February 1, 2009

Black Spray (Dec, 1947)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 11:06 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1947
| Buy on Ebay

Black Spray
of carbon is blown into the face of this industrial worker to test the efficiency of a respirator incorporating a revolutionary new dust filter. The mask was developed by the American Optical Company to protect laborers exposed to microscopic poisonous and disease-producing
dusts smaller in diameter than 24 millionths of an inch.

January 31, 2009

Snowshoes, Jelly Beans and Rat Bait Cheese (Oct, 1955)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:53 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1955
| Buy on Ebay

Snowshoes, Jelly Beans and Rat Bait Cheese

YOU can buy anything from a buggy whip to a bustle at the Old Country Store, South Sudbury, Mass. Wilfred Allen, originator and proprietor of the old-time emporium, has it packed to the rafters with relics that would have made your great great grandpa do a jig of joy. Modern items are also sold because Allen has to balance the budget, but it is the antique furnishings that give his shop its unique charm and flavor of days gone by.

January 21, 2009

The House That Death Built (Jun, 1937)

Filed under: Architecture, Just Weird — @ 12:08 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1937
| Buy on Ebay

The House That Death Built

by Dean S. Jennings

DEAD leaves, whipped from stark lonely trees by the valley wind, sing a dirge in the night glow of a winter’s moon.

Behind the skeleton screen of withered oaks whose rotting limbs droop to pungent ground, you can see the house, gabled and gaunt, rising wraith-like against a blue shadowed mountain backdrop.

They call it the “mystery house,” and “the house that death built” or “ghost house.”
Read the rest of this entry »

January 15, 2009

STAINLESS CHOPPERS (Apr, 1957)

Filed under: Cool, DIY, Just Weird — @ 12:18 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

Wow, this is actually the second guy I’ve seen with homemade stainless steel dentures. Here is another from 1937. I wonder how common this was.

STAINLESS CHOPPERS
STEELY SMILE of John Gilpin, village blacksmith of Livingston, Mont., is really friendly although strangers are sometimes awed by it. Gilpin broke a set of store teeth 16 years ago, replaced them with rugged stainless steel.

January 13, 2009

Fish-Net Shirt (Nov, 1949)

Filed under: Just Weird, Personal Appearance — @ 10:45 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1949
| Buy on Ebay

Fish-Net Shirt is a satisfactory substitute for the Eskimo caribou garments in the Arctic. It allows body perspiration to evaporate and form a vapor barrier, thus conserving all possible natural heat needed in frigid climates. First used in the Canadian Arctic by Operation Musk-Ox, this hole-some shirt is now worn under army winter underwear.

January 5, 2009

Hangover Heaven (Apr, 1947)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:47 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1947
| Buy on Ebay

Madness I tell you, pure madness.

Hangover Heaven is the apt name of the unusual bonnet at right. Originally developed by makeup man Max Factor for the benefit of actresses who wish to refresh their faces on hot studio sets without spoiling their makeup, the facial ice pack was quickly diverted to another purpose by festive Hollywoodians. The headpiece, adorned with water-filled plastic cubes, is kept in the refrigerator while the water freezes.

January 1, 2009

Personology—Science of Success (Apr, 1953)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:34 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1953
| Buy on Ebay

Personology—Science of Success

Bob Whiteside, Personologisf, is startling the scientific world with an amazing new system for determining a person’s aptitudes by his physical appearance.

By Lee Edson

THE man and woman standing in front of the studio audience at a recent San Francisco radio show were plainly skeptical. And so was the audience itself.

They stared at ex-newspaperman Bob Whiteside with a show-me attitude that for a lesser person might have been disconcerting. But Whiteside, who was on the program to demonstrate what he could reveal about a person merely by looking at him, was used to skepticism. He looked his subjects over carefully. He had never seen them before and there was little about them that could distinguish them from thousands of others. Read the rest of this entry »

December 31, 2008

10,000,000 UFO witnesses can’t be wrong! (Jun, 1967)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:48 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1967
| Buy on Ebay

Err, yes they can.

10,000,000 UFO witnesses can’t be wrong!

By Otto O. Binder

A GALLUP POLL discloses the astonishing fact that 5 million Americans claim to have seen a UFO at one time or another since 1947. Even if 80 per cent of these so-called sightings can be proved to be of such ordinary objects as balloons, high-flying aircraft, birds, stars, etc., that leaves 1 million unsatisfied witnesses. In America alone!

But UFOs also have been reported from more than 70 other countries and the estimated grand total of living witnesses for this little orb called Earth exceeds 10 million. Ten million men, women and children who have seen something out of the ordinary in the sky!
Read the rest of this entry »

December 29, 2008

WORLD’S WACKIEST INVENTIONS (Mar, 1957)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:41 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

WORLD’S WACKIEST INVENTIONS

“Nonsensical” describes this inventor’s nutty devices but they’ll guarantee a chuckle.

RUSSELL Oakes’ knack for dreaming up wacky inventions can be charged to his desire to simplify the complexities of modern life. Though his nonsensical creations may be more involved than the problems they’re designed to solve, you’re guaranteed a chuckle using them. Oakes has contrived such devices as a cocktail glass with a movable bottom that enables you to get at the cherry without straining your tongue; a device for knocking flies off a sandwich while balancing a cup of coffee, and a fan that operates via jaw-motion for speakers in hot climates. Nutty devices—but fun.

December 24, 2008

HE HUNTS GHOSTS (Mar, 1957)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:21 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

HE HUNTS GHOSTS
ONE of every 14 Britons claims to have seen or heard a ghost, according to Philip Paul, vice-chairman of the Ghost Club of London. Investigating specters, sleeping in haunted houses and reporting to the 150 members of the century-old Ghost Club are Paul’s hobbies. (Ghost Club members also dabble in hypnotism and fire walking.) Pictures show Paul checking up on a haunted dwelling and dressmaker’s shop in London where a poltergeist (noisy ghost) had been rumpling beds, heaving flatirons and glasses and scaring the help. Sorry, no photos of the spook.

December 19, 2008

Oil-Soaked Bricks Lure Lobsters (Aug, 1931)

Filed under: Animals, Just Weird — @ 12:03 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1931
| Buy on Ebay

Oil-Soaked Bricks Lure Lobsters

A NOVEL bait for lobsters has been developed by New England fishermen who, knowing that lobsters hanker for anything having an odor of oil, conceived the idea of soaking some common house bricks in kerosene for 24 hours and then placing the oil-soaked bricks in the bait cabin of the trap. Since the bricks are porous, they absorb quite a lot of kerosene and the oily smell clings thereto for several days.

More lobsters are caught in traps so baited than in those in which mixed bait is used. Due to the fact that the bricks retain their oily odor for several days, the work of baiting the traps is lessened and the expense is not heavy, for a gallon of oil will serve to “oil” a large number of bricks.

December 18, 2008

Why Fat Women Are the Happiest (May, 1932)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:13 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1932
| Buy on Ebay

Why Fat Women Are the Happiest

FAT women, especially those in middle age, are usually happier than thin women because they are better equipped to withstand the nervous strain brought on by the active pace now required of middle age women, according to Dr. McPhedran, of Toronto.

Women of 40 and 50 are expected to manage the household, take an active part in club and civic affairs, and still be fresh for parties in the evening.
All this is contrary to nature, and a reasonable degree of plumpness cushions the body against physical shocks and strain.

21 queries. 0.767 seconds.