Category:
Hygiene
Hygiene
The Toothbrush Brigade
"The Toothbrush Brigade of Long Beach, California, promote dental hygiene with their three-foot toothbrushes, circa 1950. They are rehearsing for the Tenth Annual 'Brownie Button' party which will be held under the auspices of the Long Beach Dental Society as a climax to the city's Save The Teeth movement."
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 01, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Costumes and Masks, Hygiene, 1950s
Follies of the Mad Men #67
Does putting Listerine in a fancy decanter make it taste better? Isn't this like packaging Preparation-H in a golden snuff box?
Posted By: Paul - Mon May 18, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene
Water-Saving Shower Curtain
Here in Southern California we're facing water shortages, so Elisabeth Buecher's shower curtain could come in handy. It helps save water because it "slowly inflates around you while you shower. It leaves you only a few minutes to take your shower before trapping you."She calls her overall philosophy of design the "design of threat and punishment." Sounds kinky.
I have to admit that the idea of installing her shower curtain in the guest bathroom of our house, and not warning guests about it beforehand, is very tempting.
(Warning: One of the images on her page may be slightly NSFW.)
Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 23, 2009 -
Comments (11)
Category: Bathrooms, Hygiene, Inventions
The Bicycle Shower
Combining your workout with a shower could save some time, I suppose. Though I'm not sure if that was the intended purpose of this invention. From the Chicago Tribune, Jan 18, 1903.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 21, 2009 -
Comments (14)
Category: Bathrooms, Exercise and Fitness, Hygiene, Inventions, 1900s
Potato Your Face
A hygiene tip found in the Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1902:POTATO YOUR FACE
If you wish to wash your face and haven't any soap at hand, pare a potato and use it as soap. This will cleanse the skin when the emergency arises.
If you wish to wash your face and haven't any soap at hand, pare a potato and use it as soap. This will cleanse the skin when the emergency arises.
Okay, but how do you then get the potato slime off your face?
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 17, 2009 -
Comments (14)
Category: Hygiene
Sewer Dwellers
One month ago I posted a list of "things that have been found in sewers." To that list I now have to add 100 immigrants, including 24 Afghan children. They've been found living in the sewers beneath Rome. Seems they got down there by removing some manhole covers. I've watched enough horror films to know it's only a matter of time before they become cannibalistic and start pulling victims down into the sewers with them. (Thanks, Sandy!)
Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 06, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hygiene
Follies of the Mad Men #60
Okay, we get it. Your product has an odd name that might lend itself to a double entendre. Such a campaign worked for Smucker's Jelly & Jams, of course. But the problem lies with the verb "sniff." If the ad had read "May I hold your Klompen Kloggen," all would have been good smutty fun. But although you can indeed hold the unlit tobacco, you can't "hold" the delightfully aromatic pipe smoke (the selling point). So the copywriter is forced to use "sniff."
But sniffing some private portion of another individual (the inescapable connotations of "May I sniff your BLANK...) conjures up all sorts of canine or rutting behavior, not sexy but animalistic. One pictures this pretty woman burying her nose in some guy's armpit--or elsewhere.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 24, 2009 -
Comments (22)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Tobacco and Smoking, 1960s
Burp Gas Filterer
The Burp Gas Filtering Device: Patent No. 7070638, issued July 4, 2006. It serves two functions in one. You can deodorize your burp, and if your dinner companion needs a pen to sign the check, you'll have one to offer. Burp or eructation odors have been a source of annoyance or concern in polite society for hundreds of years. Far too often, the foods that we love most cause us to belch. To the person who is belching, the odor may be a trifling annoyance, especially if the burp was the result of an enjoyable meal. However, for persons in the close vicinity of the burp, the burp is simply an unpleasant odor of someone else's partially digested food. Many people wish to eliminate the burp odor so as to avoid offending others...
The burp filtering device has the body of a writing pen, with an intake port at the upper end of the body, a plurality of exhaust ports adjacent the writing tip and a filter disposed within the body. The filter may be made of activated charcoal or other media for filtering and adsorbing or absorbing eructation odors. In use, the user holds the upper end of the pny body to his lips, releases the suppressed burp and the filtered, deodorized gas is exhausted through the ports at the writing tip...
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device for eliminating burp odors that also serves as a writing instrument.
The burp filtering device has the body of a writing pen, with an intake port at the upper end of the body, a plurality of exhaust ports adjacent the writing tip and a filter disposed within the body. The filter may be made of activated charcoal or other media for filtering and adsorbing or absorbing eructation odors. In use, the user holds the upper end of the pny body to his lips, releases the suppressed burp and the filtered, deodorized gas is exhausted through the ports at the writing tip...
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device for eliminating burp odors that also serves as a writing instrument.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 09, 2009 -
Comments (11)
Category: Hygiene, Inventions, Patents
Wallypop Toilet Wipes
This must have been what people used back in the days before the invention of toilet paper. You just wipe and then throw the soiled cloth into a bag, ready to be taken out to the laundry. One benefit is that it allows you to wipe with a wet cloth, which gets you a lot cleaner. However, it would seem to me that it's going to substantially increase the amount of laundry you've got to do (since you want to keep the soiled wipes separate from the rest of your laundry). So would they really save you money, or be any better for the environment?Thanks to Prof. Music for the contribution.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 28, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Bathrooms, Hygiene, Excrement
Sludge Management
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 12, 2009 -
Comments (1)
Category: Education, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Excrement, Documentaries
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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 |