Beach Bums

 

The scientific revolution created a great foundation to a brilliant structure of discovery. It lead to the medical revolution, which enabled doctors and researchers to make, leaps into the elimination of diseases such as polio. Indeed, we have made enormous strides in the past century in our understandings of our enemies that we can’t see. Sometimes we have to make strange decisions in order to find the information, which we need to understand and combat a virus or bacteria. Today, health experts in Cornwall have teamed up with the local surfing community to combat super bugs. Lately, there have been more than 400 pollution warnings at their local beaches. However, that’s not enough to stop some of the local surfers. Scientists have arranged to swab the rectums of the local surfers to try and find prime samples of bacteria, possibly even super bugs.

The rise of super bugs has been a direct result of our antibiotics, which we use to combat common bacterial infections and illnesses. They are bacteria and viruses, which have grown immunity to the antibiotics that are developed and prescribed to fight the original virus or bacteria. The recent spring of super bugs has threatened our previous security that we found in the development of antibiotics. In today’s society, people generally do not fear bacterial born illnesses as we did before. The irony is clear.  The medicines that made us feel invincible to illnesses may actually lead to new unstoppable illnesses. It is still debated whether or not the development of products such as antibacterial soaps will actually lead to unstoppable diseases. However, it is clear that bacteria are evolving and becoming more tolerant to antibiotics and this will clearly be a focus point for our generation as well as the future generations.

So, although it may seem a bit strange to approach the surfing community with rectal swabs, the medical professionals of Cornwall have a virtuous purpose and a war on bacteria to fight. The swabs will give researchers an insight into the microbes that are colonizing participant’s innards and they are hoping that by comparing samples from those who regularly spend time in seawater with those who don’t, they’ll be able to build a clearer picture of how antibiotic resistance in the environment can affect people. With our abilities to fight off bacteria with modern medicine diminishing, we will find ourselves fighting an upward battle. Perhaps, our generation will need to accept that our bodies are designed by evolution to fight off bacteria and develop our own immunities to them. The strange prediction though, is that our bodies will be fighting ‘Hulk’ like viruses and bacteria that are completely unstoppable. Only time will tell if this prediction will be true. In the past, we have seen illnesses like the black plague wipe out almost entire civilizations so maybe the prediction of super bugs isn’t that crazy. If an illness like the black plague were to come back with an ability to resist all treatments then what would stop it from destroying the human race? This fear hopefully will not be justified.

 

 

Keeping Your Neck Clean at a Cost

In the 1950’s, a mother’s work was never done. It’s true that the past sexist culture, which was cultivated during the time, left mothers at home caring for the children and the hygiene within the household. As most of us know, chores can be very overwhelming and sometimes we can’t keep all the kid’s necks nice and clean. Thus, we have the neck brush! This was an obviously flawed invention, which was released to the public by the Los Angeles Brush Corporation.  The neck brush would, supposedly dry-clean young children’s necks with apparently little to no discomfort. Although we can obviously observe some discomfort, the invention shortened the amount of time it took for a mother to ensure that her child’s neck was clean from playing in the muck with their friends.

During this time period, the GI bill was recently passed which lead to a huge growth in the U.S. urbanized communities. Young couples of World War 2 were now able to afford new homes and could start their own families. Of course, the rise of industry around television had a huge impact on this baby boomer community. Gender roles were being enforced heavily by shows like, “Leave It to Beaver.” Hence, the normal American woman was being pushed by society into the household where childcare and backbreaking chores were the prime responsibilities. Inventions such as this one are a result of this cultural push on women. With so much responsibility placed on a woman’s lap, why wouldn’t she want some useful tools to help keep her son’s neck clean? The obvious assumption with this technology is that keeping a child’s neck clean is a remedial challenge, which can’t always be met when there are so many other things to accomplish within a household.

