February 28, 2008

Whole Cigarette Factory Contained in Single Tobacco Can (Apr, 1933)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:00 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1933
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Whole Cigarette Factory Contained in Single Tobacco Can

ADD to your list of incredibilities this tobacco can cigarette factory, which nevertheless is an established fact, as our photo proves, though unlikely to cause stirrings of uneasiness in the council chambers of the country’s cigarette manufacturers. The invention is the creation of Dr. Edward P. Delevante, who has built a cigarette roller right into the bottom of the tobacco can. At the twist of a lever the cigarette pops out ready for use, with matches handy for lighting on the side of the tin.

At Last Outdoor Sleepers Can Keep Heads Warm (Mar, 1922)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:58 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1922

At Last Outdoor Sleepers Can Keep Heads Warm

OUTDOOR sleeping is likely to be more popular with the use of a newly designed electrically heated pad to keep the scalp warm; for—particularly in the damp air and changing temperatures of spring—it is sometimes difficult to sleep comfortably without putting the head under the bedclothes. This, of course, defeats the purpose of sleeping outdoors.

To fill this need, the new electric pad is shaped for the head and designed so that the temperature never rises enough to injure the hair. The connection cord is attached to any electric-light socket.

February 27, 2008

SINGER CAN HEAR VOICE AS AUDIENCE HEARS IT (Feb, 1934)

Filed under: Just Weird, Music — @ 2:06 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1934

SINGER CAN HEAR VOICE AS AUDIENCE HEARS IT

So that would-be singers may hear themselves as others hear them, a Los Angeles, Calif., voice teacher and former grand opera singer has invented and patented a voice reflector. Fitted around the pupil’s neck like a collar, as shown above, its convolutions carry a part of the singer’s tones back to her own ears. According to the inventor, his device will enable singers or public speakers to detect and correct faults in tone, volume, and diction during a few hours’ practice, since they may hear in this way exactly how their voices in singing or speaking would sound to an audience.

February 24, 2008

Brain Meter Tests Lawmaker’s Intellect (Jun, 1934)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:00 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1934

Brain Meter Tests Lawmaker’s Intellect

Your Congressman’s Brain

Based on partial survey of 89 senators and congressmen.

SENATORS’ brain weights averaged 52 oz., congressmen, 50 oz. The greatest brain weight, 55 oz., was shown in members from Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

The next highest brain weight, 53 oz., was found in members from Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.

The lowest weight, 49 oz., was registered by members from California, Oregon and Washington.

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February 21, 2008

THIEF STEALS RODS OFF WASHINGTON MONUMENT (Mar, 1935)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1935

THIEF STEALS RODS OFF WASHINGTON MONUMENT

One of the strangest thefts on record was revealed recently with the reported disappearance of 107 miniature lightning rods that were being substituted for older ones atop the Washington Monument. Apparently an audacious thief had taken advantage of the huge scaffold used in renovating the monument to commit one of the loftiest of burglaries. Plated with gold and tipped with platinum to avoid corrosion, the rods were valued at eight dollars apiece.

February 20, 2008

‘Venetian Blinds’ in Goggles Shade the Wearer’s Eyes (Mar, 1941)

‘Venetian Blinds’ in Goggles Shade the Wearer’s Eyes

Tiny Venetian blinds are built into the top of a new type of sun goggles to shade the eyes from direct sun glare. The Venetian-like structure is an integral part of the lenses, formed by deep rectangular indentations in the lens material which are then filled with opaque liquid. While the uncolored lenses are about ninety-eight per cent transparent, the upper part intercepts overhead sun rays and casts a shadow on the eyes. In one type, the “blinds” are made of thin, flat wires.

Duelists Break Custom; Shoot Selves In Target Practice (Apr, 1935)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:05 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1935

Duelists Break Custom; Shoot Selves In Target Practice

QUITE contrary to the ancient custom of duelling, the members of the Southern California Colectors Association have evolved a bloodless version of the honorable art, using life-sized photographic enlargements of themselves as targets.

