Weird Universe Archive
April 2022
April 15, 2022
The Radiac, or Radio-Active Appliance
My great-aunt recently died at the age of 100. While cleaning out her garage I came across an unusual device (shown below) stored in a shoebox. The literature in the shoebox identified it as a "Radio-Active Appliance (Impedance Device)".
click to enlarge
Some googling reassured me that it's not actually radioactive. It turns out to be an oddball healing gadget used by followers of the clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. So it makes sense that my great-aunt would have one of these, since she was a long-time Cayce devotee.
A description of the device from an Edgar Cayce website:
Vibrational appliances are a unique contribution to alternative medicine from the Cayce readings. The first one I’ll discuss is the Radiac Appliance, also called the Radial Appliance, Radio-Active Device [Radio Active Appliance], Impedance Device or the Radiac. The specifications for the construction of this gadget were entirely channeled from the Source of Cayce’s readings. Cayce himself, knew nothing about this device, nor did this device exist at the time...
How does it work? In electrical terms it could be called a capacitor, (passive electrical component), surrounded by a resistor, (a two terminal electrical component). In other words, it would seem to be some kind of battery. Interestingly, unlike a battery, the Radiac appliance offers no electrical charge or output of its own. It utilizes your own electrical currents and manipulates them in such a way as to give you back your own perfect recharge. It is truly medicine for your energy.
How does it work? In electrical terms it could be called a capacitor, (passive electrical component), surrounded by a resistor, (a two terminal electrical component). In other words, it would seem to be some kind of battery. Interestingly, unlike a battery, the Radiac appliance offers no electrical charge or output of its own. It utilizes your own electrical currents and manipulates them in such a way as to give you back your own perfect recharge. It is truly medicine for your energy.
To use it, you're supposed to place the device in a bowl of ice water, attach the electrodes to your wrist and ankle, and then sit like this for half-an-hour to let it "recharge" you.
It's still possible to buy these. Baar products sells a "Radiac Starter Kit" for $315. According to the receipt in the shoebox, my great-aunt paid $15 for hers, back in 1977.
I'm left with the problem of what to do with the thing. I doubt it has any resale value. But it's too strange to simply toss it. It'll probably end up back in the shoebox on a top shelf in the garage.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 15, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil
The Palace of the Soviets
Take what metaphors and allegories you will from this famous failure.
The Wikipedia page tells us:
The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов, Dvorets Sovetov) was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its 130-metre (430 ft) wide and 100-metre (330 ft) tall grand hall seating over 20,000 people. If built, the 416-metre (1,365 ft) tall palace would have become the world's tallest structure, with an internal volume surpassing the combined volumes of the six tallest American skyscrapers.[10]
The music on this video is annoying--hit MUTE--but otherwise it's well done.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 15, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Architecture, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Government, Success & Failure, Russia, Twentieth Century
April 14, 2022
Cat Boxing
I wasn't aware that there was such a thing as cat boxing. Cats fight all the time, of course. But to box each other at a set time in front of a crowd — I didn't think they would cooperate with such an indignity.
Detroit Free Press - June 16, 1939
Update: Paul revealed to me the existence of this old video produced by Thomas Edison, circa 1894, showing cats boxing. So I guess cat boxing is a long-established thing.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 14, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Sports, Martial Arts, Cats, 1930s
Mystery Gadget 101
What's it for?
The answer is here.
or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 14, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Technology, Eighteenth Century
April 13, 2022
Why Velna Turnage sued Christy Brothers Circus
From the case Christy Bros. Circus v. Turnage heard in the Georgia Court of Appeals, dated Sep. 15, 1928:Where a petition alleged that the plaintiff was an unmarried white lady, and that while in attendance as a guest of the defendant at a circus performance given by the defendant, and while seated in one of the seats provided by the defendant for the defendant’s guests at the circus, a horse, which was going through a dancing performance immediately in front of where the plaintiff was sitting, was by the defendant’s servant, who was riding upon the horse, caused to back towards the plaintiff, and while in this situation the horse evacuated his bowels into her lap, that this occurred in full view of many people, some of whom were the defendant’s employees, and all of whom laughed at the occurrence, that as a result thereof the plaintiff was caused much embarrassment, mortification, and mental pain and suffering, to her damage in a certain amount, that the damage alleged was due entirely to the defendant’s negligence and without any fault on the part of the plaintiff, the petition set out a cause of action and was good as against a general demurrer.
Velna Turnage was awarded $500 for her "humiliation and embarrassment".
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 13, 2022 -
Comments (6)
Category: Lawsuits, Excrement, 1920s
Blow Football
Or as we call it today, "Spread the Covid."This game went through several editions since its 1910 origin. See pictures at Board Game Geek.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 13, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Games, Sports, Viruses, Germs and Other Sources of Infection
April 12, 2022
Miss Sauerkraut of 1947
Being named Miss Sauerkraut of 1947 seems to have been a high point of Alice Niesen's modeling career.
Ithaca Journal - Aug 1, 1947
The only other example of her work that I could find was a 1948 piece in which she modeled the "sock pocket".
The Frederick Leader - Jan 19, 1948
Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 12, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Food, 1940s
SSSSSSS, The Movie
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 12, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Horror, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Reptiles, Snakes, Worms and Other Slithery Things, 1970s
April 11, 2022
Curtis Schoon, the boxer who forgot to wear his trunks
The boxing career of featherweight Curtis Schoon would be entirely forgotten by now if he hadn't, one time, forgotten to wear his boxing trunks into the ring. He opened his robe and... he had nothing on beneath it.
Argus Leader - Jan 26, 1956
Argus Leader - Jan 19, 1957
Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 11, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sports, Martial Arts, Nudism and Nudists
A Year at Sea
Most unique trial for a marriage ever!Source: The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) 23 Apr 1972, Sun Page 3
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 11, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Marriage, 1970s
| Get WU Posts by Email | |
|---|---|
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |
