contrivance vs mod con

contrivance

noun
  • Something overly artful or artificial. 

  • A means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective. 

  • A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task. 

mod con

noun
  • A modern convenience. 

How often have the words contrivance and mod con occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )