Originally published at: Doll-sized hot water bottle from 1939 for treating toothaches and facial pain | Boing Boing
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“What is this, a hot water bottle for ants?”
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There’s a surprisingly long uh… meme about strapping what amounts to a CPU cooler (with or without peltier junction) to one’s forehead for headaches, fever, and whatnot. Some of these are parodies, but not all [shrug]
(do this enough and “it’ll leave a mark”. a modern day mark of Cain mayhaps?)
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This doll-sized hot-water bottle from 1939 was made to sit on one’s face.
Okay, but will it tell you it loves you?
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That’s a great idea, actually. Mrs Peas still uses the classic red bottle from the pharmacy. Probably hasn’t changed since 1939, either.
I don’t see any way that could work.
Heat sinks rely on very high thermal conductivity between the heat source (the chip die) and the large lower mass of the heat sink.
The fins are up against the skin here, so that’s a very tiny contact area. Conduction into the heat sink would be almost zero. Furthermore skin is a pretty terrible conductor of heat. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t need to sweat.
This is part psychosomatic and part the simple fact of having a fan spinning near your skin would help evaporate sweat a little. Whether that’s offset by the discomfort of that mass and the heat of the motor on your head is debatable.
I weep for science education. 
These coolers have a central core that brings the heat from the CPU upward so it can distribute to the fins. As you can see by the step, the fins don’t actually contact the CPU:
What’s important here is the thermal grease you use to attach to the kids head. You want it thermally conductive as possible. I’d suggest Johnson & Johnson Arctic Silver Headpaste - it’s cherry flavored in case some gets in the kids eyes.
It’s important to know that if the kid doesn’t have a fever, this can also be used to overclock the brain. This was standard wear among MIT’s brightest from 2002-2007; they mostly do liquid cooling now.
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Go to the DENTIST!
Just go to the fucking DENTIST already.
Just GO. TO. THE. DENTIST.
/yeah, I know
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