January 19, 2008

The Electric Blanket Is Tested By “Maggie” (Aug, 1941)

The Electric Blanket Is Tested By “Maggie”

THE delightful creature in the bed is “Maggie,” the engineer’s solution to General Electric’s search for a substitute for a human being to conduct continuous tests on the automatic electric blanket developed by G.E. to keep its users warm whatever the temperature. Stuffed with straw, “Maggie’s” underwear contains insulated copper wires which give off heat approximating the human body’s normal temperature.

January 16, 2008

Hoodlike Gas Mask Protects Babies (Aug, 1939)

Hoodlike Gas Mask Protects Babies

Three years of research have solved the grim problem of fitting babies with gas masks, according to the British designer of the model illustrated in use below. Rubberized gasproof fabric completely incloses an infant from the waist up in a capacious hood with a large cellulose acetate window. A hand bellows operated by the parent supplies pure filtered air for the baby to breathe.

January 11, 2008

You Don’t Have To be Good To Have Fun! (Mar, 1948)

Filed under: Scary — @ 12:26 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1948
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Nope, not another sexology post. It’s actually about making a belt.

You Don’t Have To be Good To Have Fun!

IF YOUR job or hobby is deep-sea diving or jet-plane piloting, either you’re good or you’re dead. Watchmaking and diamond cutting call for considerable skill, too. But there are dozens of pursuits less exacting that offer something much needed these days: the thrill of accomplishment.

I have an idea that a lot of people hesitate over hobbies because (a) they think they aren’t skilled enough, or (b) it’s too much work.

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January 5, 2008

Legs Of Ducks Transplanted On Chickens Before Hatched (Dec, 1939)

Would this really work?

Legs Of Ducks Transplanted On Chickens Before Hatched

Legs of turkeys and ducks growing on young chickens, legs of chickens and guinea fowl on young turkeys—a grand general mix-up transplantation of drumsticks and second joints all around the poultry yard has been achieved by Dr. Herbert L. Eastlick, young University of Missouri zoologist.

These legs are all extras, too, added by tissue-grafting while the birds were still embryos in the shell, only two or three days along in their incubation. A very delicate and patient technique had to be used, chipping away enough of the eggshell to expose the embryos, clipping off the limb-beginnings of one and transposing it to another, and sealing over the hole in the shell with an artificial covering.

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January 2, 2008

DOCTOR DISPUTES LINK BETWEEN SMOKING, CANCER (Nov, 1957)

Filed under: Scary — @ 12:11 am
Source: Science Digest ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1957
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DOCTOR DISPUTES LINK BETWEEN SMOKING, CANCER

The case against tobacco is derived mostly from statistical associations and some experimental work with animals, says Dr. Harry S. N. Greene, chairman of the department of pathology, Yale University Medical School. There is yet no sound proof that cigarette smoking is a cause of human lung cancer.

In a book, Science Looks at Smoking, by Eric Northrup, published by Coward-McCann, Inc., New York, Dr. Greene says this about his own smoking pleasures:

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December 26, 2007

Priest Develops Practical Psychogalvanometer (Feb, 1937)

Filed under: Scary — @ 12:55 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1937
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If you can’t lie to your priest, who CAN you lie to?

Priest Develops Practical Psychogalvanometer

A PSYCHOGALVANOMETER invented by Father Walter G. Summers, head of the department of psychology at Fordham University in New York City, is said to be a practically infallible lie detecting device.

The apparatus consists of two boxes. One, resembling a radio set, contains a system of balanced electric circuits. The other, a milliammeter, produces a chart tracing of the emotional reactions of the person being tested. The combined apparatus amplifies the electrical charge inherent in the human body to such an extent that variations, caused by the emotions, cause a change in the tracing.

December 23, 2007

BULLET-PROOF VEST RESISTS FIRE OF THREE PISTOLS (May, 1924)

Doesn’t this still bruise the hell out of you? Who were these “young women” who let people shoot at them?

BULLET-PROOF VEST RESISTS FIRE OF THREE PISTOLS

To demonstrate the effectiveness of a bullet-proof vest he invented, a New York man donned the garment, posed as the target and allowed three policemen to shoot at him at close range. Repeated fire of thirty-eight and forty-five caliber bullets failed to penetrate the vest. The missiles were flattened against the sides of the protector and fell harmless to the ground. Following this demonstration, young women put on the vests and also served as targets.

November 20, 2007

Rumble Seat on Handle Bar for Cyclist’s Baby (Nov, 1938)

That looks safe.

Rumble Seat on Handle Bar for Cyclist’s Baby

When one proud father in Switzerland wants to take the baby for an airing, he fits a special rumble seat on the handle bar of his bicycle and away they go. The seat is equipped with a top to protect baby from sun or shower, but the top can be folded when desired.

November 6, 2007

Machinery to Eliminate Humans (Dec, 1930)

Filed under: Scary — @ 7:10 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1930
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The headline makes it sound like they are designing a gas chamber.

Machinery to Eliminate Humans
THE last word in the elimination of the human factor in the manufacture of machinery is represented in the erection of the new A. C. Smith research engineering plant in Milwaukee which will house the laboratories of a staff of highly trained research engineers whose efforts will be directed along the lines of creating a 100% automatic frame plant, that is, a machine-perfect factory.

October 28, 2007

Seeing Ghosts NOW EXPLAINED BY SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS (Nov, 1933)

Filed under: Scary — @ 1:05 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1933
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I thought about putting this in the Origins category since it is clearly the progenitor of Skeletor.

Seeing Ghosts NOW EXPLAINED BY SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS

GHOSTLY, sheeted figures, seen as one runs past a dark cemetery, are not merely figments of the imagination. They are actually seen as real ghosts looming out of the night.

This is the conclusion arrived at by psychologists who now claim that people really see with their own eyes the apparitions that form the bases of “true” ghost stories.

According to these psychologists you can, at will, see synthetic specters, in the following manner:

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September 19, 2007

Elkhorn Artist (Jun, 1953)

Filed under: Scary — @ 7:47 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1953
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Elkhorn Artist
THE world’s largest elk herd located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, supports an odd and lucrative business for Walt Floerke, a retired Chicago CPA. He gathers the massive antlers which are shed annually and turns them into interesting curios such as those shown here and sells them to tourists.

September 11, 2007

Reducing Suits (Feb, 1950)

Filed under: Scary — @ 4:29 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1950
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Do they mean that the Jockeys lose that weight? Or the horses? Because I think the only way a jockey is going to loose five pounds in an hour is if you cut their leg off.

Reducing Suits
Horses, as well as overweight humans, can trim off pounds by sunning in a plastic “silhouette” suit. Jockeys say it helps them reduce as much as five pounds in an hour.

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