Play the Xylorimba

That's right - the "Deagan Xylorimba" is possibly the easiest musical instrument to learn. Ever. And it's also loads of fun within your reach!

"Xylorimba", 1931
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No teacher necessary -you can teach yourself, even if you can't read a single note of sheet music. And the ad even says that you can make lots of money playing at dances and weddings - sixty dollars a week was six times the average weekly wage - a really big incentive in the midst of the Great Depression.

But unfortunately, this ad has all the trademarks of a scam.

Portable Radio

A marvel of gadgetry in 1940; a portable two-way radio. According to this piece "it can be worn under a coat"

Lucky for us, the 5-pound beast and its unsightly harness was soon rendered obsolete by all the gadgetry invented during the Second World War. Like the walkie-talkie.

"Portable radio", 1940
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You think you're a gadget freak? (3)

A long time ago, there was a machine called a "mimeograph duplicator"; it worked by copying a typed stencil onto sheets of paper, by means of a rotating drum -much like a printing press. 

For many years they were used everywhere, and even tests in some schools were printed using these machines -in a peculiar purple ink. But photocopiers quickly took the market over in the 1970's, and they are now just a memory.

"Duplicator", 1937
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This wonderful substance

For the best part of the 20th century, asbestos was regarded as an almost "mythical" friend of Industrialisation - fireproof and waterproof, asbestos could be spun into cloth, or compressed into tiles, bricks and whatever else you could think of.

As the ad says "this wonderful substance brings safety..." - until the late 20th century - when asbestos was found to cause a very deadly, very painful form of lung cancer. Ouch.

"Asbestos", 1917

The Nature of your Enemy

During the Cold War, America was bent on portraying the Eastern Bloc as a grim, mysterious anti-hero that would forever destroy the American Way of Life. It was the duty of every American citizen to fight, despise or otherwise take a stand against it.

Here's a leading magazine offering a book about the dangers of Communism  -including the techniques and goals of "the world's Number One Communist", Nikita Khrushchev -the Soviet Premier of the time.

Should be entertaining reading today, when the Soviet Union is no more and the U.S. is on the brink of implosion.

"Communism", 1962

The old maxim stands firm: in the editorial world, fear sells.