Looking for an exciting new way to earn money flexing that 20th century brain of yours? Try inventing gadgets! Americans spend more the $100 million a year on these useless, dangerous or just plain idiotic devices, which can often be found in 5 and 10 cent stores. Or something like that. The folks at Modern Mechanix unearthed this interesting advertorial from 1935, which hopes to inspire folks to design and patent their own "gadgets," little widgets that the magazine defines as "something that we would like to own, if it doesn't cost too much, yet something that we can do without if we absolutely must." We've been trying to look around the Engadget HQ and decide what we could live without, but decided that was just silly -- next thing you know it, stupid magazines from the past will be trying to tell us we don't need our
Nabaztag reading us news in the morning, or
LED umbrellas to know what the weather's like outside. Clearly preposterous.
[Thanks, Charles S]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bradford @ Apr 30th 2007 4:41PM
It should be pointed out that the author of this doc is non other than Hugo Gernsback of Hugo Award fame.
Crayola @ Apr 30th 2007 4:49PM
100% totally agree, just look how fast those USB humping dogs shift...
obiwan @ Apr 30th 2007 5:46PM
The opportunist in me says "Make money by producing things to keep the gadgets in".
It's easier, and all you have to do is measure the newest gadget and throw cloth and a zipper around it.
That and marketing...
EBG @ Apr 30th 2007 6:34PM
Firefox Live Bookmarks cuts off the title of this to say "You too can make millions in the exciting world o..." and when I first saw it, I thought it would say "f patents."