1930s
The Flying Flea
Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 15, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Hobbies and DIY, Inventions, Air Travel and Airlines, 1930s
Shocking Presentation
Just to prove that B. F. Skinner was not the only guy who could do operant conditioning, Willard Hayes Yeager decided to teach his student to speak better in public by the use of electric shocks.You can read his textbook here.
Teachers shock students at George Washington U. Washington, D.C., Aug. 2. Public speaking students at G.W. U. are only too well acquainted with the shocking machine, invented by Dr. Willard Hayes Yeager, Head of the department, to take the "ahs" "ers" and "ums" out of their diction. He is shown putting on the shocker to Jane Hampton, 17. When the student makes a mistake the professor at the other end of the room, notifies her by a gentle electric shock.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 08, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Education, Sadism, Cruelty, Punishment, and Torture, Rhetoric, Eloquence, Public Speaking, and Vocabulary, 1930s
Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 17
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 22, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Family, Children, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, 1930s, Mental Health and Insanity
Man insists he’s in perfect health, then drops dead
Nov 1939: John H. Mills, 70, appeared before the city board of education to plead for his old job back. Insisted he was in perfect health. Then dropped dead.Sounds like a heart attack, probably triggered by the stress of the situation.
Roanoke World News - Nov 14, 1939
Los Angeles Daily News - Nov 16, 1939
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 08, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Death, 1930s
Anna Monaro, The Illuminated Woman
Source for clipping: Redwood City Tribune (Redwood City, California) 23 Apr 1934, Mon Page 6
Read the whole tale here.
(Free membership at Medium required.)
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 07, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Human Marvels, 1930s, Women, Europe
The Chimpomat
In one of our recent posts, there was a reference to the Chimpomat, a token-operated vending machine for chimpanzees created at the Yerkes Laboratories in the 1930s. Here's more info about it.
"Subject Kambi is shown about to drop a token into the slot of the chimpomat to 'purchase' food."
Info from The Ape People (1971) by Geoffrey H. Bourne:
By the process of lengthening the time between which they could earn the reward and when they could actually receive it by using the Chimpomat (by making the Chimpomat available only certain times of the day), the animals could be trained to collect plastic disks, in other words, to work for money. They would store up this money until the time came for them to spend it. Eventually they were trained to earn the money one day and spend it in the Chimpomat the following day.
On these occasions the animals used to walk around clutching their earnings to their breasts, sleeping on them at night so they would not be stolen, and getting very hysterical if any other animal came near their earnings or tried to take any of them away—a very human side of their actuvity and the dawn of ownership of private property and capitalism, a thought that has intriguing implications.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 02, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Science, 1930s
Whole brain not needed for handling money
Mention to any friends who are bankers or accountants that science has shown they could have a frontal lobotomy and still do their job, and see how they react.
Click to enlarge
Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 04, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Money, Experiments, Psychology, 1930s
9 is heavier than 6
All you perpetual-motion skeptics, just try to argue against the logic of this!
Los Angeles Daily News - Sep 19, 1931
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 26, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, 1930s
Anti-Bulbsnatcher Device
This post is partially a tribute to the end of the incandescent bulb, after its long and glorious reign.For many years, GE conducted an ad campaign to discourage people from moving lightbulbs around from one fixture to another in a lazy manner, instead of always having a closetful of replacement bulbs. If only GE had invested in the patent which follows these ads, for a device that would not allow a bulb to be unscrewed with breaking it.
Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 22, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Domestic, Inventions, Patents, Technology, 1930s
Scale in Soda-Fountain Seat
Watch your weight increase as you eat.
Popular Science - Dec 1938
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 12, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, 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 |