History
The principle behind the illusion was first patented in 1909 by Fred J. Wiedenbeck (Patent #914904)
X-Ray Specs were improved (Patent# 3592533) by Harold von Braunhut, also the inventor of Amazing Sea-Monkeys.
A previous product called the Wonder Tube worked in a similar way. Instead of glasses, the device was in the form of a small telescope.
Their name was used as the inspiration for the UK punk band The X-Ray Spex.
Read more about this topic: X-Ray Specs (novelty)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
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—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)