Thursday, January 28, 2021
More fun with old pat-ents
Patent 1460954, by Carl Fairbanks of Wichita, 1923.
The title is 'Educational Sign'. Why was it educational? The innards of the sign had a complex set of worm gears turning two disks behind the two awful peepholes. Each step of the disks showed a nearsighted eye with a scene blurred appropriately, or a farsighted eye with an unblurred scene, etc. Yet another application of the wheel chart idea, which was extremely common in the '20s.
There was only one real ed-u-ca-tion involved. If you managed to look at this hor-ri-ble thing long enough to get ed-u-cat-ed, you'd definitely need the services of the op-tom-e-trist. Or a stiff drink of al-co-hol, which was unfortunately un-a-vail-a-ble in 1923.
(Calibrating: This resembles an animation I've done in neurology courseware. In that context the internal anatomy is appropriate and necessary. It's not appropriate for an advertising billboard.)
The title is 'Educational Sign'. Why was it educational? The innards of the sign had a complex set of worm gears turning two disks behind the two awful peepholes. Each step of the disks showed a nearsighted eye with a scene blurred appropriately, or a farsighted eye with an unblurred scene, etc. Yet another application of the wheel chart idea, which was extremely common in the '20s.
There was only one real ed-u-ca-tion involved. If you managed to look at this hor-ri-ble thing long enough to get ed-u-cat-ed, you'd definitely need the services of the op-tom-e-trist. Or a stiff drink of al-co-hol, which was unfortunately un-a-vail-a-ble in 1923.
(Calibrating: This resembles an animation I've done in neurology courseware. In that context the internal anatomy is appropriate and necessary. It's not appropriate for an advertising billboard.)Labels: Entertainment
¶ 1:33 PM
