Inspired by Scarcity Life during wartime
Hanae Shimizu
Extend
Extend
Food
Butter extender United Kingdom and United States
World War II
- 1 package of plain gelatin - 1 lb. of butter (softened) - 2 cups of milk - 1 teaspoon of salt Mix them in a bowl with hot water. Pour the mixture into a small rectangular plastic container and refrigerate it until it becomes solid. Originally introduced as a temporary recipe to get through
serious food shortage, extended butter is produced and sold as lowfat butter today.
- Book Robert Opie, The Wartime Scrapbook: On the Home fromt 1939 to 1945, pi global publishing limited, 2005 - Book Richard Panchyk, World Wr II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities, Chicago Review Press, 2003
Divide
Divide
Food
Mars chocolate campaign Mars, United Kingdom World War II
Even if the chocolate is cut into smaller pieces, as long as the actual amount does not change, the satisfaction for the eater is multiplied psychologically.
- Book Mike Brown & Carol Harris, The Wartime House: Home Life in Wartime Britain 1939-1945, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2001
Cut Down
Cut Down
Transportation
Scooter bike with a small front tire Netherlands 1944-45
If you don’t have enough rubber to make a bike tire, just make it smaller. What a simple solution! It is said that these newly invented vehicles were not exactly comfortable to ride on.
- Book Gerjan Heij, Het dagelijks leven in de jaren ‘40, Terra, 2008 - Book Johannes van Miert, Oorlog en bezetting : Nederland 1940-1945 in woord, beeld en geluid, Kosmos-Z&K, 1995
Multiuse
Multiuse
Furnishing / Military
Mattress life preserver United States World War I
“THEIR MATTRESSES WILL SAVE
fiber from a tropical tree called
THEM. Besides providing restful
kapok. Since the kapok fiber is very
accommodations, these mattresses -
light and water resistant, it was first
belonging to recruits at the Newport
used for flotation devices in 1902.
Naval Training Station - are also
It was banned in 1904 for being
efficient life preservers.” (Illustrated
flammable and losing buoyancy, yet
World June 1917) Are you brave
it kept being used during the first
enough to dive into the sea with
half of the 20th century. That is why
this life preserver? These mattresses
the life preserver was called “kapok”
would have been stuffed with the
during World War II.
- Website Modern Mechanix, http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/12/04/war-sidelights/ - Website Raven Rescue; The History of the PFD, http://www.ravenrescue.com/index.php/resources/the-history-of-the-pfd/ - Website Mexconnect; Did you know? Mexico’s kapok trees aided the U.S. war effort , http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1246-did-you-know-mexico-skapok-trees-aided-the-u-s-war-effort
Substitute
Substitute
Commodity
Ceramic metal houseware Japan and other countries
Because of serious metal shortage, many metal houseware was often replaced by ceramicware, which was plentiful even in wartime.
- Exhibition Permanent Exhibition, Setogura, 2010 - Book Seto: Seto government 70th aniversary magazine - Website Invitation to Douguology: ceramic substitution, http://www.studio-mira.com/Douguology/KOZA%20Bbox02.html
- Website Wartime ceramic catalog, http://touseizufu.exblog.jp/ - Website Imperial army and navy: Commodities after the war, http://www13.ocn.ne.jp/~seiroku/daiyouhin.html - Website Invitation to Douguology: ceramic substitution, http://www.studio-mira.com/Douguology/KOZA%20Bbox02.html
Imitate
Imitate
Fashion
Liquid Stockings United Kingdom and other countries
World War II, after 1940
Nylon stockings were introduced to women in the US on May 15th, 1940. However, because of nylon and silk shortage, a substitution was soon needed. Women were advised to cover their legs with liquid paint and draw a seam up the backs of the legs with an eyebrow pencil. “Beauty goes to extremes ... here’s a tip for
stockingless legs. If you can’t buy stocking make-up, sponge the legs with a few grain of permanganate of potash dissolved in warm water. Be sure to test on the sole of one foot first because it won’t wash off for days. Do this before a special occasion on which you want to look your nicest.”
- Book Mike Brown & Carol Harris, The Wartime House: Home Life in Wartime Britain 1939-1945, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2001 - Website Smithsonian’s History Explorer: Leg Silque Liquid Stockings, http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/artifacts/resource.asp?id=1214 - Website Kitsch-Slapped: After Stocking Panic, Women Made-Up, http://www.kitsch-slapped.com/2009/11/after-stocking-panic-women-made-up/
- Website Kitsch-Slapped: After Stocking Panic, Women Made-Up, http://www.kitsch-slapped.com/2009/11/after-stocking-panic-women-made-up/ - Website Modern Mechanix: Cream Replaces Silk Stockings, http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/04/15/cream-replaces-silk-stockings/ - Website corbis IMAGES, http://www.corbisimages.com/
Protect
Protect
Transportation
Armored car United States World War II
“Every automobile in the United States is potentially an armored car, under a plan recently proposed to aid the national defense program. The scheme would provide tanklike bodies of half-inch steel which could be speedily mounted on the chassis of standard cars. Swarms of these ‘minute man tanks,’ the proponents claim, would prove an invaluable
aid in combating invaders and parachute troops” (Popular Science December, 1940).
- Website Modern Mechanix; Bulletproof Body Turns Any Auto into an Armored Car (Dec, 1940), http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/11/28/ bulletproof-body-turns-any-auto-into-an-armored-car/