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Just Weird
Scientific American
Issue: Sep, 1952
Posted in: Advertisements, Just Weird
Posted: 04/12/2006
No Comments
CRYSTAL UREA (Sep, 1952)

I’m sure that I use hundreds of products that involve crystal urea. However that does not mean I want to be told that you’re washing my clothes in it.

IDEA-CHEMICALS
… from Du Pont Polychemicals Department
CRYSTAL UREA
takes the stiffness out of ordinary starch

Washable summer suits once had to be starched stiff as a board to stay pressed.Then one starch maker found he could produce a far better laundry finishing agent by chemically combining starch with Du Pont Crystal Urea. This new product, called starch carbamate, gives an elegant drape and finish to washable suits, doesn’t impact . . . and doesn’t close the air space between the fibers, but lets the garment ‘breathe” and remain cool. New starch carbamate is also finding applications in other fields as an ingredient in water-base wall paints . . . and as a binder for glass fibers in the molding operation.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Jan, 1953
Posted in: Just Weird, Photography, Sign of the Times
Posted: 04/12/2006
8 Comments
Flying Saucer Camera (Jan, 1953)

Flying Saucer Camera will be used by Air Force to clear up saucer questions. One lens takes regular picture; the other separates light into colors so scientists can judge the source and make-up of saucers.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Mar, 1934
Posted in: Just Weird
Posted: 04/12/2006
1 Comment
Horned Owl Clings to Radiator Cap for Eighty Mile Drive (Mar, 1934)

Horned Owl Clings to Radiator Cap for Eighty Mile Drive
ALIVE owl of the horned species flew up to the car of George Carpenter of Minneapolis while he was driving near St. Cloud, Minnesota, and refused to be shooed away. The tenacious bird clung to the radiator cap for the entire 80 mile trip back to Minneapolis, making a living radiator ornament that attracted considerable attention. The owl is now making its home in the Carpenter garage, and is rapidly becoming a family pet. Mice have mysteriously disappeared from the garage and vicinity since the arrival of this bird, so the Carpenters consider that it is earning its board.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Jan, 1953
Posted in: Communications, Just Weird
Posted: 04/10/2006
No Comments
Church Juke Box (Jan, 1953)

Church Juke Box installed in Lutheran Church in Harrison, N. J., plays hymns for visitors who enter for prayer. Rev. Bornhoeft, reserve army chaplain, thought of it. Selector is remote control.

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Popular Mechanics
Issue: Feb, 1952
Posted in: General, Just Weird
Posted: 04/08/2006
No Comments
Fisherman and His Pets (Feb, 1952)

Fisherman and His Pets
Most fishermen have a hobby of some kind and Henry Larsen, lob-sterman of Freeport, N. Y., is no exception. He likes to train pets of all kinds. He hasn’t yet discovered a way to train the lobster, but he has worked out a tightrope routine starring Sonja, his cat. Sonja gracefully trips across the rope carrying two white mice and a small chicken on her back. To make the act a little more exciting, Julius, a bantam rooster and another of Larsen’s pets, perches unconcernedly on the rope, forcing the cat to step over him as she carries her passengers along the rope.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Mar, 1934
Posted in: House and Home, Just Weird
Posted: 04/08/2006
8 Comments
Anti-pest Doorbell Discourages Agents and Bill Collectors (Mar, 1934)

Anti-pest Doorbell Discourages Agents and Bill Collectors
A RECENTLY invented doorbell of the coin-in-the-slot type is finding great favor with housewives who are continually pestered by salesmen and bill collectors.
A dime must be inserted in the slot of this unit before the push button can be made to operate the bell. If the visitor is unwelcome, he or she loses the dime, but if a friend calls the housewife returns the dime after opening the door.
Agents are a bit hesitant about entering homes equipped with this doorbell, for they are not always confident that they can persuade the lady of the house to buy their products or return the dime.
Movie stars especially, who are continually bothered by autograph seekers and salesmen, are finding that this tittle device adds considerably to their income.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Jan, 1936
Posted in: Just Weird, Scary
Tags:
Posted: 04/07/2006
2 Comments
Human Fireworks (Jan, 1936)

Living Actors Animate Fireworks
SPECTACULAR pyrotechnics animated by living performers clad in asbestos suits have been part of the display which thrilled London audiences at the Crystal Palace during the past season.
Most famous of the acts is “Blondin on his tight rope,” in which “Blondin,” outlined in blazing powder, pushes a fiery wheelbarrow across a flaming plank. The heat generated by the display would be sufficient to melt iron.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Mar, 1933
Posted in: Impractical, Just Weird
Posted: 04/06/2006
18 Comments
Perpetual Motion Engine (Mar, 1933)

This seems a bit sketchy, seeing as how it violates the laws of physics.

Cans Lift Up Water Column in Perpetual Motion Engine

THE latest in perpetual motion machines is a fuelless engine devised by a Frenchman of Paris, M. Miralle. The contraption functions on an application of Archimedes’ principle of floating bodies, and consists of a sort of thick set chimney made of sheet iron and equipped with fifteen flywheels.

The machine is set going by turning one of the flywheels about fifteen revolutions, which subsequently sets the remaining wheels in operation. Over these wheels passes an endless chain fixed in the interior of the chimney like a motor, in which is also a series of chambers made of vegetable cans.

The chimney is filled with water so that the chamber and the endless chain are submerged in the liquid. One of the columns of chambers contains water and the other, through a process known only to M. Miralle, is filled with air. The air-filled chambers tend to rise to the surface of the water-filled chimney, thus setting the motor in motion. The photo shows M. Miralle standing beside his invention.

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Popular Mechanics
Issue: Jan, 1958
Posted in: General, Just Weird
Tags:
Posted: 04/06/2006
2 Comments
Plywood Dome Will Serve as Church in Korea (Jan, 1958)

Plywood Dome Will Serve as Church in Korea
All the building materials for the igloo-shaped sanctuary in the photograph above could be carried in a large pickup truck. The 39-foot hemisphere, built from 134 sheets of 1/4-inch exterior-grade plywood, will be used as a church at Naju, South Korea. Using the geodesic-dome design of architect Buckminster Fuller, the building gets its strength from the geometric pattern of the 4 by 6-1/2 foot sheets of plywood on 2 by 2-inch ribbing. It was erected in 16 hours, left, with much of the work done by small boys. The building weighs 3500 pounds.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Aug, 1949
Posted in: General, Just Weird, Scary, Sign of the Times
Posted: 04/03/2006
3 Comments
Electric Preacher (Aug, 1949)

Wow, that’s pretty cool. I wonder why don’t they do that in the mega-chruches. Can’t you just imagine Jerry Fallwell shooting lightning from his finger tips? He’d look like a pudgy version of the Emporer from Star Wars… Oh. Mabe that’s why they don’t.

Fingertip Sermon is given by George E. Speake at a Christian Endeavor convention. One million volts arch from his body through electrodes on his fingertips. Sparks really fly when he’s on the pulpit!

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