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A related phenomenon was x-ray salons, "the most scientific way to remove hair." Hundreds of these cropped up in the early 20th century, originally growing out
by gxqoz 6y ago
A related phenomenon was x-ray salons, "the most scientific way to remove hair." Hundreds of these cropped up in the early 20th century, originally growing out of their use in the medical profession. Most targeted working class, immigrant women to the US. They were eventually banned but persisted underground for quite some time.
There's a good history of them in Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. https://books.google.com/books?id=LZvsCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=plucked&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHlLfP-ObsAhWzOH0KHdiqC5UQ6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22x-ray%20salons%22&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=LZvsCwAAQBAJ&printsec=fron...
- Causality1 6y agoThose machines were terrible but you have to be a little wistful for the days when the American public actually liked science and liked products associated with it.
- outworlder 6y agoOne could argue that the disdain for science today could also be related to this kind of thing.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoYou do need to understand that there was a point in history when Science™ and Progress™ turned into the things that brought us world wars and atomic bombs.
- smaddox 6y agoAtomic bombs, yes. World wars... I guess you could make that argument, but it's a stretch. There were basically world wars in antiquity. Atomic bombs also pretty much put an end to world wars.
- fennecfoxen 6y ago> There were basically world wars in antiquity World War I saw the advent of chemical warfare with mustard gas. World War II saw European cities razed by carpet-bombing, even leaving atoms aside.
- thamer 6y agoWorld War I was significantly different from previous wars in many ways due to advances in science and technology. One of the earliest inventions that completely changed warfare at the start of World War I was the machine gun, which saw its first large-scale use in the 1914 German campaign against Belgian forts. Machine guns had been used in the Russo-Japanese War, but not to this extent and not with such terrible efficiency. Dan Carlin covers this topic in great detail in his fascinating 23h+ podcast series "Blueprint for Armageddon".