A 1924 study commissioned City of Chicago determined that one of the chief concerns of the population was the hazard of pocket lint. In the early-to-mid 1920s, there had been a major increase in cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) which experts had theorized was the result of an overabundance of dry, flammable lint jammed in coat, jacket, shirt and pants pockets that, when subjected to the constant friction of daily activity, ignited the clothing of the unfortunate victims.
In 1925, one H.C. Breem, engineer/inventor and owner of a small machine shop, developed his Mobile Automated Pocket Lint Extractor (MAPLE), which he hoped to sell to city governments, the plan being that the devices would trundle about the public ways cleaning the lint out of citizens pockets as they waited for street cars and elevated trains. Unfortunately, during demonstrations, the automaton seemed much more adept at picking wallets, loose change and bills out of pockets than the targeted lint. This of course resulted in massive orders of the machine from local and state agencies as well as the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
No comments:
Post a Comment