Previously on Monday Mysteries
This week we'll be taking a look at the gadgets and gizmos of your era.
Gadgets are small tools that have a use, but are mainly thought of as a novelty. So, what are some of the more unique gadgets of your period of expertise? Was there a certain tool that people used to trim their nails or clean their teeth? How about a gizmo that allowed for indoor plumbing? What about an invention that was able to constantly frustrate besiegers, forcing them back time and time again? Did any of these gadgets remain in use and become mainstream, or were there some that just faded into obscurity?
Remember, moderation in these threads will be light - however, please remember that politeness, as always, is mandatory.
I would like to present the Windbüchse, a rifle that doesn't use gunpowder but rather a bladder that uses compressed air to fire. It was adopted by the Austrian army because it seemed to be a good enough rifle, it was accurate and didn't give away your position like a regular gunpowder rifle would but there's a problem. That bladder of air... it takes hundreds of pumps to refill by hand. So while you can get thirty shots without having to reload the bladder, it would take as much time to refill the bladder and exhaust the rifleman in the process...
However, it was a quality psychological weapon. Since there wasn't powder, there wasn't smoke; it was good for ambushing and general harassment since it wasn't easy to see where they were firing. Reportedly, Napoleon would cut the hands off of anyone who was caught using it in battle as he saw the weapon as "barbaric."
One interesting bit of Jewish religious history are the gadgets used to aid in Sabbath-keeping, so you can do everyday tasks without breaking the religious laws.
One of the better-known on is a Shabbat elevator. It's an elevator programmed to follow a preset sequence, rather than respond to buttons. So you get on and off without having to push anything.
Another is the Shabbat lantern. It's an electric light. But rather than turn it on and off, you slide its cover back and forth to cover or show the light.
A more commonly known one is the blech. It's essentially a giant metal thing to turn a stovetop into a hotplate, making it easier to follow the laws of what you can cook in Jewish law on the Sabbath.
These show up in Jalisco in the Early and Middle Formative Period and are from the El Opeño tomb. This picture is actually in the Olmec section at the Denver Art Museum, but we have the exact same stones. The provenance for the ones at DAM are unknown and the record with any information from the donor is sealed. No one knows what they are for and sometimes they are labeled as a polisher. There's no evidence of it being made into a bead or anything. They are about two inches wide.
We also have these weird convex ceramic tablets from the Epiclassic which no one knows the purpose of. In the center there is sometimes grooves incised on the surface. You can't grate anything on them and they don't show any sign of wear from being used. But they usually turn up broken because they're thin and convex.
Cane guns were used by spies in the 20th century but were originally marketed toward farmers to get rid of pests
