Jail Is Turned into “Fortress” by Machine-Gun Guard Cages

Bulletproof cages, manned by guards armed with machine guns, rifles and tear gas, have been built in an Illinois jail to balk attempted escapes. ‘The cages are equipped with revolving seats from which the guards keep watch through five windows in each cage. The windows have gun ports commanding exits and jail cells.

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What’s New For Your Home

1. CONTOUR-BED MECHANISM is available in sizes to fit all standard beds. Two 1/4-horsepower motors raise or lower the head or foot to the desired position. Toggle switches within reach of a bedfast person operate the mechanism. Special mattresses, either foam rubber or innerspring, are available for the bed

2. WEATHER STRIPPING for casement windows is a metal strip that just slips into place over the frame of the window without screws or nails. One form of the stripping is applied to the head and lock side, another to the hinge side and sill. There’s a packaged set for standard windows or you can buy any length

3. “SNOW-ICE” sealed inside a plastic bag is frozen in your refrigerator or home freezer, then used to keep perishables fresh and cold during picnics and other outings. The material can be refrozen as many times as desired. You also can use it to keep foods cold while defrosting a refrigerator or home freezer
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WHAT IS A QUANTUM?

By PAUL R. HEYL, Ph.D. Physicist United States Bureau of Standards, Author of “The New Frontier of Physics”, Contributing Editor Scientific American

“Do you remember,” said the visitor, “when I came here some time ago, asking you to tell me what an atom was?”

“Yes,” said the scientist, “and I could not do it.”

“Perhaps you did better than you thought. Now I have another question to ask you.”

“I hope it is something easier this time.”

“Well, it isn’t about Einstein. I only want to know what the quantum theory is all about. What is a quantum, anyway?”

“You do not seem to be getting any more moderate in your demands,” said the scientist. “How much do you know about it, to begin with?”
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ROBOTS STAGE REALISTIC PRIZE FIGHT

Mechanical men stage an exciting boxing contest in a new game invented for amusement resorts. Two contestants play the game, each controlling one of the boxers with a hand wheel. Animated by a system of electro-magnets, the figures swing their gloves up, down, or sideways and duck with surprising realism. If one of the dummies is struck by an upward-swung glove at a certain critical point on the chin, it falls to the floor, as shown in the photo below, and a knockout is scored.

Six Persons Play Giant Accordion at Once

Six persons can play simultaneously on a gigantic accordion recently exhibited in Germany. Over six feet high, the mammoth musical instrument has a keyboard covering more than ten octaves. Casters at the base facilitate the manipulation of the bellows.

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Motorcycle Engine Powers High-Speed ICE ZIPPER

by L. B. ROBBINS

There are few thrills equal to that of speeding over the frozen surface of a long lake in an air-driven ice sled. Utilizing an ordinary two-cylinder motorcycle engine you can easily construct this 50-mile-an-hour Ice Zipper and get the most exhilarating sensation known outside of actual flying.

HERE you are—you air-minded gang! A real speed wagon for use on a long, hard frozen lake. With one of these Ice Zippers you can get all the thrills of flying over the ice while hanging close to ground level. All you need is a high speed motorcycle engine, an air propeller and the mechanical ability to assemble the chassis and put the outfit in tune. With a motor capable of developing 1000 R.P.M., forty to fifty miles speed can be easily realized, and when you see the ice slipping under you at that rate you will know you are going some.
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HITCH YOUR WAGON TO A CAR

By H. W. MAGEE

PART I

THE canvas-topped prairie schooner, the original home on wheels, crawled across a continent and transformed it into a nation. This slow, clumsy conveyance carried the pioneers and their meager belongings across the plains and pushed our frontiers westward to the Pacific.

Today America is returning to the covered-wagon era, and the modern covered wagon again is extending our individual boundaries by releasing us from permanent abodes and providing a mode of travel so comfortable and inexpensive that we are likely some day to become a nation of nomads.

Today’s prairie schooner is a streamlined, luxury-crammed “cottage” on rubber-tired wheels. It is hitched to a 100-horsepower car instead of to a team of oxen. Thousands of families are towing these rolling homes behind their cars today, living in them as they travel. They stop where fancy dictates, and wherever they stop, home is waiting just behind the rear bumper. When they tire of sitting still, they move—and take their home along.
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“The Thing”—Bad News for Enemy Tanks

Called “The Thing,” a new fast-firing armored vehicle has been adopted by the Marine Corps for its amphibious forces. It is mainly an antitank vehicle and mounts six 106-mm. recoilless rifles along with four .50-caliber spotting rifles which are used to establish the range for the larger weapons. The vehicle has light armor.

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Behind the Split Screens of TV

By Jan and Bob Jensen

IF MR. KIPLING had been sitting in the gilt-edged Hollywood audience that March evening in 1954 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the Oscars in their 26th annual awards ceremony, he would have had to eat his words that “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” They not only met, they talked to each other. On the large television-projection screen at the back of the golden bronze-draped stage, Donald O’Connor, master of ceremonies on the West Coast, was brought face to face with Fredric March on the East Coast, and the many thousands of miles lying between their respective noses had been eradicated by the magic of the communications era in which they live, so that the two were presented in one picture not only to the select audience of 2800 in the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, but to millions of TV viewers throughout the nation.
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For the gift that packs MAN-MAGIC!

VISE-GRIP DOES MORE JOBS EASIER — THAN ANY OTHER TOOL MADE!
A gift to make any man happy, handy, “hep” at his fixing A whole tool kit — in one tool! Jaws lock onto work with one-ton pressure. Quickly adjust — for use as a Super-Pliers, All-Purpose Wrench, Clamp and Wire Cutter. 7″ and 10″, cutter optional. Only $1.85 to $2.60 at your hardware store.
PETERSEN MFG. CO., Dept. M-12, DeWitt, Nebr.

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Mercury … THE LIQUID METAL

Important Alike to Science, Medicine, and Industry, This Fluid Element Is So Heavy That Iron Floats in It

By KENNETH M. SWEZEY

MERCURY, the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures, solidifying at its freezing point of —39 deg. C, is one of the most fascinating elements. Because of its wide distribution and the simplicity of its metallurgy, it was known to the ancients. It was the principal substance the alchemists believed could be changed into gold and silver. Since then it has found wide use in medicine and in the arts.

Both the common term “quicksilver” and the Latin chemical name hydrargyrum, “water of silver,” eloquently describe the elusive liquid metal that does not wet glass and that is so heavy that iron nuts, bolts, and washers float in it like corks. Because of its weight, mercury is an ideal liquid for barometers and suction pumps. Its high boiling point (357 deg. C.) and even thermal expansion make it a fine fluid for thermometers. Although mercury actually can be changed into gold now by the miracle of atom smashing, the transmutation will never make anyone rich, for the cost far exceeds the value of the final product.
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I don’t know about you but I’m one of those people who can’t pat my head and rub my belly at the same time. The idea of trying to do something else with my face while I have a sharp razor blade in my hand is not very appealing.

Motorized Toothbrush Leaves Hands Free For Shaving

As A novelty feature at a recent exhibit of inventions, one inventor displayed the odd motor-driven toothbrush above. Said to be the last word in time-savers, the device is designed to allow the late riser to get his teeth brushed while he shaves. A conventional brush is attached to a vibrating arm on the brushing apparatus.