A hundred years ago this month, October 1914, Popular Mechanics magazine leads with one of those ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time, but for some reason never quite caught on. Someone had finally tackled the problem of what to do for advertising campaigns of wide scope which used many small outdoor signs. It required a small army of men who tediously had to climb ladders and tack up the signs.

Those days were over, or so they thought. This new invention was a gun which shot the signs, which were wrapped around a heavy stick. This stick had a tack at the end which would affix itself to the building or utility pole. The sign was attached to the tack by a string, and when it struck the wall, it would unravel and display itself. Posters could reportedly be mounted at heights of 30 feet from a distance of 50 feet.

The article was silent as to how to get the sign down.