Weird Universe Archive

July 2024

July 31, 2024

Combined Woodworker’s Push-Stick and Furniture Alarm Unit

British inventor David Bartram was granted a UK patent (GB2233932A) in 1989 for his "woodworker's push-stick and furniture alarm unit."

In its first possible use, as a push-stick, his invention allowed woodworkers to push pieces of wood through a table saw while keeping their hand safely away from the saw blade.



In its second possible use, as a furniture alarm, the stick could be attached in between the legs of a chair. If the occupant of the chair happened to lean backwards, raising the front legs of the chair off the ground, the furniture alarm would emit a "startling warning."



Bartram clearly was annoyed by people who leaned backwards in chairs. He wrote:

This strains, loosens and can ultimately destroy, the chair joints. Quite apart from the fact that the chairs were not intended for such use, the costs nowadays of stripping and repairing a chair whose joints have become loosened can be high.

Of course, for his invention to function as a furniture alarm some kind of "gravity-orientated switch" would need to be incorporated into it. Based on his patent description, it's not clear if Bartram had ever gone to the trouble of doing this, but it seems that he didn't anticipate it would be a problem.

He didn't address the major limitation of his two-in-one invention: if you've got it attached to the legs of a chair it's not available to use as a push-stick, and vice versa, if it's in your workshop being used as a push-stick, it's not guarding a chair.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 31, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Furniture, Patents, 1980s

July 30, 2024

Name That List, #70

What is this a list of? The answer is below in extended.

  • "voice behavior in bankers"
  • "hunting success among Hadza hunters"
  • "religiosity in university student and general population samples"
  • "age at first marriage in semi-nomadic people from Namibia"
  • "psychological features in a sample of cavers"
  • "Fight Bite Injuries"
  • "managerial skills of managers employed in public and private organizations of Udaipur City"
  • "number of sex partners"


More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 30, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Name That List

I Can’t Find the Door Knob

In line with Alex's post from yesterday about the importance of door knobs, I offer this. Far be it from me to suggest it has any sexual innuendo.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 30, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Domestic, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Music, 1950s

July 29, 2024

The Psychology of Doorknobs

Marketing psychologist Ernest Dichter argued that home buyers place great emphasis on the feel of doorknobs when looking at a house, because "The doorknob offers the only way you can caress a house."

Clipping from "Emotion brings out the buying power," by Roger Ricklefs in The Sunbury Daily Item (Nov 21, 1972):

As a leader of the "qualitative" school of motivational research, [Ernest Dichter] believes that the real reason people buy one product over another is often a deep-seated emotion. Psyche in depth will reveal it, he thinks.

Why do big doorknobs help sell a house? Why do some men become irrationally hostile when their sock drawers are empty? Such are the questions that intrigue researchers like Mr. Dichter...

in the past two or three years Du Pont, Alcoa, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Schenley Industries and dozens of other well-known companies have commissioned studies from Mr. Dichter's Institute for Motivational Research here. The institute has annual volume of $600,000 and profits of $80,000 to $100,000.

Many people find Dichter's interpretations far-fetched. But people who accept the basic beliefs of modern psychologists find them quite plausible.

The psychologist says he's found that even a commonplace object like a doorknob has a surprising emotional significance to buyers.

"The doorknob offers the only way you can caress a house; you can't caress the walls," he says. "The way a product fills a hand is very important. How a handle does this will make an engineer prefer one technical product over another — and he doesn't even realize it," Mr. Dichter says.

During part of a baby's embryonic development, the thumb fills the palm of the hand, Mr. Dichter says. The new-born infant thus exhibits a strong desire to grasp objects, possibly to fill the palm of the hand again, the psychologist adds.

As he sees it, the same instinct later prompts a sub-conscious tendency to judge a house by its doorknob or a tool by its handle. Mr. Dichter says these findings and theories prompted a California lockmaker to enlarge the doorknobs it manufactured.

Even men's socks can inspire passion, Mr. Dichter asserts. "We find that an empty sock drawer is a symbol of an empty heart," Mr. Dichter said in a study for Du Pont's hosiery section. "When the husband finds that his sock drawer is not overflowing, he interprets his wife's neglect as symptomatic of her lack of consideration, concern and love."

source: The Advertising Age by John McDonough



San Francisco Examiner - Sep 2, 1966



More info: Ernest Dichter (wikipedia)

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 29, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Architecture, Psychology

July 28, 2024

The Ladies Lounge

Down in Tasmania, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) was sued for having a "Ladies Lounge" (a dining area where high tea was served) that wasn't open to men. Kirsha Kaechele, the artist responsible for the Lounge, then proceeded to turn the trial itself into a strange kind of performance art. From the BBC:

[The trial] started with a large group of women dressed in navy power suits, clad in pearls and wearing red lipstick marching into the hearing to support Ms Kaechele...

As the parties sparred, the museum's supporters were somewhat stealing the spotlight. They had periods of complete stillness and silence, before moving in some kind of subtle, synchronised dance - crossing their legs and resting their heads on their fists, clutching their hearts, or peering down their spectacles. One even sat there pointedly flipping through feminist texts and making notes...

the museum's posse left as conspicuously as it came in - dancing out of the building in a conga line as one woman played 'Simply Irresistible' by Robert Palmer off her iPhone.

The museum lost the case. Kaechele responded by installing a toilet in the Ladies Lounge so that, as a women's restroom, men could legally continue to be excluded.

More info: artnet.com

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 28, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Museums, Lawsuits, Women

Mystery Illustration 114

What is unique about this PEANUTS cartoon?

The answer is here.

Or after the jump.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 28, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Comics, 1970s

July 27, 2024

International Bowling Fashion Show

This is definitely what I'll wear if I go bowling in the future.

Also, I'm not sure what the "International Bowling Fashion Show" was. The details in the clips below are all that I could find.

(l) Ashley News - July 23, 1964; (r) Newark Advocate - July 11, 1964

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 27, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Fashion, Sports, 1960s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

Don Ellis, “Hey Jude”

His Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 27, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Avant Garde, 1970s

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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.

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