Ultrasonic Bath: Automatic Washing Machine for Human From 1970

At the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, consumer electronics maker Sanyo demonstrated their vision for the future by showcasing a series of appliances they thought would populate the home of tomorrow. Included was the Ultrasonic Bath or Human In Roll-lo Bathing (HIRB), a pod-like human washing machine that cleans, massages and dries the user in a fully automated 15-minute process.

Using a ladder, the bather climbs in through an opening on top of the machine, which stands about 2 meters (6 ft) tall. Once the desired water temperature is set and the main switch is activated, the pre-rinse cycle starts, spraying the user with jets of hot water for 5 minutes.

Next, the chamber fills up with hot water for a 3-minute massage bath. High-pressure jets create a powerful whirlpool, and scores of knobby, golf ball-sized "massage balls" suspended in the water pelt the body, delivering a vigorous massage intended to stimulate blood circulation. An ultrasonic wave generator creates a ticklish cloud of tiny air bubbles that lift dirt from the skin.

The bath is then followed by a 2-minute hot rinse cycle. Finally, a 5-minute dry cycle blasts the user with warm air, while a flood of infrared and ultraviolet light destroys any lingering germs.

(via Pink Tentacle)

Cleaning a Giant Studebaker, 1934

The World’s Fair in Chicago. A Studebaker car, the largest vehicle in the world, under construction. Inside the bodywork was a cinema that could hold eighty people.

30 Candid Photographs of Bob Marley Playing Football

“Football is a part of I. When I play the world wakes up around me.” – Bob Marley

Here’s a collection of 30 interesting vintage photographs that show Bob Marley’s love for football, or as we say in America– soccer. The many images that captured his playing in formal games, or just juggling the ball, show a different side of the natty dread who would burn up the stage all over Europe in the 1970s.

Aside from music, association football played a major role throughout his life. As well as playing the game, in parking lots, fields, and even inside recording studios, growing up he followed the Brazilian club Santos and its star player Pelé. Marley surrounded himself with people from the sport, and in the 1970s made the Jamaican international footballer Allan “Skill” Cole his tour manager. He told a journalist, “If you want to get to know me, you will have to play football against me and the Wailers.”

By all reports Bob Marley was quite skilled with the ball, and could pass and score with equal proficiency.

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33 Amazing Vintage Photographs That Capture Street Scenes of New York City From the 1890s

In the 19th century, New York City became America’s largest city as well as a fascinating metropolis. The city wasn’t so different, as these 1896 photos from the New York Public Library’s collections show.

The prospect of employment in a rapidly expanding industrial economy brought millions of immigrants from Europe, Asia, and Latin America to the brink of America in the period 1891 to 1930. This was also a period of intense social, economic, and political anxiety in the United States. Growing social and economic pressures posed by industrialization, sprawling urban cities, violent labor uprisings, economic depression, fears of middle-class “race suicide,” the changing structure of American authority, and a fractured sense of American unity all fueled growing nativist sentiment in the United States.

The nation was gripped in the beginnings of an effort to contain a growing sense of disorder, a sense that immigrants, garbage, unionism, corruption, and vice were all exceeding the bounds of their containment and that those bounds must be reestablished. In New York City, in 1890, Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives-a photo documentary of ghetto conditions that would have national impact. The following year, Josiah Strong pointed out that “a mighty emergency is upon us.”

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Wonderful Vintage Color Photograph Capture Everyday Life of New York City From Between the Late 1940s and 1960s

From yellow taxis splashing their way through Times Square to ladies in couture millinery feigning gossip for a fashion photoshoot, these colour photos were a rarity for their time. It was not until the 1950s that color film offered an accessible artistic medium, confined for years to fashion, advertising and low quality family snapshots.

Models hover over New York City in hat fashions of 1949 in this photo shot by Norman Parkinson.

A woman steps out of a Yellow Taxi looking ever so chic, 1962.

A woman waits for her train in the New York City subway, 1966.

A man wearing goggles tilts his head toward the camera on 14th Street, circa 1947-48.

Bob Dylan and his muse, artist Suze Rotolo, walk down West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, 1961.

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Old Photos of Markets in London in the Early 20th Century

Markets in London have their origins in the middle ages and ancient charter; set up to serve the population of the City of London. Over time, some emerged as wholesale markets serving specific market segments — such as the sale of vegetables, meat, or fish. With an expanding metropolis in the 18th and 19th centuries, street markets were set up to meet the needs of the new suburbs. With the introduction of trams on the streets of London, these were moved (sometimes forcibly) into neighbouring side streets, or new covered markets.

Below are some amazing vintage photos that show everyday life in London's markets from the 1900s to the 1930s.

Billingsgate Market, c.1910

Billingsgate Market, c.1910

Clare Market c.1900

Caledonian Rd Market, c.1910

Book sale at Caledonian Rd Market, c.1910

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Interesting Portrait of Nate Salsbury, Founder and Manager of Salsbury's Troubadours, ca. 1880s

Here’s something we don’t see very often: a big smile in a Victorian cabinet card portrait. This is Nathan (Nate) Salsbury (1846-1902), founder and manager of Salsbury’s Troubadours, a musical comedy troupe that performed in the 1870s-80s. Salsbury later became co-owner of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.