Diathermy in Beauty Culture From From the 1930s

When the term diathermy is used in beauty culture it usually refers to ‘surgical diathermy.’ Diathermy treatments of this type – also known a thermolysis – were used from the 1930s onwards in beauty culture as an alternative to electrolysis for the permanent removal of superfluous hair, spider veins (telangiectasia), acne, warts, moles and other skin blemishes.

High-frequency currents have also been used in beauty treatments to warm the face and body as with ‘medical diathermy’. The first use of diathermy in this manner in beauty culture, was Elizabeth Arden’s Vienna Youth Mask. Introduced in 1928, it was claimed to have a rejuvenating effect by stimulating the circulation of blood through the facial tissues.

Other salons followed Arden’s lead and facial treatments incorporating diathermal heat became quite common in the 1930s, in part because the machines could also be used to remove hair through thermolysis.

Treatment begins by cleansing the face, which is then dried with tissue and the mask applied. The chin electrode is first fixed in place by an adjustable rubber strap. In similar manner, double cheek electrode bands and the forehead electrode band is fixed. The cables, which are heavily insulated, are then attached and circuits closed. The resulting sensation is a pleasant, deep-reaching warmth; the consequence of a 10 minutes controlled application is a thorough enduring stimulation of skin and sub-cutaneous tissues. This intensive stimulus is not to be achieved by massage, or any available lotion, and is under full control of the operator. (The Hairdresser and Beauty Trade, 1936)

Mention should also be made of indirect high-frequency treatments, also known as a Viennese massage. These combined a facial massage with a high-frequency current to heat the skin under the therapist’s fingers.

Although there are some salons today that offer warming diathermy treatments as a ‘circulation booster’ during a facial, these are not typical. A more common and more recent use of ‘medical diathermy’ in beauty culture has been in cellulite treatments. Although it is generally combined with other procedures rather than used in isolation, the deep heat produced by diathermy has been claimed to enhance collagen production; increase blood circulation through vasodilation; improve lymphatic drainage of trapped fatty deposits; and even break down fat cells.

Coin-operated diathermy machine. Pay your 25 cents and stick a hot, germy mask on your face that hundreds of others have sweated into beforehand!

High-frequency diathermy could be replaced with a simple heating pad. This mask appears to be a Thera Therm Electro-Velour face mask. Introduced around 1938, it was operated by an adjustable heating pad, similar to those used in electric blankets.

Surgical diathermy treatment, possibly for pimples or acne, 1933.

Silk mask and electrode method, 1936.

Surgical diathermy treatment to coagulate acne pustules, although the model in this photograph does not look like she has an acne problem, 1939.

A rubber mask contained a series of heating coils that would allegedly “melt away” fine lines and wrinkles, 1939.

(via Cosmetics and Skin)

Mechanical Hands With Remote Control: GE Master-Slave Manipulator by John Payne, 1948

The village blacksmith of Longfellow may have had “muscles like iron bands,” but scientist John Payne of General Electric has done him one better; he has arms and hands made of steel, and what’s more, he can operate his from the next room.

Designed for use by re-mote control in radioactive areas, a pair of mechanical hands can do everything human hands can and more. The hands extend over a protective wall into the radiation area while the operator controls them from a safe place. Most movements are mechanical, being controlled by linkages with the handles, but wrist action is electrical. This permits the wrist to twist around completely any number of hand that consists of a pair of snips instead times, a feat which is particularly useful of hooks. Control of the hands is so sensitive that a gentle squeeze can be applied to break the shell of a hard-boiled egg without damaging its contents.

John Payne’s device has an important function of course; with it he can handle remotely the hot, radioactive materials used in atomic research at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory at Schenectady, NY. His “hands” can perform delicate chemical experiments, operate machine tools and do countless other tasks involving great dexterity. In use the metal manipulators extend over a wall impervious to the harmful radiations, and reach into the radio-active area to handle the material.  The operator remains in a separate control room and atches the operation by means of mirrors.

A model having her cigarette lit by a “Master-Slave Manipulator” for remotely working with radioactive materials, Schenectady, NY, 1948.

The Cat-Mew Machine: A Device That Produces Cat Sounds, Meant to Keep Away Rodents

Powered by a two-watt motor, and like a terrible scarecrow, this machine was invented in Japan in 1963.

Called the Cat-Mew, it was designed to scare little rodents away from your premises, by letting out a meow ten times a minute. If you were in a home that didn’t allow pets, then it would seem like the perfect solution without laying down poison. If it even worked. Which it probably didn’t. Hence why it’s not around today.

Fascinating Vintage Ads of Old-School Headphones

Headphones grew out of the need to free up a person's hands when operating a telephone. By the 1890s the first device that is unmistakably a headphone was made by a British company called Electrophone. It was not until 1910 that Nathaniel Baldwin of Utah invented a prototype telephone headset due to his inability to hear sermons during Sunday service. His innovations were the basis of “sound-powered” telephones or phones that required no electricity, which were used during World War II.

