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Top-level
According to the story behind their design, the Blonskys - husband and wife - had visited the zoo and seen an elephant twirling in circles. A zookeeper explained to them elephants do this before giving birth. Which, by the way, they don't, because centrifugal force isn't necessary for birth. 28 comments
Unsurprisingly, the birth centrifuge never went into production. The achievements of the Blonskys were recognised in 1999 with a posthumous Ig Nobel Prize for Managed Health Care.  @vagina_museum I notice that the Dublin Science Gallery built a version of this for their ‘Fail Better’ exhibition: https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/failbetter Perhaps their recreation of the Blonsky device could be acquired by the Vagina Museum 😊  @transponderings @vagina_museum  @vagina_museum My only explanation for the elephant part of this story is that the poor thing displayed stress behavior caused by the facilities.  @vagina_museum Like Raspberry awards for movies... @Sassinake @vagina_museum They said "Ig Nobel" prize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize  @Sassinake the Ig Nobel Prize is a prize for science that first makes you laugh and then it makes you think. Every year they do a great show when handing out prizes. Have a look at their website: https://improbable.com/ @Sassinake @vagina_museum (yes, I'm a scientist and yes, the Ig Nobel time is usually the most funny part of the year for me)  @vagina_museum i wonder if it's coincidence that a few years later Heinlein described childbirth on a spaceship being assisted by a well-timed sudden increase in the artificial gravity field. (The birthing position was not supine though.) I'm sure he was trying to be helpful or modern or something, but, oh my. Of course this was Time Enough For Love and it was probably one of the less-problematic things in it for a modern reader. I'm guessing because I don't dare read it again in this century… @vagina_museum I got pretty far without cracking up, but the net and the attached visualization got me good. @vagina_museum it's a shame. This could have reduced parental stress of naming the baby. Just have a list of your favourite names printed on the outer circle and at the location the baby flies out… tadaaa, it 'chose' its own name.  @vagina_museum It appears that someone wrote an opera about this (?!), entitled “The Blonsky Device” @vagina_museum @vagina_museum @vagina_museum makes you wonder why they didn’t try to register patent on birth by bungee jump @vagina_museum I wonder if this is where Heinlein got the idea that he used in one of the sections of Time Enough for Love ? @I_Like_Books @vagina_museum I legit don't remember this part, do you remember where in the book it is? Gonna pull out my copy cause whoooo, I gotta re-read that in light of knowing about this lol @vagina_museum I can’t be the only one sitting here going don’t let the GOP find out about this, they’ll make it mandatory in all hospitals 😬 @LetsBuild @vagina_museum was just thinking this, with hospitals losing doctors cause of abortion laws making it harder to treat pregnant women.  @vagina_museum Wow... just... wow... Ima have nightmares now xD I usually stir well away from med stuff when patent diving because there are some... DAARK stuff.......  @Burn_this_ @vagina_museum |
Gregory's Server
If the Apparatus For Facilitating The Birth Of A Child By Centrifugal Force was in fact some clever piece of art critiquing medicalisation of birth, then the Blonskys played a blinder, as the patent documentation is delivered entirely straight-faced and with huge attention to detail.
You can enjoy the full technical specifications of the birth centrifuge here https://patents.google.com/patent/US3216423A/en