Mechanical Radio Man Talks, Sings, Walks, and Rolls Eyes

A YOUNG engineer in Berlin, after four years of work, has just perfected what is the strangest type of man ever to appear on this earth. The thing, shown in the photo at the left, outdoes Frankenstein in everything save looks. So perfect is it mechanically that it can move its lips, eyes, hands, legs, and even wag its ears.

Directions from the monitor are projected into the “brains” of the mechanical man by radio waves. Perfect synchronism makes it possible for the man to speak and gesture at the same time, so that as an attention-getting advertisement it works well. The brains of the “man” are a super-sensitive radio receiving set.

DRY YANKEE HUMOR is puzzling guards at a German base prison camp for Allied airmen, since American POW’s there decided to adopt insignia to show their new status. The postcard below, sent by Capt. Robert H. Bishop, a bomber navigator now at the camp, brought the design at the right from the Walt Disney studios to Germany, via the Red Cross.

House Boat Is an Old Oil Tank
Made from an old 20,000-gallon oil tank, an unusual four-ton house boat built by Rene Tatro, of Kankakee, Ill., skims along the water at almost ten miles an hour. Powered by an old automobile engine, the curious craft has twin propellers and is balanced by five steel drums below the water level. Windows were cut out with an acetylene torch.

I *think* this is how all shotgun shells are made now…

New Shotgun Shell Aids Skeet Shooters
TRAPSHOOTERS and skeet enthusiasts should improve their scores with the use of a new shotgun shell that is said to eliminate the possibility of fired shot forming a “doughnut” pattern that could encircle a clay target without breaking it. Highspeed photographs like the two at the upper right, taken by the light of a 1/1,000,000-second spark, proved that the top wad at the end of conventional shells occasionally interferes with the charge, causing the inefficient “doughnut” shot pattern. The new shells have no top wad, the open shell mouth being crimped together by a special machine to confine the shot. When fired, the shell mouth unfolds, leaving nothing to obstruct the charge.

Air-Raid Vault Uses Chain of Gas Masks

Like smokers grouped around a Turkish bubble pipe, users of a new French air-raid shelter inhale from a common source. Tubes connect their masks with a single pipe leading from a battery of oxygen cylinders, as shown above. Thus they are constantly assured of pure air to breathe, without recourse to poison-absorbing canisters that hinder free respiration; and elaborate gasproofing precautions may be dispensed with.

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Hunter’s Crossbow

This old-time weapon has the hitting power and accuracy of a modern rifle.

By E. Milton Grassell

THIS crossbow, with all the romance and charm of a medieval weapon, is so powerful and accurate that it is used extensively for hunting and precision target shooting. It’s a deadly weapon, not a toy, exceptionally fine for hunting rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, and even capable of killing big game like deer, elk, antelope, and cougar when used by one skilled in its handling. Therefore it is most imperative that the crossbow be handled carefully. Never hold it in a position where it might endanger anyone if fired accidently, and always reckon with the area beyond the target or game in the event you should miss hitting the object aimed at.
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