Mysterious fluid rendered 1930s intestines immune to broken glass

A secret fluid reported on in the pages of the June, 1931 ish of Modern Mechanix had the property of rendering your intestines "immune" to cuts from glass, allowing you to ingest any amount of broken crystalware with impunity.

EATING light bulbs, bottles and tumblers with relish is the amazing feat performed by "Professor" Paul Owen, of New York City. The secret of his performance lies in a fluid which he swallows to render his intestines immune to cuts by the glass.

Glass Eaten With Secret Fluid (Jun, 1931)

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Anonymous

Glass eating is practiced by an ex-girlfriend of mine. She doesn’t drink any magic fluid. She also does sword swallowing ;)
Grey Devil

What is the most likely explanation is that there was no secret fluid. It was just a red herring to distract competing performers from figuring out his process. He probably had the same trick as everyone else at the time, but making something up to give him mystique was probably his goal.
- The Lizardman
  
  The red herring of the fluid was for the audience not other performers. Glass eating has been done for ages and the techniques (choosing proper glass & grinding it to sand with the teeth) are easily shared between performers. The idea of the fluid was a novel attempt at marketing himself and the act and seems to have worked pretty well considering he got this article into print. The miracle fluid provided a new and interesting hook for the public to an ancient act.
RadioSilence

“Mysterious fluid rendered 1930s intestines immune to broken glass”

No it didn’t.
voiceinthedistance

I just tried it. Normal glass is no problem. Pyrex glass, on the other hand, is another matter entirely. I think a disclaimer was called for with this post.
Please provide contact information for Mr. Cory Doctorow. My lawyers will be in touch.
- mdh
  
  Through a series of remarkably non-tragic events involving a pyrex bowl containing a seriously overdone custard, a large tall hungry counter-sweeping dog, and gravity – my otherwise clever dog ate some shattered pyrex. And totally lived. Vet said he checked out. He lived another 5 happy years. I was more carful.
chgoliz

It’s a good reminder of how easy it would have been to be hoodwinked in those days. Would the average person understand the mechanics of glass and/or the alimentary canal well enough to realize this was a hoax? Probably not, because many people were hoodwinked by this and many other snake oil concoctions.

Not that people seem to be much better about research these days. I find that those of the older generation in my life (in their 70s to 90s) who have embraced new technology will send on spam emails with amazing regularity, just as they probably sent chain letters through the mail when they were younger. Responding to their forwarded posts with the relevant link to Snopes or a science site always results in my address being dropped from their send:all list, instead of an actual improvement in questioning the source before blindly passing on yet another such email. Very frustrating.
- Anonymous
  
  Me too! It does mean I don’t get all the forwarded crapola, though.
rebdav

I think they tried this science experiment on Oz with that Mafia don.
joeposts

The trick is to chew it very well before swallowing. Maybe the magic fluid is mineral oil, to lube the plumbing.
Anonymous

rub the glass to sand & drink a lot of oil?
BDiamond

Right, and I’ve got a secret fluid that gives me super powers for 24 hours.

No, really, I do. Honestly. Trust me.
adb

“Mi povas mangxi vitron, gxi min ne doloras.”
Anonymous

This is pretty believable. There’s a guy (can’t remember his name) that holds the world record for having ingested an airplane, a few different models of cars, and all sorts of stuff made of plastics, metals, and junk. He just ingested a lot of mineral oil to lube up his intestines so they would get cut up. Otherwise, it was just the matter of actually cutting up huge things like airplanes into small enough bits he could eat them… and actually ingesting that much junk.
bobthecitizen

So why exactly would you want to eat glass anyway?

Flavorless, nutritionless, glass?

And if for some crazy reason you wanted to eat glass (heck, there are vegans and “2 girls, one cup”, so people will try anything) why not just eat sand?
Suds

did he died?
Elmo Gearloose

I know what the
‘secret fluid’ is.

It must beâ€”(drumbeat please)â€”
a ‘shard-donnay’!
- chgoliz
  
  *groan*
  
  +10
robcat2075

I recall Johnny Carson once having a freak on who ate glass. He looked like something out of the saddest, back-alley carnival you could imagine. Light bulbs, drinking glasses… he chomped away on just about anything. He seemed to be dropping a lot of crumbs but also seemed to be consuming some of it.

Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t.
Anonymous

wait, but what happens if you bought that and ate glass afterwards? i mean, you’d probably live the first few times, but i can’t imagine yourself looking as happy or confident as the “doctor” in the picture. the hell is in that liquid in the first place (obecalp or not..)?
Lobster

Spoiler: It’s a mixture of lead, mercury and radium!
Anonymous

Probably not the first superpower I’d choose.
Tofagerl

Lemme guess; candy glass and whisky? :)
Anonymous

anyone can eat glass as long as its ground up sufficiently, no fluid needed.
asuffield

Yeah, it’ll be something that dissolved the “glass”.
- urbanhick
  
  speaking of which (kinda), check out this fun, short video of a gallium spoon:
  
  http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2011/02/gallium-spoon.html
AirPillo

Magic tricks came in liquid form back then? My goodness!
Anonymous

Yeah – sugar glass. At least he used the ruse that his intestines were protected by a secret fluid. Glass eating acts have always been irresponsible. The “don’t do this at home, kids” disclaimer won’t exactly prevent kids from having a go.
urbanhick

Wait a minute…is this like the Simpsons episode when Homer swallowed the candle wax so he could eat Chief Wiggum’s chili with the insanity peppers? Remember what that led to: “I hope I didn’t brain my damage!”
- hectorinwa
  
  Ah the merciless peppers of Quetzalacatenango. Grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.
  
  I thought that if you ate glass (I did by accident once – the pot secretly broke while i was making my mac ‘n cheese) there’s only danger to your upper parts. Once it gets into your stomach, your body isolates it in a blob of something-or-other and it passes through smoothly.
fubbs

anyone check in on Professor Owen to see how he was feeling a few days after this? I have doubts as to how well any wonder liquid would have protected him from the next phase of the digestive process.
Emo Less

Labrador Retrievers naturally secrete this magic fluid.
Anonymous

No reason to believe their was any secret fluid. Just the distraction of a fake magical talisman so you don’t try to think through and find the trick. In this case the fake magical talisman is “scientific” so it appeals to a modern audience.
ZehnKatzen

Great. Nice trick. Of course, your intestines are on TA’OTHER side of your stomach, so if it WERE for real, you would already have shredded the inside of your mouth and your esophagus before the glass ever made it to the stomach.

And the stomach too.

Because the ‘magic fluid’ only protects the intestines, yo.

R and D is a beeeyotch!
- Anonymous
  
  Oh yeah … well … not if you gargled hydrochloric acid first. Then da glass would dissolve right in your mouth before it got to your tummy. Sheesh, what a Dummy!
  - Ipo
    
    Yes, the liquid was definitely hydrofluoric acid.
    The glass never had time to hurt him.