Previously, headphones were used only by the US navy, telephone and radio operators, and individuals in similar industries. Using them for entertainment purpose was not a possibility until 1958, when John C. Koss, an audiophile and jazz musician from Milwaukee, produced the first stereo headphones.

Take a look through these 24 fascinating vintage ads of old-school headphones from the 1950s to 1980s:

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22 Fascinating Vintage Computer Ads for Families From the 1980s

It’s hard to imagine a life without a computer nowadays, but 40 years ago it was not that common. In a certain era in the past, vintage advertisements usually reflect how people felt and thought about things at the time, and in the early age of personal computer ads, technology companies tried to convince their potential consumers that these machines were not only a link to the future but also immensely fun.

Take a look back at a time when computers first entered schools and homes through these fascinating ‘80s ads:

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Homes of the Future: A Look Back at Charles Schridde’s Stunning ‘60s Ads For Motorola

Charles Schridde was born in 1926 and grew up in rural Illinois. He was an artist from an early age and received a scholarship to the Chicago Art Institute when he was age 17. He began at the institute, but was then enlisted in the Navy for two years. When he returned from the Navy, Charles began his career as a free-lance commercial illustrator. His major clients included The Saturday Evening Post, Life magazine, Motorola and Chevrolet.

In 1961, Motorola asked  Charles Schridde to envision the homes of the future centered around Motorola’s most recent line of electronics. The ads created by Schridde ran in Life Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post from 1961 to 1963 and depicted an optimistic future made of lavish, elegant, dream-homes, where domestic technologies and serene landscapes coexisted harmoniously. Through his stunning drawings, we were offered a fascinating glimpse of what the past thought the future would be like, and how home technology companies capitalized on their consumers’ minds by swaying them in the direction that these electronic products were relevant to that ultimate future.

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Radiana – A Robot Built With Human Bones From the 1920s

Radiana was a “robot” or “automaton” employed by the magician Professor John Popjie, who toured in the 1920s and 1930s. Radiana could do some amazing things, like co-pilot a plane, drive a car, bake a cake, and even shave a brave member of the audience.

However, Radiana was no robot. In a version of the Golem illusion, there was a real person inside the automaton. The magician’s assistant was a small woman who used real hands to perform the feats while the audience was focused on Radiana’s face or Professor Popjie.

It would appear that Great-Aunt Kathleen – something of a ‘trouper’ – worked for one “Professor Popjie” who toured the world with his amazing “robot” Radiana. This supposed automaton would perform feats such as shaving willing audience members, apparently under Popjie’s control.

According to Great-Aunt Kathleen’s son, the pictures were taken around 1927 when Kath was 21. “She was small enough to fit inside the sphinx and manipulate the head, hands and legs.  She worked for Popjie for 3 years.  He proposed marriage to her – which was not accepted…”

25 Vintage Photos of Motorola Television Models in 1956

Television was introduced to Americans in 1939 and began to gain a foothold after World War II (1939–45). In the 1950s, the sale of TV sets and the boom in programming made TV America’s favorite source of entertainment.

Consider the numbers: In 1946, 7,000 TV sets were sold; in 1948, 172,000 sets were sold; and in 1950, 5 million sets were sold. In 1950, just under 20 percent of American homes contained a TV set. Ten years later, nearly 90 percent of homes contained a TV—and some even had color TVs. The number of TV stations, channels, and programs all grew to meet this surging demand.

The 1950s truly were the decade of the TV.

Here below is a set of vintage photos from a 1956 Motorola television catalog. It features all the makes and models available that year.

Motorola Color TV With Large Two-in-One Picture 19CK2

21-inch Motorola Eye-Conditioned TV 21K39

21-inch Motorola Pushbutton Turn-On 21K42

Compact 24-inch Motorola TV 24T4

Compact Motorola 21-inch TV 21T28

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Photos of Saunders-Roe Princess Flying Boat, the Largest All-Metal Flying Boat to Have Ever Been Constructed

Launched from the Saunders-Roe facility at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the first Princess Flying Boat, G-ALUN, had the distinction of being the largest all-metal flying boat to have ever been constructed. It was also destined to be the last large flying boat ever created in the world. The era of the large flying boat had effectively ended prior to the aircraft’s completion.

The first prototype Princess had its maiden flight on August 22, 1952. Between 1952 and 1954, it performed 47 test flights and had two public appearances at an airshow. It featured two decks, capable of carrying 105 passengers in luxury on intercontinental flights. Powered by a unique arrangement of ten Bristol Proteus turboprop engines, it had a range of 9,210 kilometers (5,723 miles) and cruised at 580 kilometers per hour (360 mph).

