#historical oddities

[lunasloveisgood]

“A vending machine that sold already lit cigarettes for a penny. England, 1931″

[carionto]

Accurate Reenactments Based On Facts

Most cultures across the Galaxy do their utmost to preserve and remember their history, both the great achievements, and the terrible mistakes. Humans go a few dozen steps further.

They introduced us to a concept called "Historical reenactments" - accurate recreations of the situations and conditions of ancient events, usually battles, played out with prop equipment by real people. They also said they sometimes do these just for fun and don't care about being 100% accurate.

This particular reenactment was of a battle called Thermopylae. Using numerous historical records, they recreated the location, printed slightly lighter versions of the armor (well, helmets only for some) they wore, and dull weapons with embedded stun shockers that would create a kinetic "bump" upon contact to prevent actual injury by pushing the person back instead.

Once everyone was geared up the atmosphere changed, both visually as the holographic projectors did their thing, and from the Humans themselves - their demeanor became that of... wilderness. Ferocity. Deadly focus. It was quite fear inducing even from afar.

Then the defenders in red, the "Spartans", created a sort of spiky dome with their shields and spears. Then the attackers in blue, the "Persians" unleashed a terrifying volley of arrows, the sky hologram went darker, then a bright beam of light shone upon the defenders as they swept off arrows stuck to their shields in dramatic fashion before proceeding to charge towards their assaulting foes.

We noticed the "Spartans" were all much larger than the "Persians", and actually were equipped with subtle and very modern exoskeletons. Perplexed by this we asked if these Spartans had a very particular technological advantage for their time:

"Well, not as far as we can tell, but based on the materials we have, Spartans were, like, really buff and super strong compared to the average person of the time. Plus, according to the feats of strength they supposedly displayed, we suspect they became an extinct branch of Humanity at some point, so the exoskeletons are there to mimic what we think they were like. Anyway, look, this is the coolest part."

As they spoke, the artificial gravity was lowered slightly and there was a spike in the power output from the exoskeleton equipped Spartans. Now they were flinging the approaching Persians dozens of feet into the air, a single bare-chested man kicked three of them at once backwards at a whole group, knocking the wind out of them.

This sort of extreme violence continued for several minutes.

Suddenly, an incredibly large Persian man on a throne was carried to what was effectively the center stage. Him and a heavily bearded Spartan exchanged a dramatic dialogue, the Spartan threw his spear at the Persian, who dodged it with a single turn of his head, then proceeded to summon a massive horde of small Persians who quickly began to overrun the Spartans.

There were bodies and shields and spears and pieces of armor flying everywhere, but gradually all the red became engulfed by the blue, and only one remaining Spartan managed to wriggle his way out of the carnage and make a run for it back to their city in the distance.

Seemingly satisfied after plucking out the bearded Spartan from the pile, the giant Persian roared in triumph and this is when the reenactment ended and everyone gathered for a feast.

So this is how ancient Human Battles went, huh.

"Well, not all of them. Usually it's between more equal forces in large open fields, or prolonged sieges, which can be a bit boring to recreate.

You should come back next month, we'll be doing an old naval battle between the British Empire and Independent Pirates Lords. It ends with a really sweet whirlpool showdown. Man, what are the odds of that happening, eh?"

[themuseumlady]

~ From my personal collection of oddities ~

I originally purchased this bottle at a local 'odds and ends' store, intrigued by the ingredient list (Particularly the arsenic trioxide) Though I am not entirely certain what these specific pills were used for, there is a good chance their application was to treat tuberculosis.

The now-defunct pill manufacturer, The Upjohn Company, was founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Writing my Hazardous Materials on Display policy recently made me think a lot about my own personal collection of antiques, this in particular!

[t0bi44]

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

.

[sehnsuchtz]

cruciform watches

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

the supermarket is perhaps one of america's most glorious achievements. a marvel in the grand scheme of history.

[statelibraryqueensland]

The ‘Gum Leaf Letter’, complete with offical mail stamp, 1910.

Accession 6190 General Post Office Collection. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Source

[labellenouvelle]

HOLD YOUR HORSES , I MEAN GATORS

An original and rare New Orleans Victorian trade card for LOUIS RUHE’S BIRD & ANIMALS STORE on 117 Chartres st. Near Canal.   And yes those are real live alligators on leash displayed by the employees on the storefront.  Only in NOLA !

Item No. E4983

Dimensions: 5 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

List Price: $ 175

504.581.3733 /t

info@labellenouvelle.com /e

[undefeatednils]

Stuff in tags, very horny, sorry!

[flamemixofficial]

Read The Full Article

[daancienttime]

History is often portrayed as a dry, dusty collection of dates and names, but it's actually full of fascinating, bizarre, and downright crazy stories waiting to be discovered. If you're looking to spice up your knowledge of the past, here's how to uncover the most mind-blowing historical facts.

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

It was a touching moment when Oddity Ǧīm quoted Christopher Marlowe portending the Tenth Inspector’s reincarnation:

‘That perfect bliss and sole felicity, the sweet fruition of an earthly crown.’

[themuseumlady]

vintage perfume bottle (ft. Tugboat)

from my personal collection of oddities! this was purchased at a local 'used tool' shop, for only 75 cents! while it is not extraordinarily old or interesting, it does bring me joy :) The bottle is an Avon Topaze 1oz cologne

A less serious post for now, as my Museum work is taking up a lot of my time---working on getting all of the exhibit planning squared away so I can really dive into the research aspect of it! :))))

[supertrainstationh]

X

Drawings for a minimum gauge sleeping car on the Duffield Bank Railway, which as far as I’m aware they are no actual photos of.

Instead is a picture of an actually built dining car and locomotive, merely to stress the absolutely miniscule scale to which this sleeping car for four passengers was laid out.