Bizarre Bicycles

In 2010 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, commenting on the movie about his company, The Social Network, criticized the screenwriters for giving him motivations that he found false and, even worse, hokey. The movie suggested that he invented Facebook because of a fictional ex-girlfriend he wanted to impress and a club he couldn’t get into: “They just can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.” No such confusion exists about the Chicago bicycle repairmen whose inventions were featured in a 1948 issue of LIFE. They unmistakably liked to build things.

The tandem bicycle above, called “The Gangbuster,” featured 13 shotguns, six revolvers, two bayonets and a flare gun. With the gift of hindsight, we can say that neither the Gangbuster of any of these others designs revolutionized the field of bicycle building. This would not have been a surprise to people in 1948, either. But the bikes, which were paraded during a gathering of the Chicago chapter of the National Bicycle Dealers Association, are fascinating in their peculiar ingenuity.

Bizarre Bicycles

This four-person bicycle was created by Art Rothschild, who bravely took the top position on the bicycle in this photo. He reportedly broke three ribs learning to ride it.

Photo by Wallace Kirkland/This four-person bicycle was created by Art Rothschild, who bravely took the top position on the bicycle in this photo. He reportedly broke three ribs learning to ride it.

Bizarre Bicycles

The reported issue with the Uno-Wheel is that if the rider braked suddenly, he would spin in the inner circle. Still, it looked cool.

Photo by Wallace Kirkland/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Bizarre Bicycles

This bedstand bike set up its share of one-liners. It “was dreamed up by Joe Steinlauf, who got the idea while lying around in bed one morning,” said the original LIFE story.

Photo by George Skadding/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Bizarre Bicycles

Perhaps this is what they mean when they say that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Photo by Wallace Kirkland/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

When Maine Got Its Caribou Back

They say you can’t beat mother nature, but every now and then people give it a shot. Every now and then it works—rivers are rerouted, new crops are introduced. So in 1963, Maine figured it would try to get its caribou back.

Caribou were once plentiful in pine tree state, during the early years of the United States, but then because of hunting and disease destroyed the population around the turn of the century.

But in 1963, Maine attempted to restore its population, by working out a trade with Newfoundland. They swung a wildlife swap. Maine sent Canada 320 grouse, and Newfoundland agreed to hand over 24 caribou. These weren’t just any 24 caribou, either. Six were males, but eighteen of group were pregnant females. With all those young ones on the way, the LIFE story about this plan sounded a hopeful note: “Maine hopes its herd will be multiplied come spring.”

The process took some effort.

Caribou in Maine

Caribou being prepared for their journey.

Photo by Fritz Goro.

Caribou being flown to Maine.

Photo by Fritz Goro.

Caribou in Maine

The Caribou were brought to Mount Katahdin in Maine’s Baxter State Park.

Photo by Fritz Goro.

Caribou in Maine

In Maine but before being released into the wild, the caribou attracted the curious.

Photo by Fritz Goro.

Caribou in Maine

The caribou were penned before released so they could be tagged and given penicillin shots.

Photo by Fritz Goro.

Did all these effort succeed? Not really. A recent report on Maine’s state website looked back on the 1963 effort, and Matthew LaRoche, Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, wrote of the caribou of the class of ’63: “They dispersed after three or four years and were never seen again.” Maine again tried to bring in caribou from Newfoundland in 1993, but failed once more. The second time around the caribou—a dozen of them were this time—were fitted with radio collars, which means that the defeat was a little more detailed: “They all died or migrated out of the area.”

Caribou didn’t last in Maine, experts believe, because their habitat changed. Old growth forests had been cut down and replaced with new growth forests, and the younger trees didn’t produce the kind of lichen that are a staple of the caribou diet. Also, the whitetail deer population had increased, and those deer which carry a brainworm that doesn’t affect deer but is deadly to moose or caribou. While it is speculated that a caribou replenishment might have succeeded with a bigger initial herd—maybe closer to 100—that’s a big and expensive project. So if caribou are to come back to Maine anytime soon, no one will be buying them a ticket.

