Smaller than your fondest expectations . . .
Posted in Curiosa & Forteana, Design, Historia & Memoria, Moving Images by Suzanne on September 28th, 2005 | BBC Wikipedia
Today, Thee Temple ov Psychick Blah proudly presents another intriguing compilation of (more or less) scientific nature-defying curiosities from ye olde days…
(Model wearing body aid hearing device and leg harness for the batteries – via Hugo)
“In America the users of hearing devices seem to be more inclined to accept the electrically amplified instruments. It is also noticeable that comparatively few use any form of camouflaged trumpets … “
(Image © Internet Archive – via We Make Money Not Art)
12 episodes of Radar Men From the Moon to enjoy for free on Internet Archive.
(Ferris Wheel Coaster Goat – via We Make Money Not Art)
From 1895 to 1955 DeMoulin Bros. Co. produced paraphernalia, costumes, gag devices, and furniture for lodge organizations and fraternal orders.
In 1930 they issued a Fraternal Supply Catalog No. 439 selling items such as a Ferris Wheel Coaster Goat, trick guns, bird cages, a guillotine, etc.
(Damaged London Necropolis train at 121 Westminster Bridge Road – via MetaFilter)
During the first half of the 19th century, London’s population more than doubled and the number of London corpses requiring disposal was growing almost as fast. Cemetery space in the city had failed to keep pace with this growth, and so the vast new Brookwood Cemetery – the London Necropolis – was built in Surrey. Brookwood was the largest burial ground in the world when it was opened in 1854 by the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company. To get there, the deceased and their mourners – segregated by class – could catch a train from Westminster. The Necropolis Railway survived until World War 2, when it was heavily damaged.
(Mimi Garneau, ca. 1940 – via We Make Money Not Art)
“One must not hiccup while sword-swallowing…”
Photographies de Coiffures (Tressages)
(n°P70 – Toucouleur Tamba – via Hugo)
A collection of spiffy anti-gravitational African hairstyles.
And in other most curious and grotesque news, Damien – our favourite Blather correspondent has launched a series of articles entitled “Waking The Dead”
(Image © Mark Ryden & me)
“Premature burial. Body-snatching. The Resurrection men and the Sack-’em-ups. Jack O’ Lanterns and Willo the Wisps. As bizzare as these terms may sound to us now, there was a time when such phantoms haunted the nightmares of all men…”
Cosmic Charley says:
September 29th, 2005 at 9:58 pm