I saw more boxes of stuff tucked into the inky shadows of the dimly lit crawl space.
We had just finished two days of selling off stuff and junque and now I found more! With a sigh, I climbed onto the foundation wall and started crawling under the house.
The dirt was damp, as usual in the hills of the Bay Area. The first thing I found was a box of magazines that has fallen off the foundation and onto the damp earth. I do not know how long it had sat on the dirt, but it was a moldy disintegrating mess.
I did find one intact magazine, a 1954 copy of Planet Stories! (see pic) The cover depicts 'The strangely beautiful Xintel of the blue-brown skin.'
Notice the classic, cliché cover. A young, nubile woman (missing her top!) being menaced by (male) aliens. I have carefully dried the magazine and will carefully read it. The pulps of the fifties were printed on cheap paper.
Two other boxes held real junk and that was quickly disposed of. But the last two boxes held some strange lab equipment. (see pic)
These ‘flasks’ were wrapped in newspaper from 1959! They don’t say ‘Pyrex’ on them, so you can’t heat them.
With a round bottom, they can’t stand up. I think they were mounted on a stand and they were used to pipe gases through a liquid.
But since I am not a chemist, it’s only a guess.
I have no idea what to do with them. They are lousy vases, since the bottom is rounded. My friend said I do a ‘ship in a bottle’, but that does not interest me.
I’ll think of something.
2 comments:
Speaking as a lab person, the bottle doesn't ring any bells.
Obiwan, you were my only hope. :-)
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