Here is a fascinating short monograph (a PDF) about the Radium craze, including a discussion of the product above.
1996: French engineer Yves Lecoffre proposed installing 70,000 "anti-pollution ventilators" (aka fans) around the streets of Paris to blow away the exhaust fumes from cars.
Was he joking about this? Was it some kind of April Fool joke? Not as far as I can tell. Though I can't imagine how his scheme would have made the slightest difference to Paris's air quality.

Calgary Herald - May 4, 1996
Apparently there's a long history of artists surreptitiously following strangers around in cities, just to see what happens. It's called the Art of Following. More details from
Debbie Kent in the Guardian:
“Follow a stranger” is one of the instructions I’ve been given by Serbian artist Miloš Tomić in what is billed as an alternative tour of the city, and I really enjoy it, while also feeling as if I’m doing something a little bit wrong...
My assignment from Tomić is, of course, not intended to upset anyone. Rather, what I’m doing is a one-off exercise, and, as artist and writer Phil Smith puts it, is handing over control of exploring the city to someone else, chosen at random.
Smith regularly gives this task to students of theatre and performance at the University of Plymouth, seeing it as a valuable exercise. “The idea is that you’re exploring the space but someone else dictates it to you – it neutralises your will,” he says. “The intention – or hope – is that the followed person will lead you into places you haven’t been before.”
I don't see anything that could possibly go wrong with following a complete stranger around.
A case of satirical prophecy in the news.
Back on April 1, 1978, prankster Dick Smith towed a foam-covered barge into Sydney harbor,
claiming it was an iceberg he had towed from Antarctica. Of course, it was an April Fool's Day joke.
But now a Dubai-based engineering firm claims they really want to tow a 100-million-ton iceberg from Antarctica to Dubai. They figure that even if 30% of it melts by the time it gets to the Persian Gulf, that'll still be a whole lot of fresh, frozen water.
But what are they going to do with it once it gets there? How would they stop it from melting into the ocean before they could get it onto land and use it?
More info:
stuff.co.nz

On Staten Island, the deer population is reportedly getting out of hand. To address this problem the powers that be have decided on
deer vasectomies as the plan of action. The deer will be tranquilized, neutered, and then returned to the wild. At least as wild as it is on Staten Island anyway.

Next up for Darwin Award near miss- guy who tried to kiss a
cottonmouth snake on the lips. Yeah, he's from Florida.