1940s
Perfect Posture Girl
The Wikipedia page for Alexis Smith
San Francisco Examiner - Dec 20, 1942
Birmingham News - May 11, 1942
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 16, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, 1940s
Radioactive Spark Plugs
Firestone came out with radioactive spark plugs in 1940. The idea was that radioactive material (polonium) would improve the electrical conductivity of the spark plugs, resulting in better fuel combustion. More details from the Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum:
Monrovia News-Post - Mar 27, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 13, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1940s, Cars
Follies of the Madmen #496
Tarzan chews Dentyne.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 03, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Foreign Customs, 1940s, Teeth
Recipes for Cooking Muskrat Meat
Check it out here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 15, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Food, Government, 1940s, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust
Hair tonic salesman sues wig company
1941: Carl Hutzmann, hair tonic salesman, sued a wig supplier on account of late delivery of a wig. "Hutzmann said that he had to appear before his prospective customers with a receding hair line, so the wig was of no use to him later."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Mar 27, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 03, 2020 -
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Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1940s, Hair and Hairstyling
Abacus vs. Calculator
Nov 1946: In a contest of old vs. new technology, the abacus beat a calculator in a contest of speed in all categories (addition, subtraction, and division) except multiplication.I'm assuming a modern computer should now be able to outperform an abacus, though I suppose it would depend on how quickly one can input the numbers.
More info: Abacus vs. the Electric Calculator
The Californian - Nov 11, 1946
Detroit Free Press - Nov 4, 1946
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 02, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, Computers, 1940s
Church challenge
1941: Patrick Gunn, 46, left a note in the church collection plate challenging the priest, Monsignor Edmund J. Reilly, to a fight in the street.I found a photo of the Monsignor. He doesn't look like the fighting type.
Wilmington News Journal - Mar 24, 1941
Monsignor Edmund J. Reilly
source: FindAGrave.com
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 28, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Religion, Violence, 1940s
Family Reunion
Source (page 14).
Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 19, 2020 -
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Category: Destruction, Family, Injuries, Synchronicity and Coincidence, 1940s
The Shipwreck Diet
Studies conducted by the U.S. Army in the late 1940s sought to determine the minimum amount of food a person would need to survive if they were shipwrecked on a desert island.One of the oddities the researchers discovered was that if, for some reason, the shipwrecked person had to choose between steak and water, they should choose the water: "Protein has the effect of drying up the body. Therefore eating a steak on a desert island with little or no water available would probably be worse than eating nothing, depending upon how long rescue took."
"Shipwreck Diet: One of eleven Army volunteers who for six weeks will live on biscuits and water at the Metropolitan Hospital, New York City, to determine a human survival ration."
Newsweek - Mar 15, 1948
Waterloo Courier - Nov 16, 1949
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 16, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Food, Nutrition, Experiments, 1940s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Graduated Alone
May 1949: Eva Mae Bradbury was the only member of her graduating class at the public school in Ada, Kansas. The school nevertheless put on a full commencement program for her, attended by 150 people (which was about the entire population of Ada).
Decatur Herald and Review - May 21, 1949
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 05, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: School, 1940s
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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 |