ad: Will Man Create Life? (Apr, 1950)

Filed under: Advertisements, Just Weird — @ 9:13 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1950
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I’ve read this ad three times now and I still have no idea what they are saying. Though I must say that the “good” future they present sounds a lot like what post-singularity transhumans are supposed to be like:

Will the future know a superior, Godlike race of humans—each a genius and each the masterful creation of an unerring formula”

If the formula is unerring, wouldn’t everyone be identical? How is this different from the second option? Also, how can everyone be a genius? That’s sort of like saying everyone will be above average.

And why does the creation of life always require giant tesla coils?

Will Man Create Life?

DOES THE SECRET of life belong to Divinity alone?

Will Nature’s last frontier give way to man’s inquiring mind? Can man become a creator, peopling the world with creatures of his own fancy? Was the ancient sage right, who said: “To the Gods the Soul belongs, but to man will belong the power of Life”? Will the future know a superior, Godlike race of humans—each a genius and each the masterful creation of an unerring formula—or will Soulless beings, shorn of the feelings which have bound mortals together in understanding, dominate the earth?

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May 30, 2007

Cocomalt Ad Full of Naked Children (Nov, 1934)

Filed under: Advertisements, Just Weird — @ 12:59 am
Source: Physical Culture ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1934
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This is a really weird ad and nowadays it would probably be considered child porn. The message I got was: “Feed your kids Cocomalt so you don’t have to send them to visit pervy sunlamp guy.” And what is going on with the long line of half naked kids in dragging sleds through the snow? They look like they’re from a Siberian version of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Now Your Child Can “Drink Sunshine” 3 times a day

ONE OF SUNSHINE’S GREAT BENEFITS in this Vitamin D food

WE HAVE been called “a nation of sun-worshippers.” By sunlamps, by exposure, by every means possible we try to obtain as much sunshine as possible.

Here is one of the important reasons why: In the rays of the sun there exists a force which, acting upon the body, produces that precious element—Vitamin D. This Vitamin D enables the body to utilize efficiently the food-calcium and food-phosphorus in the development of sound, even teeth — straight, strong bones— well-formed, husky bodies. Of all the many great benefits of sunshine, this is perhaps one of the most significant.

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May 29, 2007

HOTEL BUILDS MONUMENT OF BROKEN CHINA (Dec, 1933)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 7:59 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1933
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HOTEL BUILDS MONUMENT OF BROKEN CHINA
By constructing a monument of all its broken crockery, a hotel at Hildenborough, England, has provided its grounds with an unusual landmark. The pile of china fragments serves as a gentle admonition to careless guests and attendants, inviting them to refrain from adding to its height. In spite of this warning, however, the monument to carelessness continues to rise and is now nearly as high as a woman’s head, as is seen in the illustration at left.

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