October 16, 2006

Walking Cage Protects Lion-Farm Guards (Jul, 1939)

Filed under: Other Animals — @ 1:36 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1939
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Walking Cage Protects Lion-Farm Guards

It looks as though the lion were the keeper, and the man the caged animal, in the photograph above, but the scene was really snapped on the world’s only commercial lion farm, at El Monte, Calif., to picture the mobile cage designed to protect trainers who may have to track down and kill any untamable beast that escapes from the confines of its pen. The floorless, three-wheeled cage has heavy wire protective netting mounted over a strong wood frame, with a gun slot to permit firing in any direction.

New Glareless Auto Headlights (Dec, 1931)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 1:31 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1931
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New Glareless Auto Headlights

TAKING a hint from the eye shade made popular by Helen Wills Moody, Frank R. Dudley, of Fitchburg, Mass., has invented a glareless head light. Located on the cowl, as shown below, the shade stretches along hood to direct rays downward on roadway.

Red Hand Signal Directs Traffic (May, 1934)

Filed under: Automotive, Origins — @ 1:29 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1934
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Red Hand Signal Directs Traffic

A RED hand controls the heavy traffic on Fifth avenue in New York City.

Faced with the problem of speeding up pedestrian traffic and cutting down casualties, experts have evolved a new scheme.
New signal towers have signals for auto-ists and signals for pedestrians, the latter in the form of a red hand on all four faces
of each tower.

Under this plan, pedestrian traffic will be given twenty seconds to clear in all directions as the signals change. Then automotive traffic travels in a specified direction for a period ranging from thirty to fifty-eight seconds.

A five second pause is permitted between the twenty seconds allotted pedestrians and the next automotive “go” signal.

October 14, 2006

Make Hallowe’en Whoopee with Mechanical Tricks (Nov, 1932)

Filed under: Sign of the Times, Toys and Games — @ 11:17 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1932
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These tricks are really dorky but anyone who uses the phrase “nocturnal orgy of nonsensical abandon” is OK in my book.

Make Hallowe’en Whoopee with Mechanical Tricks

by DALE R. VAN HORN

A Hallowe’en party might be defined as a nocturnal orgy of nonsensical abandon. In other words, an affair when any goofy trick is in order. If you want to show your guests some real fun perform the stunts described here and then won’t be a single moment of boredom

ON HALLOWE’EN Eve you can stage all the goofy stunts you have been wanting to exploit for a long time. Nothing is too low-brow for the occasion. It is the one time of the whole year, not even excepting New Year’s, when you can forget worldly cares and the weight of adult responsibilities, and have a thoroughly good time.
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Head Measurements Help To Identify Criminals (Jul, 1939)

Filed under: Crime and Police, Impractical — @ 11:05 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1939
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Head Measurements Help To Identify Criminals

A device long used by hat stores, to measure the size and shape of a customer’s head, now helps police of Norwalk, Conn., to identify criminals. According to sponsors of the new method,who use it in conjunction with fingerprinting, no two men have heads of exactly the same shape. Therefore, the perforated contour patterns produced by the device will afford a check on a suspect’s identity, and may prove particularly valuable if he has attempted to alter his fingerprints by chemical or surgical means. Since he cannot change the contour of his skull, this would remain as a telltale clew to his identity.

October 13, 2006

What’s New IN ELECTRONICS (Jun, 1979)

Filed under: Communications, Computers — @ 1:37 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1979
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What’s New IN ELECTRONICS

BY WILLIAM J. HAWKINS

Game/teacher
Hook Intellivision to your color TV and its preprogrammed software lets you do everything from play games to learn a language. It has 60-by-92-line graphics in 16 colors. With keyboard, it’s $499. Maker: Mattel Electronics, 5150 Rosecrans Ave., Hawthorne, Calif. 90250.

The everything set
It’s a carry-along entertainment and information center—AM, FM, CB, public service, aircraft, and weather bands, three-inch TV, cassette tape—along with a built-in mike and sleep switch. Six D cells power it. It’s $249.95, from Sampo, 1050 Arthur Ave., Elk Grove Village, III. 60007.
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Hand Pump Restores Breathing (Jul, 1940)

Filed under: Medical — @ 1:30 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1940
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Hand Pump Restores Breathing
Life-giving air is forced into the lungs of a patient by a hand-powered pump developed by a Swiss doctor, who expects it to be useful in treating soldiers after poison-gas attacks. The plunger pump forces air or oxygen through a tube leading to a mask held over the mouth of the patient.

