I've been getting more and more interested in the 1920's and 30's ever since I saw the art deco exhibit at the National Gallery here in Melbourne. Such an optimistic and hopeful time full of real innovation, despite having just exited WWI and entered the Great Depression. Really wonderful stuff, and the more I dig the more stuff I turn up. It's great.
"REPORTED to have tremendous military possibilities, a successful death ray machine IS SAID to have been invented, after lengthy experiments, by a Cleveland scientist."
Now you know why they say Cleveland rocks... or something.
As I note in comments that you discuss a growing interest in the '20s and '30s (while I find myself veering toward the 1890s-1900s), I recommend to you a book I just finished: Charlatan by Pope Brock. The subtitle is America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam. It is a raucous tale told with raucous and ribald humor, about how an almost-doctor made millions by telling people he could cure a host of ills by transplanting goat glands (usually testicles) in them.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 09:22 am (UTC)National Inventor's Conference?
The thirties were cooler than I remember them teaching me in school.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 10:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 10:31 am (UTC)"REPORTED to have tremendous military possibilities, a successful death ray machine IS SAID to have been invented, after lengthy experiments, by a Cleveland scientist."
That is a really clumsy opening par.
And the PIC CAP? Why not name the guy?
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 10:55 am (UTC)http://davidszondy.com/future/war/death_ray_misc.htm
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762301,00.html (from 1936)
According to this blog (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/06/07/inventor-hides-secret-of-death-ray/) it was little more than a violet wand.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 10:59 am (UTC)I hope it's for real. I've seen it cited in a timeline or two of the 20's and 30's.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 10:46 pm (UTC)As I note in comments that you discuss a growing interest in the '20s and '30s (while I find myself veering toward the 1890s-1900s), I recommend to you a book I just finished: Charlatan by Pope Brock. The subtitle is America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam. It is a raucous tale told with raucous and ribald humor, about how an almost-doctor made millions by telling people he could cure a host of ills by transplanting goat glands (usually testicles) in them.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 03:18 am (UTC)