June 25, 2006

Make Your Own Kaleidoscope (Oct, 1944)

Filed under: DIY, Toys and Games — @ 4:05 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1944
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I love how they emphasize the fact that they used a COLOR camera.

Our Color Camera Takes a Look Through a Kaleidoscope

By HARRY WALTON

Photographs by WILLIAM MORRIS and ROBERT SMITH

VISITORS to London about 1816 were amazed to see people in the streets gazing skyward through pasteboard tubes. But these watchers were peering at no eclipse or comet. They were fascinated by a scientific novelty that had taken London by storm—the kaleidoscope, invented by Sir David Brewster. First regarded only as a toy, it was soon adopted by artists as an aid in originating new designs. Sir David named his invention by combining three Greek words: kalos, meaning beautiful; eidos, form; and skopeo, I see. Almost anyone who has looked through a kaleidoscope will agree that the name is appropriate.
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GAS MASKS – GREATEST TOY SENSATION IN YEARS (Mar, 1946)

Filed under: Scary, Toys and Games — @ 12:10 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1946
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Gee, what a great toy, no way it could be dangerous, right?

WAR SURPLUS! GAS MASKS

GREATEST TOY SENSATION IN YEARS. LOADS OF FUN.

Real Gas Masks that originally cost $2.50. This great toy value makes you look like a man from Mars, Fine for spraying paint, in-sectictdes, etc. Has big plastic, shatterproof goggles, intake and exhaust valves, filtering cannister, etc. Be the first among your play mates to own one. Big canvas carrying bag with shoulder strap and snap button fastener included FREE if you order now. Send dollar bill with name and address. Satisfaction guaranteed or money back. Send today.
HIMAD PROD. CO. Dept. PM 1 404 N. Wells St: Chicago 10, III.

Orphans Win Toy for Heroism (Sep, 1933)

Filed under: General — @ 8:41 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1933
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Wow, that’s some generosity. Six orphans prevent a train from crashing and save 500 lives. So the railroad rewards them with 3 model trains.

Orphans Win Toy for Heroism

STUMBLING, struggling for breath through a terrific thunderstorm nearPassiac,N. J., six orphan boys, waving, screaming desperately stopped an Erie train fifty feet from a washout and saved the lives of 500 passengers. The story of their heroism made front page news throughout the nation, arid as a reward the boys won a railroad of their own. The road has three miniature trains like the one shown in the photo above, and is complete with tracks, switches, signals, miniature stations and other buildings to go along their railroad’s right of way.

June 24, 2006

Mouth Harpist Goes to Extremes (Jun, 1932)

Filed under: General, Just Weird, Music — @ 3:05 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1932
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Mouth Harpist Goes to Extremes

JUST because he “slides over” a lot of notes going from low “G” to high “C” gives Fred Leslie, London musician, the right to claim the title of world’s champion mouth harpist. His mammoth instrument measures 36 inches from tip to tip. He also plays the one-inch organ shown perched on “Big Bertha” in the photo below.

CRYSTALS are not all the same! (Jun, 1967)

Filed under: Advertisements, Just Weird — @ 7:26 am
Source: Radio Electronics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1967
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Given the appearance of that guy in the ad, I’d say he was much more interested in a different kind of crystal.

Also, given the name “TEXAS CRYSTALS”, it seems rather odd that they have addresses in Florida and California, but none in Texas…

CRYSTALS are not all the same!
INSIST ON TEXAS CRYSTALS BY NAME!

If your dealer is temporarily out of stock or does not carry Texas Crystals, send us his name along with your request for catalog to our plant nearest you.
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800-lb. Magnet Treats Eye Injury (Jun, 1932)

Filed under: Just Weird, Medical — @ 7:06 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1932
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800-lb. Magnet Treats Eye Injury

AN EYE magnet so powerful that it will pull a flatiron across a room has recently been installed in a Minneapolis, Minn., hospital to remove steel cinders from patients’ eyes. It is the largest eye magnet in the world and weighs over 800 pounds. One and one-half miles of copper wire are wound in the apparatus, which uses a 220-voIt current.

June 23, 2006

THE NEW HEATHKIT PERSONAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS (Sep, 1977)

Filed under: Advertisements, Computers, Cool — @ 11:00 am
Source: Scientific American ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1977
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These are pretty sweet. I would love to have a kit-built paper tape reader at home.

