Seleno, the Electric Dog

Read the amazing story of cyber-pup here!

ADDENDUM: the link is down as of mid-day May 20, but since the site is a longstanding page, I assume the outage is temporary and am leaving the link in place.

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 20, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Robots, 1910s

The Inventions of Russell Oakes

An article here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 17, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Humor, Inventions, Rube Goldberg Devices, 1940s

Animating Plants

Many people talk to their plants, but the plants don't talk back. However, a new invention allows the plants not to talk back, but at least to communicate, by moving. For instance, you could ask a plant if it needed to be watered, and the plant would shake up and down to indicate 'yes'.

From the patent granted to Richard J. Maddocks et al:

Posted By: Alex - Sun May 09, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Communications, Inventions, Patents, Nature, Technology

A Horn for Airplanes

Invented by Charles Adler, Jr. of Baltimore and granted a patent in 1947.

I imagine the last thing you'd want to hear as your flight is cruising at 30,000 feet is the pilot suddenly honking the horn.

Though, of course, the horn was intended for small planes, not passenger jets.

Adler himself used it to nag his wife by flying low over his house and honking the horn so that she'd know to start preparing his dinner.

Massillon Evening Independent - Aug 1, 1946

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 25, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Air Travel and Airlines, 1940s

The Ettl Enlarging Machine

I would love to see a picture of this gadget, but cannot find one online. I assume all such work today is done easily on computers.





Source.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 22, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Statues and Monuments, Inventions, 1910s

Cigarette lighter that gives the finger

In 1942, George Horther was granted a patent for what he called an "electric resistance lighter". From what I can gather, lifting the finger activated the lighter. He had received a separate design patent in 1940 for the invention's appearance.



Curiously, in neither patent did Horther ever refer to the significance of the gesture his invention is making, even though that's pretty much the entire point of it.

I imagine he must have intended to sell this as a gag gift, but I can't find any evidence that he ever did manage to market it.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 18, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Smoking and Tobacco, 1940s

Reuben Lindstrom’s Wind Driven Vehicle

In 1940, Reuben Lindstrom was granted a patent for a "wind driven vehicle". It was a toy made out of tin cans. It resembled a model train, and the wind could make it go by itself. In his patent, Lindstrom explained that he deliberately avoided using a sail to propel the toy.


Instead, he had shaped the wheels "to constitute wind responsive impeller blades".



Digging more deeply into the history of this patent, it turns out that Lindstrom was quite a character. For a start, he never cut his hair because, so he said, whenever he did he got heart trouble. In America, in the 1940s, this was unusual enough that it made the news.

Warren Times Mirror - June 28, 1949

He was a regular fixture around Wisconsin Rapids. A 2001 article in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune called him "our most unforgettable character."

In addition to his wind-driven toy train, he had built a kind of motorized bicycle, described as a "weird contraption of bicycle wheel, one cylinder gas motor, pulley, levers, scooter and miscellany." He used this to get around on roads and railroad lines.

He basically lived as a street person/free spirit, always carrying around "a picture of a woman with a large snake wrapped around her neck." Some people referred to him as the "inventor hobo".

One of the quotations attributed to him: "Fashion is the main religion of this world. If you are different, they think you are nuts. Most people stay away from me because they think I'm a religious fanatic. The girls also stay away from me."

Also: "Dirt's natural and it keeps human diseases from penetrating the skin and entering my body."

He died in 1988.

There's some more info about him at randyjack.com.

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - June 9, 2001

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 11, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Inventions, Patents, Toys, 1940s, Trains

The Kiddie-Koop

Children in cages!

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 05, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Babies, Domestic, Inventions, Chindogu, Advertising, 1950s

Fire-Breathing Woman

In April 1940, Linda Lancaster Dodge Stratton was granted a patent for the "cigar or cigarette lighter" shown below. Its novel feature was that it was shaped like a fire-breathing woman. Or, as Stratton put it, "in the shape of a human figure artistically posed with the igniting means located in the mouth and ignited and extinguished by the movement of the head to open and close the mouth thereof through the manual movement of the arms toward and from the mouth."

It kinda looks like a fire-breathing Barbie. Though it predates Barbie by almost 20 years.

The patent said this woman was to be "constructed in a pocket or a table size." It would definitely be a conversation piece to have a table-size version of her in your home.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 04, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Smoking and Tobacco, 1940s, Women

Combined Clothes Hanger and Radio

It's fairly common to use metal clothes hangers to extend the range of a radio's antenna. So John Jerome Spina had the idea of combining the radio and clothes hanger into one. The metal of the hanger would serve as the antenna. He was granted a patent for this invention in 1978.

I'm not sure he thought through what would then happen if you hung something on the hanger, such as a coat.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 28, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Radio, Technology, 1970s