(AI Created voice and images): What Happened To Radioshack's Science Fair Kit? The Toy That Built America's Engineers

[xocetaceans]

24. Same here because generally it is a waste of time to interact with 'AI' content. Take for example this video from . . .

. . . that same channel:

https:// www. youtube. com/watch?v=3V0Bz_Xt2g4

It purportedly discusses the Fuller Brush Man.

It is weirdly particular and cites no sources, so one wonders if it is all purely fabricated. After looking around, this article from 1986 seems to have been restructured and supplemented (who knows how) to yield the text of the video.

The Fuller Brush Man

Gerald Carson
August/September 1986
Volume 37
Issue 5

Once upon a time, not too long ago, a doorbell would ring almost anywhere in America, a housewife would run to answer it, and there would stand a well-groomed, smiling gentleman. “I’m your Fuller Brush Man,” he would say, stepping back deferentially. “And I have a gift for you.” It was the famous Handy Brush. “I’ll just step in a moment,” he would go on, scooping up his sample case and kicking off his rubbers (which were, by intention, bought a size too large so they would slip off easily). By some extrasensory perception, the Fuller representative would seem to know where the living room was, and within seconds his case would be open, the free brush splendidly in view, the demonstration, or “dem,” already under way.

The brushes looked like anyone else’s brushes, a twist of wire and a tuft of bristles. But there were important differences, as the salesman explained. He might ask for a sincere opinion: “What do you think of these bristles, madam?” The housewife probably knew little about bristles or brush technology, but her earnest visitor could show conclusively that Fuller brushes were fashioned in novel shapes and sizes, each designed to perform specific tasks. And, he would explain, he wasn’t selling things , but service, better ways to keep a house neat and avoid drudgery.

The talk never flagged, because a pause in door-to-door selling meant no sale. The Fuller Brush Man left two out of three of the homes in which he was allowed to make his full pitch with an order worth from three to seven dollars. He asked for no money and left no brushes. The following Saturday, when the husband’s paycheck was still largely intact, the Fuller representative reappeared to deliver the merchandise and pick up the cash.

Sometimes the customer had changed her mind. The brush peddler might look troubled but was never argumentative. “Which one did you decide you could get along without?” he would ask, scanning the order list. The woman had intended to cancel everything. But the way the salesman phrased it usually led her to let the order stand or agree to some substitution.

. . .

https://www.americanheritage.com/fuller-brush-man

Some of the phrases match nearly exactly, so I would not be surprised to find that the text was appropriated (though I cannot be sure of that). Of course, I'm sure that the creator of the video checked all the facts in that text carefully: one can see that from the cited references . . . (sarcasm).

Anyway, I doubt that that is a revelation, but I just wish people would respect this forum.

The science kits were interesting. There was also the door-to-door selling of the Volume Library, a compendium somewhat like a 'small' version of the Encyclopedia Britannica.