This invention may seem a bit strange considering it’s an unnecessary tool to be used for keeping one’s neck clean. Today, the movement of woman away from the home and rise to equality in the workforce (compared to men of course) has taken pressure off of an individual woman’s shoulders. This began a more equal share of back breaking household chores and maybe that’s why we don’t see strange tools such as this one (although there are some weird things out there for managing kids, like harnesses for walking them). We also do not have such a strain on obtaining the perfect urbanized life. Modern mainstream culture tends to push a bachelor’s life style, which conveys life filled with travel, sex (with multiple partners), and independence from others. Our mainstream cultures obviously take two opposite ends of the spectrum and therefore we do not have such a focus on keeping kids clean for a perfect looking life. Personally, I look at this invention and can’t help, but think why would I want to put my hypothetical child through that? There is obvious discomfort that comes with the neck brush, which can be seen through the child’s tears in the photo. That’s probably why the product failed so miserably.

 

 

The Dimple-Maker

This strange looking accessory is the Dimple-Maker. Isabella Gilbert of Rochester, New York invented it in 1936. The machine, as you have probably already assumed, was designed to forcefully enhance or create dimples for anyone who wore it. Not only was the invention deemed as unfortunate and unsuccessful, researchers actually found that its use may lead to cancer. So it would be difficult for someone to make an argument that this invention would be designed specifically for the cure to anything other than insecurity. Influences such as the Gibson Girl put women with particular traits in the limelight. The Gibson Girl was a woman illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson. She supposedly represented all of the desirable traits, which a perfect woman would have. This type of idealism would of course contribute to a rise in beauty culture just before the advancement of the film industry. Before the first World War, America was in a time of leisure. This period was an economic bloom dominated by a new urbanized culture. The family foundation was the American dream; having a perfect house, spending plenty of time at carnivals, and having a perfect wife. Men idealized the Gibson Girl as being smart, athletic, and of course against gender equality.

During the period of 1920-1930, there were many great changes for women in the realm of politics and of course beauty culture. With the 19th amendment, women were given a  voice to be heard by American society. The Golden Age of Hollywood began stemming in 1929 due to the success of recording not only movement, but sound along with it. The coupling of this culture revolutionizing development with the beginning of the American depression lead to an era of escapism into movies which we can still find today in our society. The newly flourishing movie culture created new images for men and women to squeeze into even if they did not quite make the fit without some force. As a result, we see strange inventions such as this one.

Although this invention seems strange and most people today know that we cannot simply press metal knobs into our faces to create dimples, one could argue that this extreme form of beautification exists today! In fact, it was only recently that Dr. Oz featured, Pixy Fox, a famous ‘corset trainer’ known for reducing her waist to an astonishing 6 inch width with the help of extreme corset tightening around her hips. The affects of the corset training on her body will surely lead to terrible repercussions for her health, yet she continues, even today, to achieve what she believes to be perfect beauty. I would argue that Hollywood culture is primarily to blame for this insanity that we see in culture today. I also suspect that the Golden age of film culture lead to the strange invention of the Dimple Maker. Advertising and fast growing cultural images of the ‘perfect woman’ started to press on the common woman’s self-esteem and because of this we still see similar health endangering inventions today.

Reference:

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/cheeky_fad_woman_invents_dimple_machine_1936

American History & Identity: 1900-1950

 

Strange Invention from 1879: The Parachute Fire Escape.

After making observation of the modern contemporary building structures we see today, we can note that architecture advances with the culture of its builders like anything else in society. As cities grew in the 19th century, such as New York or Chicago, The buildings grew taller and disasters, such as structure fires, became an obvious danger for anyone who found themselves on the upper floors of any tall building. So it seems natural that Mr. Oppenheimer would think of such an invention. During this time, structures were built to satisfy the new industrial needs of the time. The mass production line required a substantial work space. Large warehouses and factories, for example, which were filled with workers and were known to have frequent accidents due to poorly regulated working conditions. The advancements of construction due to new materials such as cast iron and glass contribute to a worldwide attraction to monumental buildings. In fact, the Eiffel Tower was built only a decade after this patent was made. thus, this period marked an important transitional period which lead to the beginning the age of skyscrapers.

