sloth unleashed

Bringing the dead back to life with a spinning whirligig figure!  A photograph dated 1920 of the amazing Frankenstein invention of Anthony  A. Barry.   Shown is Mr. Barry's model of a rotating machine "for the application of mechano-therapeutic methods" he claimed would rotate a person back to life.  "By rotating the body in a certain manner it will start the fluids of the body in motion and in extreme cases will even start circulation anew and force the heart to pump, thus reviving apparently "dead" persons." 

American inventor Harold C. Tifft’s portable protective shield. You can read a copy of his patent here.

The shelter consists of a shell made from steel, titanium, aluminum, and shatter-resistant glass that will provide protection from radiation and debris set in motion by nearby atomic detonations.  There's a convenient carrying case for those users who are foolhardy enough to think that they will have time to unpack and assemble the kit in time. That's definitely an unnecessary risk.

• It was the first patent in the world for color TV. NASA used the mechanism as recently as 1979 to transmit images from Jupiter.
• González Camarena built by hand all the equipment used for Mexico’s and Latin America’s first television station, XE1-GC.

A B-Bender is a guitar accessory that enables a player to mechanically bend the B-string up by as much as a minor third (three frets). There are several different designs, but all use levers or pulleys inside or outside the guitar body that are activated by a pull or push of the guitar neck, body, or bridge. The resulting tone sounds much like a pedal steel guitar and contributes a "country" feeling. Originally designed for the Fender Telecaster, B-Benders are now available to fit many solid body electric guitars, and even acoustic guitars.

The B-Bender was invented in 1968 by musicians Gene Parsons and Clarence White of Nashville West and The Byrds. The device was originally called the Parsons/White Pull-String, later renamed the StringBender, and is now best known as the B-Bender...  

This unit is called l’Automodule created in 1968 , engineer Jean Pierre Pontier (Jean Pierre Ponthieu). The machine is equipped with a two-stroke engine of 248 cm3, an electronic control and hydraulic transmission. Maximum speed – 45 km/h. In addition to stunning design, a l’Automodule have another feature – the hydraulic suspension that can pretty much change the ground clearance

While most composers like to handwrite their sheet music, over the years there have been all types of machines invented to help print music. Perhaps one of the coolest is the Keaton Music Typewriter. First patented in 1936, it definitely doesn’t look like an ordinary typewriter. Robert H. Keaton from San Francisco, California created the machine, which has now become something of a rare collector’s item.

The original patent was for a 14-key typewriter, which was then upgraded to 33 keys in an improved 1953 patent. Marketed in the 1950s and sold for about $255, the machine has a distinct look thanks to its circular keyboard. In creating his design, Keaton was looking to create something that would be able to print characters precisely on a staff and indicate exactly where the next character would be printed to ensure accuracy...

Da Vinci’s possible vision disorder may have influenced his art

An outward turn of the eye would have helped with 3D to 2D perspective.

arstechnica.com

The great Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci may have suffered from an unusual visual tic: an intermittent outward turn of the eye, clinically known as strabismus. According to a new paper in JAMA Ophthalmology, that disorder may have helped this quintessential Renaissance man capture 3D space on a flat 2D canvas so brilliantly...

...Neubronner grew curious about the movement and habits of his pigeons when they were away from home, and being an avid photographer, he saw how his hobby might be useful in answering some of his questions. Inspired in part by the Ticka Watch Camera and the quality of test photos he took on a speeding train and a sled ride, he began devising his own miniature camera that could be attached to pigeons via a harness. What he ended up with was a light wooden camera and pneumatic timer that engaged the shutter at set intervals. He filed the first patent for his invention in 1907 with the German patent office and its counterparts in France, Austria and the UK. The German bureau initially refused to grant it, believing what he described to be impossible. A camera was far too heavy for a bird to carry. This changed the following year when Neubronner provided the patent office with photographic proof from his flying friends...

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