Weapons
Toy Hand Grenade
"I'm deeply sorry, Mrs Jones, but the SWAT team had no way of knowing little Tommy wasn't holding a real grenade before they opened fire."
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 25, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Toys, Comics, 1950s, Weapons
How to Use Jiu-Jitsu
Or, from the looks of it, how to use the book itself as a weapon. Prices on Amazon for this 1944 publication range from $24 to $80. So it may be useful info, but it ain't cheap.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 28, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Books, Weapons
Giant Slingshots
Slingshots taken from young vandals, May 1952. If the police hadn't stopped them, the kids probably would have been building full-sized trebuchets next.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 27, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Violence, 1950s, Weapons
Johnson Smith Catalog Item #28
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 08, 2013 -
Comments (6)
Category: Johnson Smith Catalog, 1930s, Weapons
Strange Iconography
A Scottish child and a Native-American child pour hair tonic on the head of an elderly Anglo man and massage it in, while a child soldier out of some European comic opera stands by with sword upraised in tribute.
The only sensible part of this weird iconography is the Scottish kid. Once upon a time, right up to, oh, the 1960s, "anything Scottish = cheap and economical" was standard advertising shorthand.
Original ad here, with accompanying text.
Posted By: Paul - Mon May 07, 2012 -
Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Stereotypes and Cliches, Hair Styling, 1900s, Weapons, Hair and Hairstyling
It’s always a good idea to be armed at Christmas
via christmasyuleblog
Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 28, 2012 -
Comments (11)
Category: Holidays, Advertising, Weapons
Stop That Tank!
Disney creates terrorist training films! I'm sure al-Qaeda is watching this to learn how to stymie our forces in Afghanistan.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 16, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: PSA’s, War, Armed Forces, Weapons, Cartoons, 1940s
The Bat Bomb
A few weeks ago, Paul posted about a plan the U.S. military cooked up during WWII to destroy Japan by triggering volcanic explosions. The article below describes a similarly mad plan -- the Bat Bomb. The idea was to strap incendiary devices to bats, and then drop the bats on Japanese cities.I scanned the article from the Atlantic Monthly, December 1946. I think this was one of the first public descriptions of the bat bomb.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 08, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Animals, War, Weapons
Johnson Smith Catalog Item #19
"Why, could that be Officer Clancy approaching me down this poorly lit sidewalk? Let me just whip out my pistol flashlight and-- Argh, I'm shot!"
From the 1950 catalog.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 27, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Johnson Smith Catalog, 1950s, Weapons
Flame Glove
Here's a variation on the old buzzer-hidden-in-the-palm-of-your-hand prank. It's a flame thrower in the palm of your hand!
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 25, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Inventions, Technology, Weapons
| Who We Are |
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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 |