What the Future of Shopping Looked Like In 1949

Clarence Saunders had already revolutionized grocery shopping once, in a way that defines the modern shopping experience. Back in the way-old days, it used to be that shoppers handed their lists of items to clerks, who then went and fetched the items. Saunders, the founder of the Piggly Wiggly chain in 1916, was the first to let shoppers walk the aisles and fill their carts themselves.

Decades later, Saunders had another idea—one that actually took shoppers back out of the aisle but retained the browsing element. The change here was that the clerks were replaced by technology. He called his system the Keedoozle. It’s a name which, if pronounced with the proper lilt, explains the idea: “Key does all.”

Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. But Saunders was onto something. Anyone who shops from home, selecting items from a computer screen that magically appear on their doorstep, will understand the impulses that Saunders was trying to address with his Keedoozle.

He tried a couple iterations of it, the most sophisticated coming in Memphis, in 1948. Here’s what it looked like and how it worked:

The Keedoozle store in Memphis.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Future Shopping

The process began when shoppers punched the “key” for each item into their card.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Future Shopping

A shopper, key card in hand, searches for her items.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The shopper gives a punched-out card to the cashier, who totals the prices and triggers machinery behind the scenes.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The groceries would then drop onto a conveyor belt, to be bagged and taken up front.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The problem with the Keedoozle was that its simplifications were too much for the technology. It could handle one or two shoppers at a time without a problem. But when rush hour hit, Keedoozle became overwhelmed. Too many orders led to mistakes or, worse, the gears grinding to a halt. The Keedoozle repairman was all too busy. The premise had merit, but the technology wasn’t there yet, by a long shot. This store, which opened in 1948, closed in ’49. Saunders died in 1953.

George Saunders, the man behind the Piggly Wiggly, believed this key card could revolutionize shopping again.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Uncovering Ancient Christian Mosaics

For an issue that fell on Christmas Day, 1950, LIFE reported from Turkey, and with good reason. There, in a Muslim country, a team of westerners were bringing historic and long-covered Christian mosaics back into view in the architectural marvel known as the Hagia Sophia. The restoration was a big job. The team had already been at it for 15 years when LIFE showed up, and the work continues today, even as the Hagia Sophia is visited by more than three million people every year.

The walls of the Haglia Sophia tell a story that goes beyond the compelling Christian iconography. It’s also the story of the history of a country where the cultural currents of West and East have long bumped up against each other.

Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to also call himself a Christian, established the city of Constantinople in 324 A.D., and rulers of what was known as the Byzantine Empire erected great churches decorated with elaborately constructed mosaics. No church was more impressive than the Hagia Sophia, which was built in 537 A.D. for centuries reigned as the largest house of worship on Earth.

When Turks took over Constantinople in 1453, they remade the church into a mosque, and in the process plastered over many of the mosaics with Christian themes. The building and its artworks sustained further damage over the centuries because of earthquakes, vandalism and simple neglect. Look closely at the image at the top of the story, and you’ll see how many tiles are missing from the original. Others in the story below are in worse shape.

In 1931 the Turkish government decided to turn the Hagia Sophia into a museum, and in ’35 they enlisted a team of westerners, led by the archaeologist Thomas Whittemore, born in Cambridge, Ma., to uncover and restore the original artwork.

Hagia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Hagia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Whittemore, above, was the founder the Byzantine Institute of America. The aim of the group, which first formed in 1930, was to study and preserve the great works of art from that era. In the photo on the left, he sits in front of mosaics depicting the journey to Egypt and the taking of the census. Wittemore died of a heart attack in 1950, in between the time that he was photographed and the LIFE story ran, but members of his team carried on the restoration work that you can see them engaged in below.

Hagia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Hagia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Haglia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Haglia Sophia

Photo by Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The mosaics were composed of tiny tessellae, with 52,000 pieces in a square yard, placed in slow-setting plaster. The tessellae could be marble, colored stone, or glass fused with silver or gold leaf. The bottom two images show just how much of the original tile was washed away. While clearly much has been lost from the original, what remains has its own eerie power, standing as a testament to endurance.

