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Blind Men Make Radios (Oct, 1937)

This reminds me of a crazy Russian film I posted to YouTube a few years ago. It’s all about what appears to be an entire town complete with school, resort and television factory to cater to the blind. It all looks rather futuristic and amazing and has the feel of propaganda but I have no idea what it says because the entire film is narrated in French.

Blind Men Make Radios

THE world’s most unusual radio factory is in operation in New York City where 304 blind men build radio sets on a production scale. Every operation is performed by them, even to soldering, and it seems that these men make fewer mistakes and do a better job than workers not handicapped with a loss of sight.

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Meet A Metal Master (Dec, 1950)

Sadly, it doesn’t seem that Mr. Bonson’s work ever became very popular. A quick Google search on his name only comes up with his wife’s 2011 obituary and an endorsement for his 1974 attempt at a seat on the Eugene city council.

Meet A Metal Master

The nation’s top stores sell the copper and brass products of a bearded Oregonian whose salesmen won’t let him shave.

R. HARLOW SCHILLIOS

Louis Frank Bonson of Eugene, Oregon, is a kindly man who loves his work, takes a lot of pains with it, and does not care whether he makes a great deal of money. Despite this, he can scarcely keep up with the orders that are flooding him from America’s most distinctive gift shops.

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World’s Largest Vertical Letter File (Oct, 1937)

World’s Largest Vertical Letter File

THE largest vertical letter file in the world was built in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It consists of 3,000 drawers, 10 feet high, reaching from floor to ceiling and covering approximately 4,000 square feet. The drawers are all equipped with roller bearings.

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Portable Unit Puffs Cereal Grains (Dec, 1936)

I’m kind of amazed I haven’t seen one of these still in use in Portland. It seems like artisanal breakfast cereal would be very popular here. Salted caramel hemp puffs anyone?

Portable Unit Puffs Cereal Grains

DESIGNED especially for light manufacturing, a new machine recently introduced by a Portland, Oregon, manufacturer

converts wheat and rice grains into a delightful breakfast cereal. Four quarts of dry grain when exploded makes about one bushel of breakfast food. The machine can be operated by one person and will produce $120 worth of merchandise per day. An electric motor operates the device.

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QUEER “FISH” FOR COSTLY SOUP (Feb, 1909)

QUEER “FISH” FOR COSTLY SOUP

By W.G. FITZ-GERALD and H. H. DUNN

VERY great banquet begins with turtle soup, so that the traffic in these curious creatures is naturally a very profitable one, though extremely precarious withal. In the first place, while there are a great variety of turtles in tropic waters, only one kind is of any use for the much-sought soup.

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Fame and Fortune from Sandwiches (Sep, 1936)

Fame and Fortune from Sandwiches

The Sandwich King of Denmark and his two hundred varieties of Smoerrebroed.

THE proverb, “The way to a man’s heart lies through his stomach,” could well have originated in Denmark. The Danes love good food and, above all, they like their special sandwiches, called Smoerrebroed.

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THE MANUFACTURE OF FINE MIRRORS (Jun, 1917)

THE MANUFACTURE OF FINE MIRRORS

A Trade That Is Near to an Art When milady stops before the crystal of her dresser, she doubtless does not realize the time, patience, and skill that has been put into the manufacture of this perfect image-maker.

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ENGINEERING PROGRESS (Feb, 1909)

ENGINEERING PROGRESS

NEW MOTOR FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION.

A RECENT development in gasoline engines promises to overcome in a measure two drawbacks to aerial navigation—the weight of the engine and the instability of the machine as a whole. In the new engine the cylinders revolve and act as a comparatively heavy flywheel, whose gyroscopic action tends to keep the machine in equilibrium.

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Inflated Owl Decoys Crows (Jul, 1940)

Inflated Owl Decoys Crows

Crow hunters have been supplied with an unusual accessory in the form of an eighteen-inch pneumatic decoy owl, which can be carried rolled up in a coat pocket and inflated when needed. Crows are hereditary enemies of owls, and attack them whenever they find them in daylight. Hence, the decoy placed on an upright stick in an open space attracts the crows and brings them within gunshot. The body of the decoy owl is made of heavy, durable canvas which is painted realistically.

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“Petrified Lightning” Is Formed by Catching Man-Made Bolts in Sand (Jun, 1942)

“Petrified Lightning” Is Formed by Catching Man-Made Bolts in Sand
By CATCHING bolts of artificial lightning in a pail of sand, Westinghouse engineers duplicate one of nature’s rarest phenomena.

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