Friday, July 17, 2009

Tip: How to Read a Magazine When You're in an Iron Lung

Historical tidbit: this paralyzed polio victim in an iron lung is using her cheek to activate an electrical switch.

The switch activates the angled box above her head, which contains a scroll made of taped-together magazine pages. The switch rolls one page over to another page, until the scroll is used up. It's an analog cheek-powered Kindle for polio victims! Amazing!

From Popular Mechanics, April 1954.

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