They’re Here!
THE NEW HEATHKIT PERSONAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS

H8: 8-bit Computer $375

H11: 16-bit Computer

H9: Video Terminal

H10: Paper Tape Reader/Punch

The new VALUE-STANDARD in personal computing systems! Play exciting and challenging computer games, exercise your imagination and ingenuity with do-it-yourself creative programming, store and retrieve personal records like taxes and budgets, solve complex mathematics and scientific problems almost instantly, control your home appliances for best energy savings and efficiency — literally thousands of fascinating, exciting and practical applicatons. The Heathkit computer systems are low-priced, versatile and reliable — they’re the ones to have for REAL power and performance!
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Ad: Big “doings” in metal (Jun, 1953)

Filed under: Advertisements, Robots — @ 9:42 am
Source: Scientific American ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1953
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Big “doings” in metal
Here are jusf four outstanding achievements of Lycoming’s precision production . . . samples that indicate how Lycoming solves metal-working problems for America’s industrial leaders and the Armed Forces.
Even these few samples demonstrate that Lycoming has the machines you can use—the skilled craftsmen you can use . . . the immense facilities you can use . . . the creative thinking you can use! For a more complete story on Lycoming, write for the illustrated booklet, “Let’s look at Lycoming.”
LYCOMING
AIR-COOLED ENGINES FOR AIRCRAFT AND INDUSTRIAL USES • PRECISION-AND-VOLUME MACHINE PARTS • GRAY-IRON CASTINGS • STEEL-PLATE FABRICATION

THREE-DIMENSIONAL TELEVISION SYSTEM (Aug, 1953)

Filed under: Origins, Television — @ 9:35 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1953
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Why use those annoying glasses when you could stare through slits cut in a pipe?

THREE-DIMENSIONAL TELEVISION SYSTEM

By Paul A. O’Neal

YOUR FIRST LOOK at 3-D TV will be just as startling and realistic as when you first viewed the new 3-D movies at your local motion-picture theater.

Three-dimensional vision is actually easy to accomplish on television. Whereas in cinematography there are many problems in producing 3-D in large auditoriums, TV can be utilized in a small room and need provide for only a few viewers at any one time. There is no need for using two films and keeping them matched, and no wide-angle screen or throw-away Polaroid glasses are required.
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It’s Fun to Play This Indoor Football Game (Feb, 1941)

Filed under: DIY, Sports — @ 9:29 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1941
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It’s Fun to Play This Indoor Football Game

Played by two to six persons, this game provides endless fun for members of your family or your party guests. The object of the game is to drive a table-tennis ball into one of the two goal baskets at opposite ends of the box. This is done by hitting the ball with wooden paddles attached to dowel rods, which are turned and pushed back and forth by hand. There are eight rods; the two center ones have four paddles each, the next two toward each goal have three each, while the next pair have two paddles each and the last two next to the goals have only one paddle each. Read the rest of this entry »

Walk on Air With New Boots (Sep, 1934)

Filed under: Ahead of its time, Origins — @ 8:18 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1934
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All of us, tricked by the Reebok conspiracy.

Walk on Air With New Boots

A RUBBER boot which at lastenables man to walk on air has recently been perfected by an English inventor.

Rubber bladders have been built into the boot both at the heel and the sole, with a rubber tube leading from the air bladders to the top of the boot. An ordinary tire pump can be attached to the rubber tube for filling the boots with air.

Sponsors claim that those wearing the new boots get a delightful sensation of walking on air. In addition, the air cushion is more comfortable, preventing blisters.

June 22, 2006

O-Gauge Pike Highballs Hot Cargo (Jun, 1949)

Filed under: Cool, Useful — @ 1:07 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1949
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This is a really cute hack using model trains to transport radioactive materials throughout a hospital.

O-Gauge Pike Highballs Hot Cargo
KIDS long ago became resigned to seeing Daddy play with their toy trains most of the time. Now some grown men have taken over a model railroad full time—and they are not just playing. The miniature electric train carries highly radioactive radon gas, used in cancer treatment and research, back and forth between a storage room and a laboratory, eliminating dangerous handling.

The model—a standard Lionel O-gauge locomotive copied from the Pennsylvania Railroad’s GG-1—shuttles over a 21-ft. right of way, hauling its “hot” cargo in a lead-lined flatcar. It is the first part of a completely automatic system for transporting radon in the Cleveland Clinic. Eventually, reports Dr. Otto Glasser, medical physicist, the train will be equipped with an automatic dumping device to drop the radon capsule into a pneumatic tube. This will shoot the capsule directly to the hospital’s surgery room. When this system is completed, technicians will hardly need come near the radon.

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