Today the Hagia Sophia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist destination. While some of the original mosaics remain damaged, the interior gleams magnificently, and dazzles with its architecture as well as its history.

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul

Photo by Frederic Soltan/Corbis via Shutterstock

Classic Images of College Football

The Ohio State football stadium in 1948, shown above, had a capacity of 66,210 people. Today the stadium holds 102,780 fans, due to an expansion that closed up the open end and cut off the magnificent vista captured by LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman. This procession of fans from more than 70 years ago looks mystic and otherworldy, with the original architecture exposed and the fans walking across a field toward the open end in their formal attire. The expansion is an example of the nature of change. Something was gained—the chance for more fans to cheer on the Buckeyes in person. Something else is lost—the stadium being seen the way it was designed to be. This collection of images, both from on the field and from the world around it, captures a time when the game lived on a different scale than it does today.

College football

Jim Brown and his Syracuse teammates hit the ropes to train for the 1956 season.

Photo by Peter Stackpole]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

It wasn’t just the fans who dressed more formally. Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy (left) congratulated Michigan State coach Biggie Munn after the Spartans’ 21-3 win in 1952.

Photo by Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

College football

Speaking of Michigan State, Spartans star running back Billy Wells from that undefeated ’52 team showing off his agility while doing the Charleston at a sorority house. Wells would star in the 1954 Rose Bowl, play in the NFL for five seasons.

Photo by Joe Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

College football

Look ma, no facemasks. The Georgia football uniform looked very different between the hedges in 1948.

Photo by Ed Clark/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

College Football

West Virginia coach Art Lewis recruited Jim Hillen (standing in doorway) with a visit to the family home in 1955. Hillen, from Smock, Pa., played offensive tackle for the Mountaineers.

Photo by Ed Clark]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation .

College football

West Virginia football practice, 1955.

Photo by Ed Clark]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

College Football

Fans enjoyed a picnic at the University of Arkansas before the Razorbacks hosted Texas A&M in 1955.

Photo by Joseph Scherschel]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

College football

Cheerleaders at Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium for a game against Marquette.

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

College Football

A precursor of Camp Randall’s “Jump Around” tradition?

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

College football

Not a still from a horror movie. After a 1937 win against Iowa, Nebraska right end Elmer Dohrmann attempted to steam away the pain.

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/]/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

College football

The rain drew out the umbrellas at the Purdue homecoming game in 1961.

Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation .

The Most Civilized Fraternity Initiation Ever

Fraternity initiations call to mind many images, some unpleasant, and likely none involving historical re-enactments that are elaborate, well-costumed, family friendly and even a tad educational. But in 1947 the pledges of Phi Signa Mu at Rider College in Trenton, N.J., re-enacted a defining piece of local history, George Washington crossing the Delaware River. The role of George Washington was played by George Chafey, a U.S. Army veteran. Chafey didn’t like horses, so that is why he leads his troops on a bicycle in the photo above.

The stunt did have its Animal House touches—the reenactment included drunken Hessians, and the showdown culminated in a massive pillow fight.  But while Washington’s original crossing helped change the course of world history, the efforts of these Rider students didn’t rewrite fraternity culture. If modern-day pledges traverse a river, it sometimes seems to be a metaphorical river of liquor. But the re-enactment, documented by LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman, did have one lasting echo: Five years later locals began staging their own re-enactments of Washington’s Crossing, in what has become an annual event.

Fraternity Initiation

The day began, as it did in 1776, with a boat ride across the Delaware River. Photo by Bernard Hoffman.

The re-enactment did have some conventional fraternity trappings, and Washington’s soldiers were able to stop off for a beer after reaching the Trenton side. Photo by Bernard Hoffman.

As happened back in 1776, the Hessians fighting in the service of King George were once again caught inebriated and napping. Photo by Bernard Hoffman.

Fraternity Initiation

The frat version of the battle was fought with fruits and vegetable, and it concluded with a massive pillow fight. Photo by Bernard Hoffman.

Fraternity Initiations

When the feathers from the pillowfight stopped flying, surrender was gracefully accepted. Photo by Bernard Hoffman.

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