Category:
Instruments and Measuring Devices
Instruments and Measuring Devices
The Logical Bassoon
Giles Brindley believed that the design of the bassoon was illogical. So, in 1967 he created a "logical bassoon." The footage below aired on the British show Tomorrow's World in 1969.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 26, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Instruments and Measuring Devices, 1960s
The National Bureau of Standards measures women
A great deal of effort has gone into trying to come up with standard clothing sizes for women. Organizations such as the National Bureau of Standards have, over the years, measured tens thousands of women.However, precise standards have proved elusive. Instead, according to Wikipedia, clothes makers "follow the more loosely defined standards known as U.S. catalog sizes." And catalog sizes "may vary even among different styles of the same type of garment."
Cincinnati Enquirer - Jan 17, 1971
Hartford Courant - Jan 31, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 20, 2024 -
Comments (5)
Category: Instruments and Measuring Devices, Clothing, 1970s, Women
Merrie Metric
According to the listing in the April 1983 Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the purpose of Merrie Metric was, "Promoting the interests of those concerned with the desirability of adopting the metric system."I haven't found any use of Merrie Metric outside of the Patent and Trademark Gazette, but I'm curious what kind of uses her creators imagined for her. Were they going to sell metric rulers and tape measures with her picture on them?
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 11, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Instruments and Measuring Devices
What does this measure?
This is obviously a measuring device of some kind. But what exactly does it measure? The answer is below in extended.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 14, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Instruments and Measuring Devices
Poronkusema
As explained by Ziya Tong in The Reality Bubble: how science reveals the hidden truths that shape our world (2019):In Finland, the indigenous Sami people have a very special unit of measurement. It's called a poronkusema, which is defined as the distance a reindeer can travel before it needs to stop and urinate. The Sami, who have lived alongside reindeer for centuries, attentively noted that the animals won't walk and relieve themselves at the same time. And so, once approximately every 7.5 kilometres, a poronkusema, they stop and empty their bladders. While this measurement may seem a touch absurd to non-reindeer herders, it should be said that before the metric system came along, many countries and cultures had their own rather peculiar systems. It's likely that people of the future will find it just as weird that we described the unfathomable loss of our rainforests in terms of "football fields."
I found a Finnish-language book titled Poronkusema, but the google-translated blurb is somewhat incomprehensible and doesn't mention anything about urinating reindeers.
Poronkusema is a humane, unadorned and dramatic story about acceptance, forgiveness, equality and growing up. Poronkusema is a series of events with a flavor of the life of the main character and his close circle, not too salty smoothed, where treatment and head and tail are missing. Mother's forgiveness and acceptance of loved ones as they are. How can the death of a child change and shape the future of family members and close friends. This is the countdown for this story. You'll jump like a fly on a moldy ceiling and juice up juicy coincidences like peeking into locker rooms in elementary school. We were kind of the usual The Usual Suspects, like from that classic Yankee movie directed by Bryan Singer. The only difference. We weren't that good looking.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 07, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Instruments and Measuring Devices, Body Fluids
The Phone Thing
Those of us who are old enough might recall that in addition to linear slide rules, there were circular slide rules.Such an arrangement of movable circular parts was extrapolated to a variety of other gadgets for calculating different things.
You can see a museum of such "disk or wheel" charts here.
I set out on this search thanks to the 1979 ad below.
I wonder if anyone relies on such devices nowadays, or if businesses create them for promotional purposes, as Bell Telephones did in 1979.
Phone Thing source. (Page 6)
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 28, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Telephones, Instruments and Measuring Devices, 1970s
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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 |