Dubious offerings from Sears

My research on Conley cameras takes me through a lot of early 20th-Century Sears catalogs. Tens of thousands of mail-order items could be had from their sprawling Chicago warehouses. A person could literally buy a pre-fabricated house, furnish it, stock the pantry, fill the medicine cabinet, line the library shelves, clothe the family, and put a car in the garage–all from one catalog. In the days before the Internet, the Sears catalog was the Internet; you didn’t need anything more. Their series of international stereoviews–65¢ per 100–was the armchair traveler’s Wikipedia.

Looking at them today, some of the products on the market at the time range from the quaintly amusing to the downright bizarre. In sprite of their respectable reputation, Sears, Roebuck, & Co were not above peddling snake oil. For your entertainment, here are a few products from the 1906 Sears catalog that are dubious at best:

This is a mix of weird and sad. One can’t help but wonder how many of these things were sold before people figured out that they were bogus. One also has to wonder at what point the device began to strangle the poor little kids.

Edit: holy shit, you can still buy them.

I can actually see the practical purpose of this. Hot water tanks were a luxury, and didn’t hold much water. At the same time, you can’t imagine yourself actually using one of these, can you?

Hope your feet aren’t sweaty. Bzzzt!

“Legs half-off for legs half-off!” Man, what I wouldn’t give to come across a Sears Artificial Leg Pamplet on eBay.

Tomorrow, we’ll explore some of the medicinal products you could ingest for your, um, health.