Strange Tales 17: Which Story is False?
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STORY #2: THE MIRACLE MACHINE
There have been a great number of products and inventions that were discovered or created by accident or happenstance. The microwave oven, for example, came about when in 1945 Percy LeBaron Spencer, working for the Raytheon Company on radar equipment, noticed that it melted a chocolate bar in his pocket. He deduced that the equipment's microwaves could cook food.
A somewhat more amazing story of an accidental invention - particularly because its details seem to be lost to history - involves a homegrown tinkerer by the name of James Pimburter.
In the early 1900s, working primarily in his garage in Saginaw, Michigan, Pimburter experimented with various electric devices. One of his goals was to devise a machine that could help people lose weight without the effort of exercise. He believed that electrical impulses, properly administered, could destroy fatty issue while leaving muscle unharmed.
To test his invention, the inner workings of which he kept highly secret, he asked an overweight neighbor to serve as his guinea pig. When the friend arrived at Pimburter's garage, he asked Pimburter if they could postpone the experiment for a day as he was suffering from one of his reoccurring migraine headaches. Pimburter persuaded his friend to stay, however, and the experiment proceeded. After about an hour attached to Pimburter's gizmo, Pimburter shut it off to check his friend for any noticeable change. They found no weight change, but the friend remarked that his headache had vanished. In fact, he never had a migraine headache again.
Pimburter realized he might be on to something. He began to test the device on people with other ailments, ranging from headaches to arthritis to ear infections. Most, he found, were completely cured by his machine.
Then, again by accident, he found that his miracle machine could do much more than alleviate pain. When helping a female patient complaining of toothache, they later discovered that her treatment had also vastly improved her eyesight! A day later, she was able to discard her eyeglasses.
Pimburter was astounded at the potential for his machine, although he readily admitted he had no idea how it really worked these miracles. According to a Saginaw newspaper article about Pimburter, it was claimed that his miracle machine cured a man of ulcers, restored hearing in a woman who had been rendered deaf in childhood, and in the most astonishing claim, had grown back the index finger of a cabinet maker who lost the digit to a powered saw.
For a short time, Pimburter was associated with John Harvey Kellogg and his famous sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, but in a falling out over money and rights to the machine (Kellogg wanted to label it the Kellogg Wonder), Pimburter destroyed the only working model of the invention. Broke and disillusioned, Pimburter fell into obscurity.
In 1912, he tried once again to recreate his machine, but it failed to work in every test. We can only wonder what medical miracles we'd be enjoying today if Pimburter's machine had survived or was understood.
Next story:A Dream of Treasure
STORY #2: THE MIRACLE MACHINE
There have been a great number of products and inventions that were discovered or created by accident or happenstance. The microwave oven, for example, came about when in 1945 Percy LeBaron Spencer, working for the Raytheon Company on radar equipment, noticed that it melted a chocolate bar in his pocket. He deduced that the equipment's microwaves could cook food.
A somewhat more amazing story of an accidental invention - particularly because its details seem to be lost to history - involves a homegrown tinkerer by the name of James Pimburter.
In the early 1900s, working primarily in his garage in Saginaw, Michigan, Pimburter experimented with various electric devices. One of his goals was to devise a machine that could help people lose weight without the effort of exercise. He believed that electrical impulses, properly administered, could destroy fatty issue while leaving muscle unharmed.
To test his invention, the inner workings of which he kept highly secret, he asked an overweight neighbor to serve as his guinea pig. When the friend arrived at Pimburter's garage, he asked Pimburter if they could postpone the experiment for a day as he was suffering from one of his reoccurring migraine headaches. Pimburter persuaded his friend to stay, however, and the experiment proceeded. After about an hour attached to Pimburter's gizmo, Pimburter shut it off to check his friend for any noticeable change. They found no weight change, but the friend remarked that his headache had vanished. In fact, he never had a migraine headache again.
Pimburter realized he might be on to something. He began to test the device on people with other ailments, ranging from headaches to arthritis to ear infections. Most, he found, were completely cured by his machine.
Then, again by accident, he found that his miracle machine could do much more than alleviate pain. When helping a female patient complaining of toothache, they later discovered that her treatment had also vastly improved her eyesight! A day later, she was able to discard her eyeglasses.
Pimburter was astounded at the potential for his machine, although he readily admitted he had no idea how it really worked these miracles. According to a Saginaw newspaper article about Pimburter, it was claimed that his miracle machine cured a man of ulcers, restored hearing in a woman who had been rendered deaf in childhood, and in the most astonishing claim, had grown back the index finger of a cabinet maker who lost the digit to a powered saw.
For a short time, Pimburter was associated with John Harvey Kellogg and his famous sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, but in a falling out over money and rights to the machine (Kellogg wanted to label it the Kellogg Wonder), Pimburter destroyed the only working model of the invention. Broke and disillusioned, Pimburter fell into obscurity.
In 1912, he tried once again to recreate his machine, but it failed to work in every test. We can only wonder what medical miracles we'd be enjoying today if Pimburter's machine had survived or was understood.
Next story:A Dream of Treasure
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