This young woman, even if she weren’t armed with a giant magnifying glass, could easily change records without soiling her finger nails, thanks to the Vacuum Record Lifter, from Vacuum Record Lifter Ltd., 701 Seventh Avenue, New York.

The device appears to be a suction cup which is placed on the record. It had a vent hole at the top, which was covered by one finger. When the record is safely lifted, the vent can be opened, and the record falls gently into the other hand.

The device was invented by Joseph Menchen, whom the article calls the inventor of “the first liquid fire appliances used by the Allied armies.” Sure enough, Wikipedia lists Menchen as the inventor of a flame thrower, as well as “self-made businessman, film producer, screenwriter, and literary agent.”

The ad appeared a hundred years ago this month in the February 1920 issue of Talking Machine World.