October 31, 2006

Invisibility At Last Within Grasp of Man (Oct, 1936)

Filed under: Impractical, Sign of the Times — @ 12:29 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1936
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Something tells me Modern Mechanix got scammed on this one. My guess is the two Hungarian guys got some investment funding and then vanished into thin air along with the cash.

Invisibility At Last Within Grasp of Man

by A.L. White

Two Hungarian scientists solve age-old quest with devices worthy of Arabian nights wizards.

SUPPOSE that out onto a stage come eight chorus girls performing an intricate dance. Gradually something seems to happen, the heads, faces, and upper parts of the bodies of the girls seem to be disappearing. In fact, little by little they do become invisible to the audience until at last only eight pairs of legs are seen gracefully skipping about on the stage in perfect rhythm. You rub your eyes and begin to think you’d better see an oculist right away, but while you are worrying about it, back into your vision come the eight girls, wholly there and dancing gaily as though they had not just given you the shock of a lifetime. Or suppose again that a girl is sitting atop a piano, singing. The piano begins to fade from sight; finally the girl is left sitting in midair, nonchalantly swinging her feet and blithely singing, as though her perch was perfectly substantial.
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Sliding Stock Room Flashlight (Mar, 1938)

Filed under: General — @ 11:36 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1938
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Sliding Stock Room Flashlight

WITHOUT going to the expense of installing numerous fixed lights throughout length of stock room, illuminating interiors of long rows of deep drawers and bins may be done by stretching a wire overhead, parallel to shelving, and suspending a flashlight from wire, by means of sliding ring

Audible Police Blotter (Jul, 1946)

Filed under: Crime and Police — @ 11:33 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1946
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Audible Police Blotter

SOUND MOVIES give the Los Angeles police an additional means of recording automobile accidents. Communications equipment from B-29s is now in use in patrol cars.

October 30, 2006

How PHONOGRAPH RECORDS are made (Feb, 1947)

Filed under: Communications — @ 3:50 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1947
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How PHONOGRAPH RECORDS are made

PSM Picture Story by ROBERT F. SMITH and HARRY SAMUELS
THE silent black disk that makes noises when needled is chiefly shellac, lampblack and limestone. In its manufacture, however, pure gold, wax, glass, copper, nickel and sometimes chromium are used by the craftsmen who operate the intricate and delicate machines that squeeze sound into a scratch.

From beginning to end, the commercial manufacture of records is a tremendously exacting process. For example, 50 percent of the wax-coated glass disks on which the music is recorded are rejected before reaching the cutting room. The accompanying pictures tell the story.

Phone Aids Free Hands (Jan, 1948)

Filed under: Telephone — @ 3:45 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1948
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Wow, that is one big ass speakerphone.

Phone Aids Free Hands

The busy executive can now carry on conversations over the telephone without even lifting a finger to hold it. With the Jordaphone (PSM, Oct. ‘45, p. 96), a wartime development of the Jordanoff Corp., he need only transfer the phone from its regular cradle to the special one in the top of the instrument. Here the incoming voice is picked up directly from the phone’s earpiece and amplified through a loudspeaker, eliminating actual wire connections. An ordinary microphone, placed anywhere in the room, transmits the outgoing voice to the mouthpiece.
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ARRO-PING (Dec, 1955)

Filed under: Advertisements, Sports — @ 8:11 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1955
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Try as I might, I just can’t think of any possible way that a kid could hurt himself with one of these…

ARRO-PING

Guided-flight accuracy—bullet-like power for target and small game! Quiet—fun in rumpus room or patio, on picnics, in areas closed to firearms! Safe to carry in car. Economical—use arrows over and over!

Improved model $1.25 postpaid with 5 arrows.
Extra arrows.
10 for 75c
20 for $1.25 ppd.
ARRO-PING CO.
P.O. Box 779-H,Colorado Springs 12, Colo.

Television: Our Next INDUSTRIAL BOOM (Jun, 1936)

Filed under: Origins, Television — @ 8:04 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1936
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Television Our Next INDUSTRIAL BOOM

In the television laboratories a new industrial giant awaits the signal to step forth, bringing new miracles in science.