One of the club members, a photographer by profession, struck upon the idea, and now the members are staging regular contests, shooting with old guns from their collections.

A circle over the heart is the bull’s eye; concentric circles extending over the other vital parts of the body provide a wide range scoring basis.

February 16, 2008

Finding Radium Inside a Pig (Jan, 1936)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:05 am
Source: Science And Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1936

Finding Radium Inside a Pig

RADIUM, used in hospital work inside tiny “needles,” may easily be mislaid; and a thousand dollars’ worth is almost invisible to the eye. Recently a tube disappeared from a hospital at Sioux Falls, S. D., and, though only 3/4″ x 1/16″, represented $3,000 value. A couple of scientists promptly improvised a radium finder from a glass flash and a strip of gold leaf and went over to the dumping ground. Strong indications of radioactivity —the leaf of gold in the homemade electroscope collapsing—were found whenever a certain pig was approached. So the pig was converted into sausage material, and in its stomach was found the little radium capsule— to the surprise of the pig’s proprietor.

The principle of the electroscope is that when it is charged, the same electrical polarity—whether positive or negative—is on the insulated metal rod through the stopper of sulphur, or other high insulator, and on the gold leaf attached to the rod. The gold leaf is repelled, and stands out at a high angle, until the electroscope is discharged. But if ultra-violet light, or radium rays, fall on the flask, the air inside it becomes ionized (electrified) and conductive; the charge immediately leaks off the rod and the leaf falls.

February 15, 2008

CHINESE THEATERS PASS HOT TOWELS (Oct, 1931)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:35 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1931

Chinese people don’t kiss? I guess if Popular Science says it then it must be true.

CHINESE THEATERS PASS HOT TOWELS

When American movies invade foreign lands, they are likely to meet with a strange reception, according to the customs of the country. In the theaters of interior China, an attendant stands at the side of the auditorium. When he sees an upraised hand in the audience, he wrings out a hot towel and deftly shoots it, sometimes as far as fifty feet, to the patron. The recipient wipes off his face and goes on watching the show. Before every kissing sequence in a film, an announcer explains and demonstrates what a kiss is, and what it means to white people. The Chinese do not kiss.

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Texas Rabbits Roped Like Steers (Nov, 1932)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:34 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1932

I think I’m going to have to call bullshit on this one. Unless that’s actually a Kangaroo…

Texas Rabbits Roped Like Steers

THE jackrabbits they sure grow big in the Lone Star State. If you need graphic proof just take a look at the photo at the right. Believe it or not, but that thing hanging by its hind legs is a rabbit, and not an overgrown police dog.

These critters play a leading role in the rabbit roping contest held every year in the little town of Odessa, in Wild Western part of Texas. The idea of roping a rabbit does not seem so easy when you see what it is that gets roped.

February 14, 2008

Bugle Call into Megaphone Gets ‘em Up in the Morning (Mar, 1941)

Filed under: Just Weird, Music — @ 12:02 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1941

Bugle Call into Megaphone Gets ‘em Up in the Morning

Reveille sounds painfully loud these days to the boys in camp at Fort Jackson, S. C. When the bugler sounds “I can’t get ‘em up in the morning” he steps to a huge megaphone that blasts his notes throughout the camp. Mess call, he finds, does not require so much artificial amplification.

January 29, 2008

Hobbyist Strings Bottle Caps into Many Useful Articles (Dec, 1938)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:03 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1938

That plane sure looks useful.

Hobbyist Strings Bottle Caps into Many Useful Articles
Out of the ash can comes the material for a Miami modelmaker. His hobby is fashioning household articles out of old bottle caps. Small tables, flower stands for the porch, and baskets are some of his creations, made by stringing the metal caps on old wire coat hangers. One of the largest articles built of this strange material was a model airplane requiring 2,200 bottle caps.

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