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AN EYE FOR HEAT

New bolometer that “sees” warmth miles away will help fight disease, warn of fire, catch burglars, and spot heat leaks.
By MARTIN MANN

SCIENCE has outdone the cat with a new device that can really see in the dark. The superconducting bolometer, developed at Johns Hopkins University’s Cryogeny (refrigeration) Laboratory by Dr. Donald H. Andrews and three student associates, will spot a truck moving in complete darkness five miles away—and instantly trace its outline on a screen.

Actually an ultrasensitive heat-measuring instrument, the bolometer detects heat radiating from men, vehicles, and buildings. Unlike the Army’s sniperscope (PSM, June ‘46, p. 73), which reveals a night-hidden object by sending out a beam of infra-red rays and showing on a screen the reflections from the object, the bolometer does not emit rays.

Like early television cameras, the bolometer employs a mechanically oscillated mirror to scan the area under observation. Instead of a cell sensitive to visible light, however, it has a tiny strip of alloy that responds to the invisible light of the infra-red spectrum—heat rays. This alloy—the rare metal, columbium, alloyed with nitrogen-converts the varying heat radiation it receives from the mirror into electrical impulses, which are amplified and fed into a cathode-ray tube. Movement of the cathode beam is synchronized with the oscillating mirror, while the intensity of the ray is governed by the impulses from the alloy strip —thus the object being observed appears on the fluorescent screen of the tube just as in a television receiver.

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Three New Lightweight Automobiles for Europeans

More evidence that Europeans will continue to drive small, economical cars is evidenced by three new models. Czechs in Prague are holding a contest to find an inexpensive car that is cheap to operate. At a recent automobile show in Paris, two new four-passenger French models that attracted attention are the Dynavia, a streamlined sports car affording excellent visibility, and the 1949 Citroen. The two-door Dynavia has three shifts and overdrive, the engine is air-cooled and the car is said to have a top speed of 90 m.p.h. “with some effort.,’ At normal speeds it travels 42 miles on a gallon of gasoline. The four-door Citroen has front-wheel drive. One lightweight Czech car has a two-cylinder engine in the rear and attains a speed of 50 m.p.h. It is said to run 63 miles on one gallon of gasoline.

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I DROVE THROUGH RUSSIA

By David Scott
PART II

WE HAD BEEN two days in Russia, two days of driving down a broad, virtually empty highway. After a stopover at Smolensk we headed once more for our goal, that city of paradoxes, Moscow. In the back seat, as always, was Vladimir, the 22-year-old interpreter assigned to us by Intourist, the Soviet travel agency.

Midafternoon of this third day brings a change of scenery. About 30 miles from Moscow we start seeing clusters of houses. Most of them are wooden shanties, but every one sprouts a TV antenna. Occasionally we pass a factory. At the city outskirts, huge apartment houses stand amid a forest of building cranes. Then the traffic really starts—few cars, but an endless stream of green trucks, like an army on the move.

New impressions tumble in. The road is being sprinkled by water tankers, then swept by mechanical brushes to clean up the muddy tracks deposited by trucks from adjacent building sites. Vladimir tells us you can be fined for driving a dirty car in Moscow. It’s also an offense to blow your horn or drop a cigarette butt in the street.

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Police Dog Responds To Radio Commands
ZOE, an Alsatian police dog attached to the Sydney (Australia) Police Force, is shown performing tricks in response to commands issued to her via short-wave radio. A miniature radio receiver was strapped to the animal’s back and a police officer whispered instructions into the microphone of a transmitter located some distance away. Hearing her master’s voice, Zoe dutifully carried out the commands.

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Uncle Sam’s Shooting Gallery

AMERICA’S BEST SHOTS RUB ELBOWS WITH DUBS AT GUNPOWDER JUBILEE

RUN BY THE U. S. ARMY FOR SPORT AND DEFENSE

By Edward W. Murtfeldt

TRAVELING in planes, trains, buses, private cars, trucks, and even on foot, more than 10,000 eager men, women, and youngsters from all corners of the nation will head toward the shores of Lake Erie in mid-August for the largest sporting event in the world. The lure that draws this myriad of bankers, housewives, G-men, clerks, police, shopkeepers, and citizens from practically every other walk of life, is the annual National Rifle Matches sponsored jointly by the U. S. War Department and the National Rifle Association.

