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Is this the eariest Space toy ? Space Car Whistle


roboz

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Wikipedia's list of World's Fairs has the following entry:

 

          1903 Osaka, Japan     National Industrial Exhibition

 

Not too early for a Zeppelin craze.

 

If Osaka was a place for major exhibitions, such a souvenir could well have been created in any other year, need not be a World's Fair, not a fair at all.

 

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Gentlemen, I think I found the inspiration, and it's not a rocket, or a zeppelin...

 

Here's Belgian race car driver Camille Jenatzy and his torpedo-shaped electric speed record car. The "La Jamais Contente" was the first purpose-designed land speed racer. On April 1899, Jenatzy reached 105.88 km/h (65 mph), the first record over 100 km/h (62 mph).

 

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ArtEnginesLaJamaisContenteB001.jpg4485f3

 

The sound the whistle makes would represent the car whizzing down the racetrack. The tail fins and nosecone are obviously artistic license, the vents on each side were necessary to make the whistle work.

 

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Gernot mentioned this 1928 opel-rak although that contente is pretty close too albeit with no fins

Tinplate that was a nice find as propotionally it's really really close to the design 

opel rak.jpg

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My guess is the car was on display at the 1903 World's Fair, however, I couldn't find any records of that from the internet, so, we may never know for sure.

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  • Brian.. changed the title to Is this the eariest Space toy ? Space Car Whistle

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