If you open up a calculator, cell phone, or any other piece of modern technology, you’ll see a lot of circuits and high-tech stuff, but not much that can be considered attractive or even interesting.

Old mechanical devices were just so much more fascinating. Their endless moving parts and huge metal guts were beautiful and complex in a way that no modern technology can match.

Photographer Kevin Twomey sees the strangely lovely mechanical hearts of antique calculators. These aged adding machines come from the collection of Mark Glusker, a mechanical engineer who collects the old machines.

Glusker asked Twomey to photograph his collection, and the photographer was struck with inspiration when his friend removed the cover of one to show him the inner workings. Although they had planned to photograph the calculators dressed and in full working order, the direction of the project quickly changed.

The series, simply entitled “Calculators,” showcases the complex internal technology of machines that predate the sleek, high-tech pocket computers we know and love today. For those of us who have grown up without the joy of taking apart and reassembling real household machines, these 1960s calculators and their hundreds of moving parts are a rare visual treat.

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This regal cabinet was built in the 19th century, but it holds some surprisingly advanced secrets. Hidden behind nearly every surface is another compartment, drawer, tool, or other delight.

The Berlin Secretary Cabinet is a marvel of European furniture making. It was built by the legendary Abraham and David Roentgen, master cabinetmakers of the late 1700s to early 1800s, and owned by King Frederick William II.

Its size alone would make the cabinet remarkable, but the fact that it is positively stuffed with complex mechanical devices and hidden functions makes it a treasure. It is filled with so many tricks and secrets that it seems more like a giant puzzle than a piece of furniture.

Topped off with a chiming clock, the Belin Secretary Cabinet is incredibly ornate. Its marquetry panels are complemented by the decorative hardware, much of which also functions as triggers to reveal the hidden compartments.

Building something of this size, scope, and complexity would be a feat even today with modern technology and power tools. But the father and son Roentgen team made this marvel completely by hand.

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Antique books are already fascinating, but this one from the late 16th century is a truly special specimen. It was bound in the dos-á-dos (“back to back” in French) binding method. It looks like a single volume, but it is actually six books in one – it opens six different ways thanks to specially placed clasps.

This unique binding method was used to make books that were typically used at the same time, such as a hymnal and a prayer book. This example is a small copy of a religious devotational text printed in Germany and currently displayed at the Rogge Library in Strängnäs, Sweden.

Once you figured out how the clasps worked, it would have been very handy to carry this small volume around. It was a compact way to keep six different books in your pocket without taking up much space.

The incredibly ornate book is a masterpiece of 16th century bookbinding. And we have to say, it would be pretty hard to keep from opening and closing each of the six books over and over just because of the novelty factor.

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To some of us, the gym feels a lot like torture. But imagine how the gym rats of 100 years ago felt with their crazy exercise contraptions, lack of modern workout gear, and total absence of iPods. The machine pictured above is a vibrating fat belt, similar to one used by President Calvin Coolidge to shake his fat away while relieving stiff joints.

Before treadmills were the high-tech, TV-equipped machines of today, they had wooden slats that rotated around two rolling drums. Because this was well before the invention of Spandex and Nikes, people tended to work out in odd cotton outfits and their regular hard-soled shoes.

By the 1930s, the treadmill had evolved a bit to include a more comfortable hand rest and a fabric, rather than wooden, walking belt. This model seems to be in a swimsuit and high heels, which we’re glad have gone out of fashion for gym bunnies.

Crazy exercise machines were to the early 20th century what crazy fad diets are to modern folks. Above, a group of ladies try out a bucking bronco machine. Below that, a woman tries out a revolutionary (for the 1930s) fat-burning machine that vibrated to wiggle away the excess pounds.

These early exercise bikes were equipped with a huge dial that told spectators how much energy was being generated by the riders. The footwear still seems more than a little uncomfortable for working out.

Although the outfits and specifics of the machines are different today, the general functionality of some of these vintage gym devices are familiar. Bicep curls, leg lifts, lat pulldowns and situps have always been popular exercises; it’s just that today our gym equipment looks a lot less like torture devices.

(images via: Daily Mail)

The post Whole Lotta Shakin’: The Weird History of Gym Equipment first appeared on Gajitz.

As gruesome as it seems to us today, public executions used to be a source of entertainment for the whole town. Families would walk to the town square where they would watch a convicted criminal be killed in any number of ways. Not exactly the kind of thing most of us would enjoy today, but back in the 1920s English toymaker Charles Ahrens decided that it would make a delightful penny arcade game.

Surprisingly, at least one working model still exists and is being offered for sale on eBay at the probably-reasonable asking price of $17,499.99. In the demonstration video, the seller shows how, after feeding a coin into the machine, the interior lights up and the doors open. Inside you can see three figures assembled around the condemned man. A few tolls of the bell and the bottom drops out beneath the convict, letting him drop to his supposed death.

The gruesome subject matter of the display doesn’t detract from the excellent workmanship and beauty of the machine itself. The one-of-a-kind cabinet brings the macabre display just up to eye level for a child, perhaps giving them a warning about what happens to people who choose a life of crime. According to the seller, this machine has even been converted from accepting English pennies to taking American quarters.

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