Thursday, May 23, 2019

What Contraption is This?

This picture was taken around 1922. My first guess was a loudspeaker of some kind, perhaps used to address large crowds. I was wrong. 

The answer is in the full caption at Weird Universe. The gadget was found in a book called Illustrated World, published in 1922-1923. You don't see such machines much these days, because the whole idea seems futile.

2 comments:

  1. Mosquito traps available today all have a) a means of attracting mosquitos, and b) a means of trapping them.

    The most popular options for (A) in no particular order are:
    • CO2 from combustion, gas-cylinder, or dry-ice
    • light, sometimes with choice of particular wavelength range
    • scent lures, such as pheromones

    For (B) the common options are:
    • sucking into a bag, mesh-bin, or net with a fan
    • electrocution
    • sticky surfaces

    So if you type words like mosquito, fan, and light into a shopping search, it is quite likely that you will find page after page of machines that are just like the one you picture in their function and technology, albeit smaller and of different overall appearance.

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  2. Despite living near a river, my neighborhood has very few mosquitoes, thanks to the many bats!

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