I thought all combs were magnetic.

This advertisement, buried at the bottom right of the last page of the March 6, 1902 Chatham Record, reminds me of a magic trick we used to do in elementary school (usually on picture day, when everybody had a comb).

And no, I’m not that old.

Here’s how the trick goes: All you have to do is tear up some paper into little bits, run your comb through your hair, and the static electricity will make the comb lift the paper off the table. Magic!

I couldn’t find any reference to Dr. Oxley’s Magnetic Comb on the web, so I don’t know whether it’s an unwieldy contraption or just a standard comb with “instructions”.