JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Well, maybe not,but there aren’t too many candidates that pop out of magazines all by themselves and get anywhere near approaching the original.
This fellow, the first one, illustrated a not-described revolutionary device that somehow and magically prevent auto theft, and appeared in Popular Mechanics in September 1930:
We read what it is not (no electric shock or flamethrower device, hello Johannesburg), but you wouldn’t find out what it was until you sent in your name to apply to sell the thing, which I bet was a key. They generated lists then too to sell other stuff, just like today.
And then there are these two guys, who I guess are badly dressed car thieves who are scrambling away as best as their replacement stick legs could carry them–stick stump legs with silk stockings, they seem to be running very carefully, as though on iced eggs or something:
