JF Ptak Science Books Post 1870
I don't have much to comment on in these images, just that they are striking and came to me in short order, and that they are all pretty narrow things. They could fall easily into a Skinny category, or perhaps better still, they might slide nicely into the prototype for a series of posts on The History of Lying Down. Or perhaps a combination of the two, or one being a sub-category of the other. Certainly a history of humans lying down would be fairly massive, but scaling it down to late 19th century images of skinny and lying down might narrow the field a bit.
The first, (above), is from Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig), and published in 1878; it depicts an American effort at simplified swimming, though sometimes when you simplify an already-simple thing, the results are fairly complex. I haven't much of an idea about how this would make sense, seeing that the body's strongest muscles are not being used at all; further, judging by the flag, this guy is moving feet-first, and the whole procedure, despite body suit, look as though it would be terrifically cumbersome and bloaty. And with the geartrain, plus the weight of the driveshaft and propeller, I don't know how anyone would keep afloat. Or how someone would keep their neck in that position for any period of time. In the world of Good Ideas, this would be an Anti-Good Idea.
Foot's Adjustable Chair Couch, which I found in The Illustrated London News for September 1902, was remarkable for its cushion-y formlessness, accepting the reader to itself like a body with a goiter. There's just something terribly wrong with it, reminding me somehow of undeserved and needlessly- rewarded comfort--too much comfort foully a perfectly reasonable invention like The Chair.
Next is this skinny, low, light semi-automated shaded hammock; little, narrow, and maybe comfortable to fit a 120-pound person. This appeared in the Illustrierte Zeitung, again, for 1892.
Another idea, combining a bulky hiding and storage device with a slender and narrow place to lie down is S. Luder's 1883 patent for a rolling and folding bed in a chest of drawers:
In any event, this start of a list is simply in jest, an attempt at categorizing a few odd images and find a bit of complementarity where there is none.
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