1930s
Anti-Thumb-Sucking Glove
This doesn't look safe.Patent No. 2,035,210 granted to Elizar Zinner of Germany.
Popular Science - May 1938
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 21, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Babies, Patents, Clothing, 1930s
Equine Hitchhiker
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 20, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Accidents, Animals, Death, 1930s, Cars
Early TiVo for Radios
Completely portable!The source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 01, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Radio, 1930s
Follies of the Madmen #609
Too much nicotine causes the user to hallucinate that the cigarette is talking to them.Source of ad.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 28, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, Smoking and Tobacco, 1930s, Mental Health and Insanity
The Birth of the Robot
The creator's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 26, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Robots, Stop-motion Animation, 1930s, Cars
An Optical Poem
Creator's Wikipedia entry here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 21, 2024 -
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Category: Art, Avant Garde, Movies, Stop-motion Animation, Music, 1930s
The Sonata of Sleep
The Sonata of Sleep wasn't a musical composition. Instead it was a building designed (but never built) in the 1930s by Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov. He envisioned it as a place where Soviet workers could enjoy scientifically-enhanced sleep. Details from Cabinet magazine:At either end of the long buildings were to be situated control booths, where technicians would command instruments to regulate the temperature, humidity, and air pressure, as well as to waft salubrious scents and “rarefied condensed air” through the halls. Nor would sound be left unorganized. Specialists working “according to scientific facts” would transmit from the control centre a range of sounds gauged to intensify the process of slumber. The rustle of leaves, the cooing of nightingales, or the soft murmur of waves would instantly relax the most overwrought veteran of the metropolis. Should these fail, the mechanized beds would then begin gently to rock until consciousness was lost.
Model of Melnikov's Sonata of Sleep
image source: interwoven
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 20, 2024 -
Comments (8)
Category: Architecture, Sleep and Dreams, 1930s, Russia
Whatisit on the Loose
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 18, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Cryptozoology, 1930s
Irradiated Milk
This product was not subject to atomic radiation, but rather a different process. In the 1930s, to fight rickets, scientists sought to increase the Vitamin D content in milk through the application of ultraviolet rays.However, as this account relates:
Making matters worse, while experiments showed milk to be an ideal source for getting vitamin D into the diets of American children, prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light tended to give fluid milk a foul odor and an off-putting taste. On top of that, any excess heat had the counterproductive effect of destroying the milk’s vitamin A.
But finally, science found a way!
But, of course, for both political and nutritional reasons, finding a way to deliver vitamin D dairy products remained the ultimate prize. After years of testing, Steenbock, Scott and their collaborators finally determined a three-part scheme for fortifying milk. First, dairy cows could be fed with irradiated feed to produce higher levels of vitamin D. Second, industrial machines constructed by companies like Creamery Package Manufacturing and Hanovia Chemical allowed large-scale irradiation of fluids while minimizing the negative effects on taste and smell.12 Third, irradiated ergosterol could be mixed into the final product as a tasteless additive.13
Read the manufacturer's pamphlet here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 07, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Science, Children, 1930s, Diseases
Jackson Whitlow, the Mountain Faster
Jackson Whitlow made headlines in 1937 by fasting for 52 days. He did it because he said God had told him to. He broke his fast with elderberry wine and squirrel broth.About a year later God told Whitlow to live in a cave. His condition rapidly deteriorated and by the start of 1939 he was dead. According to Whitlow, this was also "the Lord's will".
Atlanta Journal - Jan 2, 1939
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 03, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Religion, 1930s, Dieting and Weight Loss
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |