New Inventions and the Latest Innovations

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New Inventions and
the Latest Innovations

by
Gaston de Pawlowski

general information | our review | links | about the author

Title:	New Inventions and the Latest Innovations
Author:	Gaston de Pawlowski
Genre:
Written:	1916 (Eng. 2024)
Length:	226 pages
Original in:	French
Availability:	New Inventions and the Latest Innovations - US
	New Inventions and the Latest Innovations - UK
	New Inventions and the Latest Innovations - Canada
	Inventions nouvelles et dernières nouveautés - Canada
	Inventions nouvelles et dernières nouveautés - France
	Nuove invenzioni e ultime novità - Italia

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

French title: Inventions nouvelles et dernières nouveautés
Translated by Amanda DeMarco
With an Introduction by Doug Skinner
With a Publisher's Note by Marc Lowenthal
With a Preface by the author

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Our Assessment:

B : amusing spins on novelty in those times

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

New Inventions and the Latest Innovations collects columns -- in many cases, really just short notes -- that appeared in Le Rire Rouge and were collected in book-form in 1916. (As Marc Lowenthal explains in his Publisher's Note, this English translation does not: "present the entirety of the 1916 original edition", but rather a (generous) selection -- as did the two modern French editions of the work. Fortunately, the original French edition is readily accessible online for readers who want to see what they're missing.)
Pawlowski's short pieces are (meant to be) humorous, suggesting new inventions and innovations -- generally with a somewhat absurd or exaggerated spin -- in poking fun at the inventions, technologies, and fads of the day. Pawlowski writes in a mock-serious tone, going so far as even to insist on occasion:

Please understand I am writing for those with an earnest interest in the subject matter, and not for pranksters who see crude allusions in these serious technical report.

What he presents is generally absurd or at least bizarre -- though of course, then as now, many of the real products and fads from those (and later) times are no less so --, and Pawlowski amusingly pokes fun at the outlandish things people come up with.
They're not complicated Rube Goldberg-like inventions he presents: many here are very basic, a little twist on the familiar, such as the suggestion of the French boomerang -- "whose wood is cut in such a way that once the instrument has been launched at the enemy it does not return to the thrower". Other suggestions are ideas that others have toyed with as well, such as a device that forces chickens to lay square eggs (advantageous for packaging and shipping), with Pawlowski embellishing the idea just a bit more:

In many cases breeders have even managed to produce hexagonal eggs, but that's just a question of degree, and the square egg is already on the right track.

There are elaborate concepts, too, such a "the new Central Collection Spittoon" installed in all the grand hotels, each room with its own "elegant little spittoon-funnel, which ends in a small tube descending into a central drainage system". The waste doesn't go to waste, however:

The drainage system extends below ground, into the little room dedicated to the polishing of boots, and terminates in a small faucet. You can guess the rest. In the morning, the unfortunate salaried employees charged with polishing hundreds of hotel boots need no longer make those desperate and heroic salivary efforts, often so disastrous for his health. He must only occasionally open the little faucet placed at his disposal.

Magnetism is one of the phenomena Pawlowski is repeatedly drawn to, including with the cleverly-named Electrical Xavier de Maitre (after the Voyage around my Room-author) -- walls and ceilings that are magnetized to allow those who live in: "cramped, squalid dwellings" to: "walk around their room, on the walls as well as the ceiling" (at least when wearing shoes with iron soles).
Other magnetic inventions include a "colossal electromagnet" that the 'Krauts' (this was during the time of World War I ...) set up in Flanders, to "pull rifles and machine guns toward it". The miscalculation is a predictable if still amusing one:

They didn't count on our artillery shells, which, drawn from their original course by the electromagnet, obliterated the infernal machine, which exists no more.

(Going to the well one more time, Pawlowski also reports on 'Magnetic Posts' being installed by the police prefecture at busy intersections -- strong enough to: "extract all the knives which find their way into the bodies of our pedestrians each day". (Yes, sometimes he seems to be trying too hard .....))
There are some colorful ideas, such as Pawlowski's claim that the Paris authorities have purchased fifty peacocks to replace the manual sweepers of the gutters on the Champs-Elysées and the Avenue du Bois -- maintaining that:

Undoubtedly, many artists will cry out -- how can you employ this magnificent bird, pride of Juno, for the basest needs of the city fathers ?! What sacrilege ! But ultimately, one must live in the spirit of the times, and frankly, we must recognize that the peacock sweepers' morning route down our avenues is suited to a city such as Paris.

Other ideas are fairly basic on their concepts, too, but still creatively conceived, such as:

The new Device for Drying Tears consists of an adorable little pocket kit that includes a little stuffed monkey mounted ona pince-nez, along with a pocket mirror. A quick look in the mirror will be all it takes to stop crying, considering how ridiculous the little monkey looks perched on the bridge of one's nose. It's the best that science has to offer in these matters.

Pawlowski also takes several swipes at Cubism -- "nothing but the application of cinematography to painting", at heart, he suggests --, including suggesting that some: "cubist and futurist canvasses were simply enlargements of photographs taken with a microscope of a drop of water from the Seine", as well as predicting that:

A Rive Gauche picture framer is about to make a fortune with the New Frame for Cubist Paintings. Of course, this frame features six completely gilded sides. The work of art is contained within. This method of framing cubist paintings makes them particularly attractive.

Several of the items and innovations Pawlowski describes even sound like good ideas -- a Clockwork Chair seems an inspired way of making sure visitors and supplicants don't overstay their welcomes, but the one that seems the most obvious winner is the idea of putting up statues: "with removable heads and inscriptions", so that:

Following the tastes of the day, the hero will be switched out, with each monument granted a ten-year permit. Needless to say, supporters need only pay for the new head and rent for the location of the body.

Divided into sixteen sections that collect the short pieces by general subject-area -- from 'Horticulture - Poultry - Pisciculture - Livestock' to 'Anthropology - Ethnography - The Occult - Travel' -- New Inventions and the Latest Innovations is an amusing little collection from times not too long gone by. Yes, it's more chuckle-fun than laugh-out-loud, but it is entertaining, and Pawlowski's extra little spins and comments make for nice added twists to the comic-absurd ideas he presents.

- M.A.Orthofer, 9 January 2025

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Links:

New Inventions and the Latest Innovations:

Wakefield Press publicity page
Finitude publicity page
Absurdity ad Absurdum: On Translating Gaston de Pawlowski by translator Amanda DeMarco
Excerpts
Inventions nouvelles et dernières nouveautés - original text

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of French literature
See Index of Books Written Between 1900 and 1945
Other books from Wakefield Press under review

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About the Author:

French author Gaston de Pawlowski lived 1874 to 1933.

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