Electrically Operated Robot Card Dealer (Nov, 1931)

Filed under: Origins, Toys and Games — @ 11:20 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1931
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Electrically Operated Robot Card Dealer Speeds up Bridge 30 Per Cent

SAID to be capable of speeding up bridge playing almost 30 per cent, an automatic card dealer invented by C. B. Ripley of Portland, Ore., is being put on the market. The device holds two packs of cards-to be dealt as desired, and deals them into a revolving receptacle of four sides for the four respective hands, as shown in the accompanying photo. Cards are placed in it and left to be dealt by the robot, while the players proceed with the game. The novel device is electrically operated, and can be plugged into a wall or light socket.

Dashboard Package Compartment (Feb, 1932)

Filed under: General — @ 10:49 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1932
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Yes folks, apparently a glove compartment that could hold more than a pair of gloves was big news in 1932. I’m still looking for an issue in the seventies where they breathlessly announce the amazing new cup holders.

Dashboard Package Compartment

A LARGE compartment, suitable to hold packages, a woman’s purse, and other small articles which ordinarily prove a nuisance, has been incorporated in the dashboard of the latest model of a prominent make of automobile.

Equipped with a special lock and key, and constructed entirely of metal, the compartment provides a safe, convenient place for carrying articles that are usually thrown on the seats of the car.

The “Telecolor” Translates Music Into Light (Nov, 1931)

Filed under: Communications, Cool, Music, Origins — @ 10:38 am
Source: Science And Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1931
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Music visualizations that beat WinAmp by about 70 years.

The “Telecolor” Translates Music Into Light

COLOR has long been a favorite word to describe the quality and the mood of music; perhaps because some individuals inevitably associate a certain chord with a certain color. This is doubtless only an individual peculiarity; because all people do not match the same music with the same colors. However, a scientific means has been found to turn music into light; and thus make a radio program appeal to the eye (even without television), as well as the ear. The new invention, the “tele-color” shown here, differs from earlier color organs, such as the “clavilux,” in being automatic in its actions.
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COMPUTERS THE ELECTRIC BRAINS (Jan, 1958)

Filed under: Computers — @ 10:22 am
Source: World Of Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1958
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This is the chapter about computers from a really cool text book called The World of Science, published by Golden Books in 1954.
You don’t often see people entering using a keypad with their middle finger…

THE ELECTRIC BRAINS

THE BRAIN AT REST

Along one wall of the room tall gray cabinets are ranged. They contain the “gray matter” of the electronic brain. From the front they look as blank as a face without a thought. But open the doors at the back and you will see thousands upon thousands of tiny electric circuits wired with pink, blue, green, and orange wires. Those are the “nerve cells” of the brain.

Along another wall in smaller cabinets the brain’s “slow memory” or reference library is stored. Its “fast memory” is on a magnetized drum or other device inside the machine.

A neat, desk-sized set-up in the center of the room is what we might call the brain’s “ear.” This is where it receives its instructions.
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October 12, 2006

Big-Brother 7074 Is Watching You (Mar, 1963)

Filed under: Computers, General — @ 1:23 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1963
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Interesting article about the consequences of computerization at the IRS.

Big-Brother 7074 Is Watching You

By 473-28-0247 (Gannon, Robert)

No more chance to outwit the tax collector. His ultimate weapon—the 7074 computer—is about to take over the examination of our tax returns

IN THE rolling West Virginia hills, just east of Martinsburg, squats a low-slung, brick and cinder-block building. Inside, in a starkly antiseptic, 40-foot room, the head of a many-tentacled IBM computer waits patiently for your tax return.

If you live in a southeastern state, your time is up; a few days after you file this year, the machine will digest your forms, think about your figures for a millifraction of a second, spit them out if unsatisfied. If you live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, or Washington, D.C, you have a year of grace; your turn will come next spring. By 1966, returns from every taxpayer in the U.S. will be fed to the Martinsburg machine.
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