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This is awesome, you can hire this guy to rig up your house and scare away unwanted house guests.

SPOOKS FOR SALE
ARE your mother-in-law’s visits too frequent and too long? Or has cousin George been troublesome? Then Robert Nelson of Columbus, Ohio, is the man to help you. He’ll sell you rattling skeletons, headless monsters, squirming ropes, all guaranteed to rid you of the unwelcome guests.

Nelson spreads his ghostly touch far and wide. He dispatches crystal balls to Swamis in Georgia, eerie voices to spiritualists in Seattle. Once he supplied a planter in the Bahamas with a spook that kept natives from stealing fruit. He doesn’t belittle old-fashioned ghosts, however. He says “It’s just that mine are more reliable.”

This is awesome, the dog pisses on your cigarette and puts it out.

NOT HOUSE BROKEN!
We call him Seotty. When your guests put cigarettes in the ash tray— and pat Scotty’a head he’ll raise his little hind leg and-PUT OUT THE CIGARETTE. Convenient water sack inside Scotty is easily filled. At last a canine’s most inconvenient habit has been turned into a practical and extremely funny use! Scotty mounted on ash tray both in attractive bronze finish.

Scotty may be had for $1.50 postpaid. Money back if not completely satisfied. Remit to:

HOME GADGETS
Dept. 207, 200 Fifth Ave.
New York City

Are you a ROBOT - OR DO YOU THINK FOR YOURSELF?

DARE you throw off the shackles of tradition and orthodoxy? Do you close your eyes and say, “What was good enough for those before me is good enough for me?”

For centuries the knowledge about himself has been kept from man— suppressed. Today the Rosicrucians. a NON-RELIGIOUS Brotherhood, offer every man and woman the opportunity of a frank study of life’s mysteries. Do you know the facts about thought formation. Law of vibration, life on other planets, whether there is a soul?

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SEX WORRIES of TEENAGE BOYS

DR. KIRKENDALL is Professor of Family Life Education at Oregon

State College. Author of “Sex Education as Human Relations” and many other writings, he is recognized as one of the outstanding authorities in the field of sex education.

This article is the first in a series which Dr. Kirkendall will write from time to time on sex worries and concerns of adolescent boys. The information was obtained through a combination research - counseling procedure which Dr. Kirkendall has used for a number of years. He developed a check list of worries and concerns which he has since given to hundreds of individual boys whom he has met in high school and college classes. After each boy has marked the check list, Dr. Kirkendall has discussed the indicated worries or concerns with the boy. Thus the information and illustrations in the article come from dealing at firsthand with the problems of adolescent boys. Dr. Kirkendall received financial support for his study from the E. C. Brown Trust.
—The Editors

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NEW Bill Parry Jump Suit of
SUPERCLOTH
• WONT WEAR OUT*
• WONT SHRINK
• WONT STAIN
• WONT WRINKLE
Short Sleeves… 19.95

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Axle-less Truck is firstAmerican vehicle with independent suspension of all four wheels. Rubber tension cords like those in plane landing gear are used in place of steel springs. American Motors, Troy, N. Y.

Cute article explaining why you should act on your curiosity because you never know when you’ll get rich off of it. Examples include the inventors of: saccharine, synthetic dyes, the carburetor, Kraft pasteurized cheese, mayonnaise, safety razors and my favorite: Thomas Edison’s voice activated sewing machine (top left image on the page.)

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Coddle That Bump of CURIOSITY!

Don’t stifle your urge to inquire about the nature of simple things —you may be cutting yourself out of a million-dollar windfall.

LABORATORY assistant Constantic Fahlberg was late for his lunch so he didn’t stop to wash his hands. To his astonishment, when he ate a piece of bread it tasted sweeter than the sweetest cake he had ever eaten.

So, he questioned the waitress. No, she said, the bread was unsweetened and the butter was the ordinary unsalted variety. Then he touched his tongue to his unwashed fingers: they were many times sweeter than honey! Thinking back, he concluded that his fingers must be invisibly smeared with the crystalline compound he had been mixing just before lunch hour.

All agog with curiosity, Fahlberg hurried back to the laboratory and tasted the mixture. Sure enough, it was sweeter than sugar—five hundred times sweeter! More experiments followed, and soon the medical profession had wonderful news for diabetics—saccharine!

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