November 2020
November 21, 2020
Mystery Gadget 89
This was not a mere statue, but served a purpose. What did it do?The answer is here.
Or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 21, 2020 -
Comments (6)
Category: Domestic, Twentieth Century
November 20, 2020
Chlorine gas cures colds
During the 1920s, chlorine gas (the same stuff used as a chemical weapon in World War I) briefly became popular as a cure for the common cold.
The Rushville Daily Republican - Mar 26, 1926
Jennifer Ackerman explains what was going on in her book Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold:
Chlorine was thought to act as a kind of thorn-in-the-flesh therapy. Vedder (dubbed "the chemical warrior" by Time magazine) proposed that "the irritant action of chlorine stimulates the flow of secretion and cleanses the mucous surfaces," resulting in "productive coughing and blowing of the nose." Through its oxidizing action, the gas was also thought to rid the body of toxins and fuel the activity of white blood cells useful in the attack against offending microbes.
Practically overnight, chlorine therapy became a popular treatment for victims of colds, bronchitis, and whooping cough... For the general public, there was Chlorine Respirine, 50 treatments for $0.50 in a handy collapsible tube, each dose purported to "knock a cold in three hours."
Controlled experiments eventually debunked the idea that chlorine gas had any curative value. Though I'm not sure how to explain why people exposed to chlorine didn't seem to catch colds as often. Perhaps it was just mistaken, anecdotal evidence. Or perhaps the chlorine gas was sterilizing surfaces, helping to prevent the transmission of germs.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 20, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Health, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Cures for the common cold, 1920s
The Galloping Comedians
Symphony orchestra, or the Harmonicats? Your choice.The second movement, the one played by the Harmonicats, begins more or less at the one-minute mark in the first video.
The Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 20, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Humor, Music, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, Twentieth Century
November 19, 2020
Germs pick out the weak ones
The theme of this 1920's ad campaign was that if your kid didn't eat Ralston Purina breakfast cereal, then he/she was going to die.
Fitchburg Sentinel - Jan 3, 1928
Pittsburgh Press - Nov 1, 1927
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 19, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Health, Advertising, Cereal, 1920s
Family Reunion
Source (page 14).
Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 19, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Destruction, Family, Injuries, Synchronicity and Coincidence, 1940s
November 18, 2020
Canned Roadkill
1990: T. Roy Gentry began selling cans that he advertised as containing possum run over by a cattle truck 2 miles south of Ozark, Missouri. The cans actually contained potted meat from a local grocery store.
Newsweek - Mar 19, 1990
Kansas City Times - Feb 20, 1990
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 18, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Food, 1990s, Pranks
Follies of the Madmen #493
Yak, yak, yak on the phone all day about makeup! Those gals!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 18, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Cosmetics, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1960s, Women
November 17, 2020
Home Monitor of the Future
This 1964 ad envisioned a hand-held device that would allow people to run their home by remote control:Someday, you may be able to run your all-electric home and keep an eye on your youngsters by fingertip control
As far as we know, the amazing device you see above hasn't been developed as yet.
But it wouldn't be surprising if something like it were in the works. In this modern age of ours, only a short step separates the dreams of the moment from the realities of tomorrow.
Newsweek - July 1964
For once, the future actually delivered, since a smartphone can do everything imagined in this ad, and more.
Interesting that the gadget has controls for 'lawn care,' 'food prep,' etc., but not for turning the lights on.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 17, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: 1960s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
RIP Maria Makowska-Kalinowska, Champion Moviegoer
"Today, Ms. Maria Kalinowska, the greatest Poznań (Polish, and probably the largest in the scale of the universe) cinema lover, has passed away today," wrote the employees of the cinema to which Maria regularly visited her husband. A married couple wrote down each screening in a notebook - they could spend whole days in the cinema, equipped with sandwiches. People from Poznań who regularly visit the Muza Cinema had to meet them at least once.
News article source of quote.
Their Wikipedia page says:
Maria Makowska-Kalinowska (1945 – 14 November 2020) and Bogdan Kalinowski (1939 – 9 November 2017) were a married couple from Poznań, Poland, known as the most avid filmgoers in Poland. They watched films in cinemas of Poznań regularly from 1973 on. In 2010 alone they watched 563 films. Altogether, between 1973 and 2010 they had viewed over 11,000 films together; by mid-2015 the total exceeded 13,000.[
Maria and Bogdan Kalinowski were librarians, and they met during a course for librarians. There was also a library of the films watched, which they meticulously kept. The Kalinowski family went to every film festival, sat down with notebooks in their hands and took notes of every film they watched. And they saw thousands of them together - in 2017, when Mr. Bogdan died, this number probably exceeded 16,000.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 17, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Amateurs and Fans, Eccentrics, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Movies, Europe
November 16, 2020
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
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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 books such as Elephants on Acid. 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. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