The demand of industry, tightly spaced cities, and lack of regulation created a perfect environment for disaster. This patent shows a perfect example of the level of anxiety and fear due to the new developments made in construction. Obviously the inventor of this strange object was fearful of being trapped in a fire with no other option than being able to jump out of a window with rubber shoes and a parachute strapped to his neck.  The anxiety felt by Benjamin Oppenheimer was justified when we consider The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire burned for two days and caused nearly caused $200 million in damages. It’s also estimated that 300 people died in the fires. It’s unclear what caused the fire, but some people speculated that a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn, although no one is sure. After this horrific event, the next elected mayor promised to promote better fire codes in building construction. Ironically, The city of Chicago’s reconstruction efforts generated a huge economic boom which increased the population and set roots for their transition into the building of skyscrapers. So one could argue that the destruction of Chicago only laid ashes for a rebirth. Thus, we can understand Oppenheimer’s way of thinking, but unfortunately his idea didn’t make much headway.

Although the parachute hat is pretty wacky from my perspective, the U.S. military actually did refer to this patent in the application of the rubber soled boot which is designed for impact. My first thought when I see this invention is the risk of injury not only to the actual logistics of the parachute preventing heavy impact, but the strain put on the neck due to the leather strapping. I can only imagine wearing heavy rubber blocks on my feet and being pulled on by the drag caused by the parachute. As most people know, we have actually made applications of the metal fire escape systems that we see on the sides of buildings today. Scaffoldings which extend all the way to the roof of the building seem to have been the safer choice for fire emergency procedures.

References:

1879: Tennessee man invents the ‘parachute hat’

http://www.history.com/topics/great-chicago-fire

The Ventilated Top Hat

This wonderful and under achieved invention is the ‘Bonafide Ventilated Top Hat’ as advertised by John Fuller and Co. in 1849. This beautiful creation was presented on Mirror, an article based website which seems to present entertainment based topics.  

At the time of its creation, middle class men wore top hats as a symbol of prestige. It was a way of showing that you were established or well off in society. As many of us know, there are many cultural trends, which are not considered the most comfortable ideas. The trend of top hats among gentleman would fall under this category due to the amount of heat and moisture, which would build up throughout the day. Thus, we see the motivation for the strange invention shown above. The producer, John Fuller and Co., assumed that men would need a better form of ventilation within their top hats so that there would be less heat builds up inside of the hat. This would of course lead to reduce amounts of oils and moistures in the hair and scalp of the wearer. So of course the demand for such an invention is obvious, but perhaps it was the rapidly changing trends within society, which made this invention unsuccessful.

This invention seems odd due to the culturally out dated style of the hat, but if we observe items such as, the ‘trucker hat,’ we can see that not much has changed. Today, we witness women tripping and falling in heels to support an image of beauty. In other cases, you’ve probably seen men wearing expensive watches around their wrists even though they’re completely out of date since the invention of the cell phone. The point is that people will wear ridiculous things if they believe it will impress someone they know or perhaps they don’t know. The cultural movement of the industrial revolution during this time allowed such a thing to be considered acceptable to wear.

Today, wearing the Bonafide Top Hat may draw some unwanted attention. Since the symbols of prestige and establishment have changed over the years, it seems strange to think that some tall hat would represent some level of success. The only time that we ever see someone wearing such attire is for some sort of re-enactment or a ‘Steam Punk’ meet up. Inventions like this one were doomed to fail primarily  because of dramatically influenced cultural movements.

We as a society tend to change our tastes in clothing rapidly. Our ideas which are presented on the runway today are heavily influenced by current political issues or cultural movements. As technology evolves with us, we can see the exchange rate of information growing exponentially. The scientific revolution was a turning point for society. We began to look at objects in our own space through the scientific method. Thus, we see many useful and at the same time useless ideas being created. The ventilated top hat had a legitimate motivation, but couldn’t keep up with a rapidly changing culture which it was introduced to at the time.

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