ILLUMINATING Band Uniforms and Batons

AT NIGHT performances, the Willoughby, Ohio, High School band arouses much favorable comment by the spectacular use of illuminated batons and uniforms. Stadium or auditorium lights are turned out, and the band-uniform lamps and illuminated batons instantly turned on. The light display, with the music, provides an impressive spectacle. Miniature electric lamps and batteries of the flash-light type make the stunt possible, and any band can duplicate the effect without difficulty.
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Insane Patients Helped by Electric Shock Treatment

Fighting insanity with electric shock is the most dramatic recent advance in the field of medicine. At the New York State Psychiatric Institute, in. New York City, seemingly hopeless cases of the most common forms of insanity, schizophrenia and dementia praecox, have been shocked back to apparent mental health by the new treatment. Electrodes, at the ends of a caliperlike instrument, are placed just in front of the ears on the patient’s head. From seventy to 100 volts of current pass through his brain. The result is a violent convulsion resembling an epileptic seizure.

In some cases, a single electric shock achieves what seems to be a medical miracle, restoring the patient to sanity. Previously, insulin, snake venom, and metrazol, have been used to produce shock. The electric treatment is painless, leaves no after effects, and costs less than shock-producing drugs.

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Radio Amateurs to the Rescue in Florida Hurricane

During disasters radio “hams” come to the rescue. They keep in touch with lonely outposts, with explorers, arid like sentinels in the night guard against death.

by Clinton B. De Soto

WHEN a roaring hurricane swept through Florida in September, unknown amateur radio operators became heroes in the midst of death and destruction. Through howling wind and pelting rain they tapped away on their low-power transmitters when telephone, telegraph, and powerful broadcasting stations failed.

Their dots and dashes—the language of the radio amateur—hurtling through the ether flashed to the rest of the world news of the disaster and set the great task of relief into motion.
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Report of Fake Revolver Frightens Away Auto Bandits
PROTECTION against the motor bandit is the aim of this new gadget that looks like a regular pistol and fits under the steering column of an automobile. Actually, though, the weapon is operated by compressed air, yet without a bullet. The report is loud enough to frighten away a holdup man, who believes he is being shot at. It is in popular use in England and may be carried by payment of a small fee for which the owner receives a postoffice license.

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Outboard Motor Car Does 40 Miles an Hour

by DICK COLE

A junked outboard motor makes an excellent power plant for a cycle car when converted as described here by Mr. Cole. The little car will develop speeds up to 40 miles an hour, and has power to burn.

TO BE the possessor of a self-propelled vehicle is the ambition of every normal boy. Every father has heard the plea of his son when out in the country in the family car: “Gee, Dad! Lem’me drive, will you? Please! I know how! Honest I do! Lem’me show you. Please, Dad, come on!”

My boy had just reached that stage— only more so. He begged me to build him some kind of vehicle that would “run by itself.” Since I like to putter around and make things—particularly something different from the other fellow—I gave ear to his pleadings, and began to think the matter over.
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TV Floor Chair
Television spectators who like to lounge on the floor in front of the set now can lean comfortably against a padded backrest. The collapsible seat, similar in style to a familiar type of lawn chair, has a long pad which extends out across the floor. The pad not only provides a cushion for the viewer, but also prevents the backrest from scooting across the floor when he leans against it. Adjustable to three positions, the backrest places some viewers low enough so that they don’t interfere with the view of others who are seated on conventional chairs.

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Tomorrow’s Missiles Take Off
TOMORROW’S Navy will be ready to fight with weapons as deadly accurate as William Tell’s arrow. Successors to the carronade and Dahlgren gun are such characters as Little Joe and the Gargoyle. Some are guided missiles, some are planes, some are power-packages. All fly regularly out over the Pacific from the Navy’s Air Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, Calif. Each run is tracked by radar and telemetering devices. Some units are preset, unalterable once flight commences. Others, with their own radar to detect and steer for the target, are fiendishly accurate. Command-system missiles are usually radio-controlled; course-seeking missiles are directed by light beams or radio energy.

Handbag Holds No Secrets
A transparent handbag” for women is now becoming a fashionable accessory abroad. Made of a clear, semistiff, transparent plastic material, with decorative stitching at the edges, the bag reveals its contents at all times. The owner can even powder her nose while looking in a mirror that is inside her handbag, as shown in the photograph at the right.

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Gas!

America was ready to give and take if the Axis had turned loose with the most inhumane of all modern weapons!

LOOK carefully at the pictures on these pages—if you’ve been wondering what we would have done in case the Axis powers had introduced deadly chemicals in the recent war.

It seems fantastic, weird and remote, now that the shooting is over. But here are the brutal facts, revealed for the first time by the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service. It was alert and ready to retaliate in heaping measure had our enemies used gas. Although the U. S. is not a party to any treaty or other agreement not to use gas, we have long been committed to the policy that we would not resort to this horrible weapon unless it was first employed by our foes. The fact that our troops were fully prepared for offensive and defensive gas warfare undoubtedly stopped the Axis from challenging us on this score.
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Home-Built Boat Is Semi-Submersible
POWERED by a converted 1929 auto engine, a boat constructed by Wylie Harris, of Chicago, Ill., has a sheet-steel cabin and can be operated semi-submerged. The pipes at bow and stern serve as air ventilators. Water ballast is stored in ten two-gallon cans.

How long since your last raise?

Sure, you’ve had a “cost of living increase.” But what about the big pay boost?—the kind the boss asks you not to talk about and the kind that starts you thinking about a new car, a better home, luxuries for your family!

If you’ve had one of these in the past six months, stop reading right here. If not, it’s time to start doing something about it.

Look around you. The men who ore advancing ore He trained men. They’ve learned special skills that bring them higher pay. It’s the men without training who get what’s loft.
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Comical Mouse Circus Brings in a Steady Income

Troupe of little mice cavorting about in this freak circus displayed in merchant’s windows will attract huge crowds of passers-by—and net one a neat profit.

HERE is a money-making idea that is worth at least five hundred dollars of any man’s money. It is a veritable gold mine for any man who has even the tiniest spark of mechanical ingenuity—and it has been thoroughly tested and proven as a cash-getter.

It’s a mouse circus, using trained mice which aren’t trained!

Its usefulness is in creating a window attraction for stores in all lines of business. Two days’ trial on merit will convince any of ‘em.

Its cost is slightly over two dollars per circus, and each circus rents for a minimum of three dollars per week to merchants. Upkeep is practically nil. Read the rest of this entry »