Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A Spokane man discovered the hard way that motion picture projectors could be hazardous to the health.

Projectionist Rex J. Ormond was trying to make some repairs to the high-power electric arc light that illuminated the moving picture images at the Rex Theater. He had to remove the protective shield and work “in the direct glare of the arc” for 10 minutes. 

He then realized he was temporarily – perhaps permanently – blinded. His doctor ordered him confined to a dark room for several days, or maybe even weeks, in the hope that his sight would return. His doctor explained that the injury was “caused by the action of the chemical invisible rays generated by the arc.”

He added that it was the equivalent to a greatly intensified version of snow blindness.

From the home economy beat: Miss Agnes Houston Craig, home economist at Washington State College, delivered a speech at the Armory in which she said that any woman who comes to the family breakfast table “with uncombed hair and a boudoir cap” is setting a bad example and showing a “lack of esthetic ideals.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1946: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.