The Dieselpunk Flim-Flam

historicaltimes: Futuristic file system, Prague, 1937, info link...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 11:53:06 -0400

Futuristic file system, Prague, 1937, info link in comments

via reddit

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The offices of the Central Social Institution of Prague, Czechoslovakia with the largest vertical letter file in the world. Consisting of cabinets arranged from floor to ceiling tiers covering over 4000 square feet containing over 3000 drawers 10 feet long. It has electric operated elevator desks which rise, fall and move left or right at the push of a button. to stop just before drawer desired. The drawers also open and close electronically. Thus work which formerly taxed 400 workers is now done by 20 with a minimum of effort.

[source]

atomic-flash: The Westland-Hill Pterodactyl Mk V - an...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 11:48:10 -0400

atomic-flash:

The Westland-Hill Pterodactyl Mk V - an experimental tailless aircraft from 1935. The engine is a Rolls-Royce steam-cooled Goshawk. (h/t Arnold Ives)

British Captain G.T.R. Hill developed the Pterodactyl series in an attempt to develop a safer aircraft: many pilots lost their lives when their aircraft stalled, went into a spin and flew into the ground, and Hill wanted to develop a design which was resistant to stalling and spinning. Hill’s designs were inspired by the pioneer J. W. Dunne, who had previously developed stable aircraft in the form of tailless swept wings.

carsthatnevermadeitetc:Mac’s Jet Air Car, 2013 (1968) for the TV...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 11:42:03 -0400

carsthatnevermadeitetc:

Mac’s Jet Air Car, 2013 (1968) for the TV series Joe 90. Recently @pixelatedhotsauce asked me what my favourite cars from the world of fiction were. Growing up in New Zealand in the 60s and 70s we had a steady steam of “Supermarionation” TV series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by Century 21 Productions. They were an important early influence on my love of cars. Professor McClaine’s Jet Air Car was from Joe 90, the last Century 21 series to incorporate full animation. Mac’s car used jet propulsion and had wings that enabled it to fly. The series was set somewhere between 1998 and 2013 (there are references to both years in the various episodes)

fawnvelveteen: Glass perfume bottle designed by Lalique for...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 13:12:14 -0400

fawnvelveteen:

Glass perfume bottle designed by Lalique for Coty in 1920 (Photo: Corning Museum of Glass)

The lovely glass of René Lalique

lesanneeselegantes:Emilio Ferrer

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:55:34 -0400

lesanneeselegantes:

Emilio Ferrer

sparklejamesysparkle: “I do not recall spending long hours in...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:50:48 -0400

sparklejamesysparkle:

“I do not recall spending long hours in front of a mirror loving my reflection. I simply did not want my face to be my talent. I needed to be accepted, not humored. I intended to act.” -Gene Tierney

artdecoblog: popscience 1933 by patricia m Not even Edgar...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:47:18 -0400

artdecoblog:

popscience 1933 by patricia m

Not even Edgar Franklin Wittmack’s first monowheel – see here.

If. Only.Illustration by Benjamin Goodwin Seielstad

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:39:29 -0400

If. Only.

Illustration by Benjamin Goodwin Seielstad

wehadfacesthen:Marlene Dietrich, 1935

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 09:49:21 -0400

wehadfacesthen:

Marlene Dietrich, 1935

historicaltimes: An Italian lieutenant sitting on his L3/35...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 09:30:15 -0400

historicaltimes:

An Italian lieutenant sitting on his L3/35 tankette in Val Stretta, on the border between Italy and France, June 1940. Also a puppy for no particular reason.

via reddit

There’s always a particular reason for a puppy.

More spectacular vehicles – planes, trains and automobiles...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 09:28:03 -0400

More spectacular vehicles – planes, trains and automobiles – from Waldemar von Kozak here.

allmasks: A villain who can only come up with “The Rubber Mask”...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:07:00 -0400

allmasks:

A villain who can only come up with “The Rubber Mask” as his nom de plum isn’t even trying.

Flynn’s Detective FictionFebruary 1943

The Listening Corner · Anon.
Rubber Mask Returns [Park Avenue Hunt Club] · Judson P. Philips
The Death Stone · Cornell Woolrich
Please Omit Flowers [Oliver Pettibone] · Donald G. Cormack
The Swindler’s Corpse · Charles Boswell
Illustrated Crimes: Wine of Justice, Part II · Stookie Allen
One Blonde—Dead · Frederick C. Painton
You’re the Jury · Peter Paige
Solving Cipher Secrets · M. E. Ohaver
Flashes from Readers · [The Readers]

The Rubber Mask – his guns akimbo – in a Park Avenue Hunt Club novel.

centurygazette:Flash Gordon (Chapter 05, The Destroying...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:57:58 -0400

centurygazette:

Flash Gordon (Chapter 05, The Destroying Ray)

Officer Torch reports to Ming that Kala’s city is collapsing. They watch anxiously on the Spaceograph as the palace crumbles. Anxious to save his daughter, Ming shuts off the magnet that keeps Kala’s palace underwater.
The palace rises above sea level, saving our heroes. Prince Thun declares that he will take Flash Gordon and Dale Arden to his father, king of the Lion Men, and Princess Aura tags along.
…

[source]

Want to see more? Watch the episode here.

