Mystery Gadget 72

What's this device do? Hint: it involves distances.

The answer is here.

Or after the jump.

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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 forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 04, 2019
Category: Technology | 1930s

Comments

An early example of an autopilot! I thought it was a prototype of a microwave oven. I was way off.

agent j

Posted by agent j on 04/04/19 at 10:06 AM

So Boeing has been perfecting their system for 80 yrs.? And, I wish the people annotating the old mags had better handwriting.

Posted by John on 04/04/19 at 10:45 AM

The rods on the left reminded me so strongly of a Gatling-style rubber band shooter someone made that my mind refused to leave that track.

I don't know why so many people are afraid that automation is going to put them out of work -- a working model of this was made a hundred years ago, and they still haven't gotten it perfected.

Posted by Phideaux on 04/04/19 at 01:56 PM

Except for the hint, I would have said it was a super-duper soldering gun.

The autopilot system on the 737 "max" 8 planes hasn't put anyone out of work. In fact, it has currently created lots of extra work for Boeing engineers, who were surely eager to work nights and weekends. What a friendly system, except that it seems to be the first appearance of Skynet.

Posted by Virtual on 04/04/19 at 05:25 PM

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