Scout's Atomic Flash

They’re Breaking The Internet

Well, my friends - Scout’s Atomic Flash Tumblr just celebrated Five Years of sharing a galaxy of grand stuffs with all of you…and every comment, like, and repost is exceptionally appreciated. Thank you all for your support - it’s been wonderful to see how much you’ve appreciated it.

Unfortunately, yesterday the folks at Tumblr saw fit to send me an email stating that Atomic Flash has been flagged as…adult content…! All these years Atomic Flash took pride in presenting content for all ages and all people - this accusation by the folks at Tumblr is simply outrageous.

This is an a-political blog, but something must be said.

Corporate goons who own the most popular interweb platforms are BREAKING THE INTERNET.

As a result of this crazy insult to Atomic Flash by the creeps in the depths of the Tumblr thought police, it is with sadness that Scout will no longer present new posts here at Atomic Flash. The account will remain as an archive - for as long as the corpRATS allow - but participation on this corrupt platform is beneath the dignity of the work.

Thanks again to all you wonderful folks - all 31,266 of you - for making the work involved in researching and posting the fun stuffs of history very worth-the-while.

It’s been Grand…😉👍🏻

Building The World Of Tomorrow: The Transportation Building-Rocket Port - 1939 New York World’s Fair postcard (image via Joe Haupt)

The RCA 501 Electronic Data Processing System - Radio Corporation of America advert detail, Fortune magazine November 1959.

Electrons Are Coming!  – Minneapolis-Honeywell advert detail, Collier’s Magazine, 24 July 1943.

1936 GM Bus Concept - In late 1936, one of the designers in GM’s Truck Studio produced this amazing bus concept rendering. The producers of the Buck Rogers’ series could have easily used it in one of their films. (via GM)

Beyond The Time Barrier (1960) - A pilot crashes through the time barrier into the world of 2024, inhabited by the last remnants of civilization. A Cold War era sci-fi time travel flick. Filmed in Texas in 10 days.

The Spearmint Kid: The Best Advertising Doll On Earth - Playthings magazine advert, 1915. The introduction of the Wrigley’s Spearmint gum mascot. Grotesque - Animated - Has a Voice - It is Different

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head advert detail, 1953

The Man Who Stopped The Dust - Astounding Stories, March 1934. Cover Art: Howard V. Brown

BUCK ROGERS, No. 1 WINTER 1940 - Dick Calkins Cover Art

‘Ventriloquism’ With 5 Famous Comics Talking Figures - This 1930s book contained four thin cardboard talking figures: Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Smitty, Moon Mullins and Lillums. (image via Hake’s)

‘Ray Therapy’ - A group of children hold hands around a radiating glow of ultraviolet light at the Institute of Ray Therapy. March 07, 1930 - Institute for Ray Therapy, Camden. (Image: Hulton Archive, Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Actinotherapy (treatment using ultraviolet and infrared light) was offered to convalescents who had become debilitated after illness or operation, workers deprived of sunlight in their work, those with wasted muscles due to fracture or accident, weakly children and those with rickets or bronchitis, patients with rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis, or various forms of paralysis, and those with skin diseases, varicose ulcers, baldness, lumbago or sciatica. Patients required a letter of referral from their G.P. and were obliged to attend for treatment three times a week.  They were not allowed to cease treatment until they were discharged. (Lost Hospitals of London)

Ultraviolet light causes progressive damage to human skin and erythema even from small doses. This is mediated by genetic damage, collagen damage, as well as destruction of vitamin A and vitamin C in the skin and free radical generation. Ultraviolet light is also known to be a factor in formation of cataracts. Ultraviolet radiation exposure is strongly linked to incidence of skin cancer. (wikipedia)

Making Movies In A Volcano - Popular Science Monthly, 1933. illustration: Edgar Franklin Wittmack. (image via paul.malon)

Mantovani: Romantic Melodies - Long playing microgroove full frequency range recording. London Records LL 979, 1954 (image via Ernie Uszniewicz)

Peanuts, January 21, 1956 (via gameraboy)

Mr. Freeze (aka Eli Wallach) - Batman Episode: Ice Spy, Airdate: 29 March 1967. Wallach played the third Mr. Freeze in the Batman TV series which was also the character’s last appearance.

