What would be the effect upon me if gravity were removed, and removed it would be at a point some thousands of miles away from the moon?… This is certain: as I approach the moon I will have the sensation of falling headlong through space – a terrifying sensation, which it might be impossible to [...]
In 1912, William D. Boyce, the American businessman, explorer and founder of the Boys Scouts of America wrote of Rio in his book, Illustrated South America: A Chicago Publisher’s Travels and Investigations in the Republics of South America: The Bay of Rio de Janeiro has been the subject of poetic praise and description since it [...]
From John Wilson Croker’s 1853 manuscript, The History of the Guillotine: The Guillotine was not originally designed with any view to what turned out to be its most important characteristic – the great numbers of victims that it could dispose of in a short space of time: it is curious, and ought to be to [...]
Ahhh … Valentine’s Day! It’s interesting to see how the day has changed and how the childhood innocence of the cards of yore has been commoditized and replaced with racier fare and the impersonal touch of e-cards. However, below we harken back to the turn of the 20th Century with a collection of sweet and [...]
Chairs so mounted that they can be raised and lowered 2 ft. or more by the occupants have recently been patented for use in motion-picture and other theaters. The advantage of these seats is that they lift the users high enough to give them a view of the stage unobstructed by persons passing to and [...]
Real “live” miniature battleships, ranging in size from 9 to 12 ft., each equipped with a 7-hp. gasoline motor, and with guns that fire singly or in broadsides, give realistic naval engagements on a miniature ocean near Cincinnati. One man, seated in the interior of each ship, operates both the power plant and the guns. [...]
In the past, when aerial flight was still a dream, such ideas as the one here illustrated were put forth as solutions of the problem, but today, when aerial flight is a fact, machines of this order seem out of place. The means of buoyancy are a balloon, and auxiliary buoyant bodies located just under [...]
An automobile funeral car with a compartment that will seat 36 people, in addition to space for the casket and flowers, is attracting much attention in Cleveland, Ohio. The car has been used for a number of funerals and takes the place of nine closed carriages and a hearse. In bad weather it can be [...]
A beard that is more than twice as long as its owner is tall is the boasted possession of Valentine Tapley, a resident of Frankford, Mo. It is exactly 12 ft. long, and has to be wound around the waist or hung about the shoulders to keep it from trailing. Now while a 12 ft. [...]
The demand of the public for continual change in the means of amusement leads to many curious amusement ideas, an example of which, very popular at a Chicago amusement park, is shown in the accompanying illustration. The “African dodger,” a game in which a colored man places his head through a hole in a canvas [...]
Few persons probably would care to emulate the aerial flip-flopping of a young lieutenant of aviation who recently accomplished the daring maneuver of changing planes while in full flight a mile above a Texas training field. Climbing down to the undercarriage of the machine in which he had left the ground as a passenger, he [...]
Shortness of stature need no longer be a handicap to a person in a crowded street anxious to view a passing parade, or the like, if he is provided with a special collapsible periscope, recently devised for just such occasions. It consists of a case, having a mirror set at the proper angle at either [...]
Compulsory wearing of “flu” masks, which became quite common during the recent influenza epidemic, put a temporary but effective stop to smoking on the street in the afflicted communities. An inventive machinist in San Francisco, however, got around the difficulty by cutting a small hole in his mask and pasting a round corn plaster on [...]
These men, who apparently are taking entertainment with their baths, after the fashion prevalent in ancient Rome, really are wounded American soldiers. Unable to go to any kind of a show, the Y.M.C.A. has brought one to their hospital at Cambridge, England. Here they sit constantly in water up to their waists, kept at 98˚ [...]
The success of the overhead monorail system in the German cities of Elberfeld, Barmen, Vahwinkel, and at Loschwitz, near Dresden, Saxony; and the fact that after due study and consideration, Hamburg is at present building just such a rapid transportation system, has caused J.R. Rauhut, a Chicago engineer, to propose this system for Chicago’s consideration. [...]
The latest dress idea borrowed from men by women is the suspender. Several large London department stores have been exhibiting suspenders in their windows as the latest approved method of holding skirts in position. The suspenders for women are made of a web material, and can be purchased in almost any color. Image/Copy credit.