Work on the Princess was cancelled after three examples had been produced, only one of which flew. By the mid-1950s, large commercial flying boats were being increasingly overshadowed by land-based jet airliners. Factors such as runway and airport improvements had added to the viability of land-based aircraft, which did not have to compromise to accommodate the additional weight and drag of the boat hulls that were necessary on seaplanes, or the mitigating measures needed against the corrosion caused by seawater. Following the project's termination, the three airframes were stored with the intention of selling them; however, upon receipt of a promising offer for the aircraft, it was found that corrosion had set in while in storage. As a result, all three aircraft prototypes were subsequently scrapped. The flying boat era had ended.

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A Pregnant Ancient Egyptian Mummy From the 1st Century BC Uncovered in Poland

The world’s first pregnant Egyptian mummy has been discovered in Warsaw by a team of Polish scientists using radiological scanning. The mummy, which dates back to the 1st century BC, was transported to Poland in the early 1800s, and is currently in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.

The 2,000-year-old mummy was initially identified as the body of the male priest and scribe Hor-Djehuti, after hieroglyphic inscriptions on the sarcophagus were translated in the 1920s. However, non-invasive tomographic scans of the mummy in 2015 – which revealed that it did not have a penis, an organ the Egyptians usually mummified – suggested the body was in fact that of a woman.

“Our first surprise was that it has no penis, but instead it has breasts and long hair, and then we found out that it's a pregnant woman,” Marzena Ozarek-Szilke, an anthropologist and archeologist, told The Associated Press. “When we saw the little foot and then the little hand, we were really shocked.”

A 3D model also showed long, curly hair flowing to the shoulders, mummified breasts, and female genitalia. The scans then revealed the presence of a fetus in the womb of the mummy.

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A Newspaper Article From 1963 Predicted a Phone That You’d One Day Be Able to Put in Your Pocket

The concept of a cellphone existed long before you held one in your hand.

In 1963, a newspaper article from the Mansfield News-Journal accurately predicting people would be able to carry a phone in their pocket in the future. The article was published on April 18, 1963. It features a picture of a woman holding something that resembles a modern flip-phone.

The article reads:

“Some day, Mainfielders will carry their telephones in their pockets. Don’t expect it to be available tomorrow, though. Frederick Huntsman, telephone company commercial manager, says, “This telephone is far in the future – commercially.” Right now, it’s a laboratory development and it’s workable, allowing the carrier to make and answer calls wherever he may be.”

The modern mobile phone wouldn’t  hit the commercial market until the 1980s, but the idea of a pocket phone had been percolating for decades. In 1953, for example, the president of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. predicted that someday in the future the phone will be “carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today.” In 1926, inventor Nikola Tesla predicted that in the future people across the world would be able to communicate instantly with one another with devices that fit inside a vest pocket.

(via Snopes)

Visions Of the Future: 16 Gorgeous NASA’s Space Travel Posters in Retro Style

In 1962, the NASA Art Program was established. Artists, including Norman Rockwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Mitchell Jamieson, Paul Calle and Annie Leibovitz were commissioned to record the history of space exploration through the eyes of artists.



In the summer of 1975, Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View and Stanford University studied the dream of space colonies, inviting artist to depict the home of the future.

Take a look through 16 gorgeous retro posters for Visions of the Future, a project and collection created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL):

NASA’s Voyager mission took advantage of a once-every-175-year alignment of the outer planets for a grand tour of the solar system. The twin spacecraft revealed details about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – using each planet’s gravity to send them on to the next destination. Voyager set the stage for such ambitious orbiter missions as Galileo to Jupiter and Cassini to Saturn. Today both Voyager spacecraft continue to return valuable science from the far reaches of our solar system.

NASA’s Mars Exploration Program seeks to understand whether Mars was, is, or can be a habitable world. Mission like Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, among many others, have provided important information in understanding of the habitability of Mars. This poster imagines a future day when we have achieved our vision of human exploration of Mars and takes a nostalgic look back at the great imagined milestones of Mars exploration that will someday be celebrated as “historic sites.”

There’s no place like home. Warm, wet and with an atmosphere that’s just right, Earth is the only place we know of with life – and lots of it. JPL’s Earth science missions monitor our home planet and how it’s changing so it can continue to provide a safe haven as we reach deeper into the cosmos.

The rare science opportunity of planetary transits has long inspired bold voyages to exotic vantage points – journeys such as James Cook’s trek to the South Pacific to watch Venus and Mercury cross the face of the Sun in 1769. Spacecraft now allow us the luxury to study these cosmic crossings at times of our choosing from unique locales across our solar system.

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. It is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of about 965 kilometers. After being studied with telescopes for more than two centuries, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft, when NASA’s Dawn probe arrived in orbit in March 2015. Dawn’s ongoing detailed observations are revealing intriguing insights into the nature of this mysterious world of ice and rock.

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