March 13, 2008

Dog Rides Comfortably in Sack on Running Board (Jun, 1936)

Filed under: Dogs, Scary — @ 2:06 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1936
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This is even more insane then the auto-kennels we’ve covered before. I really hope the reason that this is a drawing is that no one would actually strap their dog to the side of their car.

Dog Rides Comfortably in Sack on Running Board
When you take your dog along for a ride, but prefer not having it inside the car, it can ride safely and comfortably in this sack, which is carried on the running board. The bottom of the sack is clamped to the running board and the top is fastened to the lower part of an open window with hooks, covered with small rubber tubing to prevent marring the car.

February 21, 2008

Latest Clock Has a “Voice” to Announce Time (Nov, 1936)

Filed under: Scary — @ 2:06 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1936
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Latest Clock Has a “Voice” to Announce Time

Sleepyheads may be awakened in the near future by a clock which announces in clear tones, “Seven o’clock,” or whatever the hour may be. Such a clock has been developed by a communications laboratory. It has an odd caricature face and a “voice” circuit which will put the exact hour into words. It is synchronized with a nationwide time service. The clock may be used as a train announcer, with a microphone connected into the speech circuit for making announcements other than telling the time.

January 19, 2008

Pocket Fire Escape Wound on Reel Is Safeguard in Tall Buildings (Oct, 1924)

Filed under: Scary — @ 2:03 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1924
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Pocket Fire Escape Wound on Reel Is Safeguard in Tall Buildings

To demonstrate the efficiency of a “vest-pocket” fire escape which he has devised, the inventor fastened one end of it to a seventeenth – story window railing of a New York hotel and lowered himself safely to the ground by clinging to the stout wire cable which unwound from a reel holder. A loop and snap buckle were attached to the end so that it could be quickly adjusted, and a spring in the reel took up part of the weight in descending.

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

Filed under: Scary — @ 2:01 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1941
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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)

Filed under: Scary, War — @ 2:05 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1939
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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)

Filed under: Scary — @ 2:44 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1939
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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)

Filed under: Crime and Police, Scary — @ 12:21 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1924
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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)

Filed under: Bicycles, Scary — @ 7:30 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1938
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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.

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