And curious about the “Spaceograph”? It’s

…a device in Ming’s laboratory that can view distant objects. In the second chapter of the 1936 Flash Gordon serial, Ming uses the Spaceograph to see that the gyroships of the Lion Men are attacking his palace.

thevaultoftheatomicspaceage:Zarach sphere television from...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:48:18 -0400

thevaultoftheatomicspaceage:

Zarach sphere television from 1975

When the engineers at the Polyphemus Project fielded their first robots – after the Umbilicus shattered, and before the Remnants rose to power – they adapted their UniSight to serve as their machines’ “ocular input receptor”.

dieselfutures: Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin - Foolish Wives...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:39:42 -0400

dieselfutures:

Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin - Foolish Wives (1922)

Foolish Wives is a 1922 film directed by, written by, and starring Erich von Stroheim. Here von Stroheim plays Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin, who may or may not be an actual Russian count. He is in Monte Carlo in 1919 along with his two partners in crime, Princess Vera and Princess Olga, who are pretending to be his cousins but are definitely neither his cousins nor Russian princesses. In any event, all three of them are definitely con artists, funding their stay in Monte Carlo by passing off counterfeit banknotes created by Ventucci, another one of their partners in crime.
…

[source]

historicaltimes: Henry Moseley, the inventor of the periodic...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:31:08 -0400

historicaltimes:

Henry Moseley, the inventor of the periodic table and the atomic number, was killed by a Turkish sniper in the Gallipoli battle, in 1915.

via reddit

Included in the Redditors’ comments is the fact that three other men are also credited with the “invention” of the Periodic Table, either before Moseley or independently of him: Dmitri Mendeleev, John Newlands, and Julius Lothar Meyer.

All of them deserving a walk-on role in a Dieselpunk tale, alternate historical or otherwise.

doyoulikevintage:1935 Mercedes Benz 500k

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:08:04 -0400

doyoulikevintage:

1935 Mercedes Benz 500k

carsthatnevermadeitetc: Corvette C2 Batmobile, 1965. In addition...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:07:14 -0400

carsthatnevermadeitetc:

Corvette C2 Batmobile, 1965. In addition to the the original Lincoln Futura concept-based George Barris-designed Batmobile ABC had also approached GM designer Chuck Jordan (pictured with the car) to build a Batmobile for the television series. GM was interested in the product placement so Jordan took the easily-recognizable C2 Corvette and turned it into a Batmobile, complete with hood-mounted machine guns and a giant circular rear spoiler. ABC went for the Barris version instead

source

ABC made the right call.

anyskin:1932

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 10:57:25 -0400

anyskin:

1932

alternateworldcomics: District Attorney Anthony Quinn in his...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 10:53:21 -0400

alternateworldcomics:

District Attorney Anthony Quinn in his guise of The Black Bat in action from Black Book Detective, written mostly by Norman A. Daniels under the house name of G. Wayman Jones

Both the Black Bat and Batman hit the newsstands around the same time, and both claimed that the other was a copy. The threat of lawsuits ended when DC editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened. Ellsworth had once worked for the Black Bat’s publishers and brokered a deal that allowed both characters to co-exist peacefully.

Anthony Quinn / The Black Bat would appear in 65 adventures.

The pulp BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE existed for several years before 1939, but with the July issue of that year, it became what’s known as a character pulp, rather than a general detective pulp. The lead novel in that issue, “Brand of the Black Bat”, introduced Tony Quinn, the District Attorney in an unnamed city that seems to be patterned after New York. During the trial of mobster Oliver Snate (what a great name!), Quinn is attacked by hired thugs who wind up throwing acid in his face, blinding him. Snate is acquitted, and because of Quinn’s injuries, he has to retire as the DA. He plunges for a time into despair, helped only by his butler, the reformed con man and small-time crook Norton “Silk” Kirby.
…

[source]

Color cover illustration is probably either Rafael De Soto or Rudolph Belarski.

Black and white interior illustrations by Harry Parkhurst.