October 27, 2006

Amazing Snapshots of Animals (Jun, 1939)

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)

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)

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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Dixie Dugan’s Fathers (Apr, 1934)

Filed under: General — @ 10:15 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1934
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Dixie Dugan’s Fathers

A MAN is never too young to become a cartoonist. John Striebel, who draws the widely popular “Dixie Dugan” cartoon strip, won national prominence at the age of fourteen when he was recognized as the youngest front-page cartoonist in the country. He was staff artist for the South Bend, Indiana, Daily News, doing a daily current event cartoon on topics of political and local prominence.

During those days young Striebel was a freshman at Notre Dame University in South Bend, and he turned to cartooning as the most congenial means of earning his way through college. Other students faced the same problem, and one day a fellow Notre Dame freshman came into the newspaper office in search of a job. He was a 15-year-old youngster who was promptly hired as an office boy. The two freshmen immediately became fast friends, and out of this early association sprang a partnership which has exerted a powerful influence on comic strip art.
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Outboard Makes Current to Keep Swimmers in Trim (Feb, 1932)

Filed under: General — @ 10:04 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1932
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Outboard Makes Current to Keep Swimmers in Trim

COACHES have to resort to many devices to whip their teams into shape, but it remained for Hay Daughters, coach of the Washington Athletic Club swimming team in Seattle, Wash., to hook up an outboard motor on the edge of the pool in order to create a current, against which his team swims.

In the photo above is shown the Washington A. C. team fighting its way against the current created by the motor, preparing for Olympic contests.

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