An Interview With PHILO T. FARNSWORTH – Vice President, Farnsworth Television Incorporated.
by DONALD G. COOLEY

“NINETEEN hundred and thirty-six will be the year of the big television explosion!”

You have the word of Philo T. Farnsworth for that—and as the founder of Farnsworth Television, Incorporated, as a pioneer television experimenter, and holder of basic patents on electronic image scanning which will be the basis of commercial television, the prediction comes from the one man best qualified to make it.
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New Electric Shaver Held Like Straight Razor (Mar, 1938)

Filed under: Personal Appearance — @ 7:52 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1938
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New Electric Shaver Held Like Straight Razor

Held in the same position as a straightedge razor, a new electric shaver has a cutter which oscillates in a rotary manner, operating more like a mower
than a clipper.

October 27, 2006

Amazing Snapshots of Animals (Jun, 1939)

Filed under: Cats, Other Animals, Photography — @ 11:55 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1939
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Amazing Snapshots of Animals

Bring Fame to Desert Photographer

IN A desert shack that cost less than fifty cents to build, Fred V. Sampson, of Barstow, Calif., has found not only contentment but a curious road to fame. Three years ago, he left his job as a commercial artist in Los Angeles and built the low, one-room hut on the edge of the Mohave Desert. Three wails are made of mud and stones, the fourth is formed of the gold-bearing rock of a steep hillside. Here, Sampson spends his days doing what he wants most to do, making friends with curious creatures of the desert and snapping pictures of the animals in action. These photographs—some of the most remarkable wildlife pictures ever made—are attracting wide attention.
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Radio Robot Squirts Out 3 a Minute (Apr, 1948)

Filed under: Ahead of its time, Radio, Useful — @ 11:39 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1948
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Radio Robot Squirts Out 3 a Minute

A COMPLETE radio set every 20 seconds is the production goal of this new British automatic machine known as ECME (Electronic Circuit Making Equipment). Nearing completion at the research laboratories of Sargrove Electronics, Ltd., this automaton uses the sprayed-circuit technique to do the jobs of a double line of skilled workers. Wiring mistakes are eliminated, and the machine even makes its own tests, signaling the location of any defects in the circuit.

Plastic plates are fed into each end of the two parallel rows of electronic units shown in the photograph at the top of p. 160. As the plates move down the line, all the necessary inductances, capacitors, resistors, and potentiometer tracks are “built up.” After lacquering, other units automatically insert rivets, eyelets, and studs. When two plates are joined together at the end of the line, they form a complete radio receiver except for a few parts such as electrolytic condensers, tubes, and loudspeaker, which are added by hand. It is claimed that the sets will be both lighter and sturdier than those made with wired circuits.

Safety Belt Makes Chair Safe Seat for Child (Apr, 1942)

Filed under: Impractical, Scary, Toys and Games — @ 11:34 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1942
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Is this a safety device or an instrument of torture? It seems pretty cruel to strap the kid into a chair so that when his toy falls on the ground, which it undoubtedly will, it rests just out of reach. Also, I’m sure that if he tries hard enough the boy could find a way to strangle himself.

Safety Belt Makes Chair Safe Seat for Child

IF it weren’t for the safety belt holding him to the chair, Jimmie, here, would probably take a spill in his efforts to reach that toy horse. Then some one would have to pick him up and put him back. It could go on for hours. But all this can be eliminated by use of a recently patented safety strap which fits over his shoulders and around his waist like a double Sam Browne belt. The ends are securely attached to the chair legs. The strap allows him plenty of movement, yet prevents him from toppling.

ICE-BOAT PILOT RIDES INSIDE THE SAIL (Apr, 1940)

Filed under: General — @ 11:30 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1940
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ICE-BOAT PILOT RIDES INSIDE THE SAIL

Entering through a small door in the side, J. L. Finch, of Patchogue, N. Y., drives his curious ice boat, pictured above, from within a fixed, fabric-covered airfoil that serves as a sail for the craft. Instead of controlling his ice racer by manipulating a sail, Finch turns the forward movable runners on which the boat rides to get it into the most-advantageous position in the prevailing wind. Windows are built into the leading edge of the airplane-wing sail. Finch calls his strange craft an “ice glider.”

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