L'Aérotrain I80 HV - owns the ‘hovertrain’ speed record of 267 mph set in 1974.

Engineer Jean Bertin’s revolutionary jet‐powered passenger train designed to glide along a rail on a cushion of air provided by its own engine. The Aérotrain service was to have linked Paris with the town of Pointoise, 25 miles away. The project was set aside in 1975 after Bertin’s death, the French Government abandoned the project in 1977 due to lack of funding.

Forgotten World - Tales of Tomorrow, No. 3, November 1950. Cover Art: Ron Turner

Birdseye view of Wilshire Boulevard, looking west at night, March 28, 1928 - California Historical Society, Photographer Unknown (via USC Libraries)

SPACE ACROBAT - 1957 TOPPS ‘Space Cards’ Trading Card No. 25 of an 88 card set. (image via pinterest)

Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare - Film poster for the 1968 Japanese horror/fantasy directed by Kuroda Yoshiyuki. The second in a trilogy of films which highlight traditional Japanese monsters known as yokai. The film was made in Fujicolor and Daieiscope. (image via CW Wells)

The Hierophant Was Petrifying - Illustration: Walt McDougall, The Salt Lake Herald, February 22, 1903. (image via CW Wells)

V-2 Rocket Launch, 1943

The V-2 rocket was developed in Germany during WWII - its technical name was Aggregat 4 (A4), but the name used in general parlance was Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Retribution Weapon 2) or ‘vengeance weapon’ - as it was assigned to attack allied cities in retaliation for allied fire bombings perpetrated against heavily populated German cities.

Although it was the the world’s first long-range strategic missile, it was also a major technological breakthrough in the development of large rockets. Innovations included a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and alcohol, pioneered use of turbo-pumps to pressure-feed the propellants into the rocket’s combustion chamber, a radio guidance system, and a gyroscopic system which corrected any course deviations.  

After WWII, several V-2 rockets were appropriated by the US and the USSR and became the ultimate rocket teaching tool for both states and their individual space programs. On 24 October 1946, the first photo from space was taken from a V-2 launched by US scientists.

Prof. Goddard’s Turbine Rocket Ship For Flight To Moon - Popular Science, December 1931. Illustration: Edgar F. Wittmack.

Rocket pioneer of the 1920’s and ‘30’s, Robert Goddard, is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. He was an engineer, inventor, physicist, and professor. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was named in Goddard’s honor in 1959.

David Jones (aka Dave Jay, aka David Bowie) - The Kon-Rads’ vocalist and Saxman, 1963 

Costumed People - Photographer Leslie Jones, c. 1934-1956 (image via itkindofgotawayfromyou h/t Boston Public Library) 

The 1948 Davis Divan - An adaptation of the 1939 [Frank] Curtis, three-wheel ‘Californian’ roadster, by a group of talented engineers from the aerospace industry for the Davis Motor Company, Van Nuys, California. (bottom image via Show Me Fact)

The most unique feature of this ‘car of the future’ was the built in jack for each of the 3 wheels - these were fabricated out of military surplus hydraulic cylinders and lifted the car by flipping the appropriate switch. Only eleven Davis Divan’s were produced - Davis Motor Co. came to an ignoble end when the company was seized and liquidated by the LA District Attorney’s office after Gary Davis was hit with fraud and other charges related to failures in meeting contractual agreements. (via The Makes That Didn’t Make It)

Colin and Toodle, 1928 - Double exposure, photographer unknown. (image via brilio h/t John Morgan’s Old Photos)

1937 International-Harvester D-300 Streamliner Tow Truck - (image via wheelsage.org)

Well-Rounded Living - Illustration featured in Science and Mechanics magazine, 1961. (via JFGryphon)