Bulletless Rifle Practice Improves Aim
No bullets or powder are needed for an odd type of rifle practice demonstrated by British soldiers in the photograph above. A sergeant, seen at the right, holds a tiny target in front of one eye, and looks through a peep hole in the center to check the soldier’s aim by seeing that his gun sights line up with the bull’s-eye.
Translation: At Bell Labs even our marketing drones are total geeks.
A MODERN SYLLOGISM
MAJOR PREMISE:
Bell Telephone System serves the American Public.MINOR PREMISE:
Bell Telephone Laboratories develop the facilities of the Bell System.CONCLUSION:
Therefore, Bell Laboratories serve the American Public.
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Amazing New Uses Found for Wood
HERE, as suggested by our artist, are unexpected new uses to which the by-products of American timber are now being put. The waste from logging camp and sawmill—in some regions more than half of the wood actually cut—is reclaimed by the magic of chemistry and goes into the manufacture of hundreds of useful articles
Don’t Try to Crash This Gate!
Wall of security surrounds operation of Atomic Energy Commission.
By Frank Carey
Associated Press Science WriterONE of the most beautiful nighttime sights in Washington is the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission’s headquarters on Constitution Avenue. It’s all lit up like a Hollywood theater—but for reasons of grim security, not display. This is protective lighting, designed to expose anyone who tries to break into the key building in the nation’s atomic energy program.
A strong-arm force of 100 guards, trained in judo tactics and marksmanship, and a network of electronic devices and physical barriers make the building a bastion of security. And as the building itself is guarded, so are the secrets inside—from formulas to scientists’ doodlings.
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Keeping the Army Busy in Peace Time
Aircraft, Wireless, Poison Gas and Even Cavalry Horses Put to Work to Aid Industry and AgricultureWHAT does the army do in peace time besides getting ready for another war? For one thing it has converted war’s deadliest poison gas to such varied uses as repelling bank burglars, quelling riots and curing colds. It has kept the battle planes flying to locate forest fires and spray the boll weevil of the cotton fields with insecticides. The gas mask has been improved and is used by firemen, mine-rescue workers and employes of chemical plants. The best of the cavalry stallions have been placed at the disposal of farmers to breed a better type of work horse.
Strangely enough, the most horrible and de Read the rest of this entry »
Ventilator for Auto Trunk Makes It Safe for Dogs
Hunters’ dogs and other pets can be carried safely in the automobile trunk if a ventilator is provided. A vent which resembles the cap of the gasoline tank can be installed at the side of the trunk, well above the exhaust fumes. It is adjustable so that the proper supply of air can be supplied the dogs in warm or cold weather.
Odd Designs on Film Turn to Music
SYNTHETIC music is being produced in a German film studio by reversing a familiar process. When artists sing and orchestras play “before the talkie microphone, their music is recorded, in one standard method, as a wavy black line upon the sound track of the film. What would happen if an artist were to draw arbitrary shapes, imprint them on sound film, and run it through a reproducer? A German technician, Oscar Fischinger, recently tried the experiment with startling results. A series of concentric circles, drawn in a strip and photographed upon sound film, imitated an electric bell. Eye-like spots reproduced a bassoon, and a pattern of dots sounded like a xylophone. Read the rest of this entry »
SPORTS RADIO is Combination Cane and Seat
By FRANK TOBIN
CONSISTING of a compact yet powerful battery receiver mounted on a conventional cane-seat which can be purchased for a dollar or two, the radio illustrated forms a handy set for hikers, sports spectators, and campers. The circuit, designed around three of the new American-made midget tubes, consists of a pentode regenerative detector, resistance coupled to a pentode amplifier which in turn is resistance coupled to a second audio-amplifier stage. Regeneration is controlled by a 25,000-ohm potentiometer. Since the commercial type of antenna coil shown in the diagram has no tickler winding it will be necessary to provide one by winding approximately thirty-five turns of No. 38 double-silk-covered wire around the lower end of the long, flat grid coil.
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“Mail Box” for Telegrams Transmits Messages
Telegrams are transmitted automatically by a photo-electric facsimile machine housed within a compact wall box, as shown above. Messages are written on special blanks, which are deposited in the telegraphic “mail box” through a slot. Here the blank is automatically wrapped around a transmitting cylinder and the message sent like a wire photograph.
Wireless Box Runs Radio by Remote Control
A radio receiver in the living room may be operated from the kitchen, a bedroom or any other part of the home with the aid of a small remote-control cabinet which has no wires leading to the receiver or any other physical connection with it. Since it is unnecessary to “plug in” the portable control unit or to attach it to the receiver, it is as easy to play the radio while sitting on the front porch as when in the living room beside it. With the aid of the wireless box, a Philco receiver designed for this form of remote control can be operated from a distance or tuned with controls built in the cabinet, whichever is handier. With the remote-control unit, any one of several stations can be selected, a change can be made from one station to another, volume can be adjusted or the set can be turned off, simply by operating a dial in the top of the wireless box. The makers claim each unit will operate only the set for which it is designed. Read the rest of this entry »
How News Is Flashed across Nation
More than Thirty Thousand Miles of Telegraph Wire Linked Up to Tell of World’s Series Games
“STR-I-K-E THR-E-E-E-E! BATTER’S OUT!!”
The umpire’s hand shoots upward and around in a dismissing gesture. The batter throws his bat to the ground. The final man is out in the final inning of the final world’s series game. The Yankees have won. Forty thousand voices raise a great roar and forty thousand people start madly scrambling to get out of the great ball park they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get into. But, almost before the umpire has complete d his final gesture, thousands of people in thousands of parts of the country know that the Yankees have won. Read the rest of this entry »
Wow, it looks like they just mounted a horse carriage on a long automobile chassis.
Automobile Replaces Royal Coach for Maharajah in India
Mounted on a chassis that has a wheel-base of 178 inches, one of the world’s most luxurious automobiles has been delivered to the Maharajah of Alwar. It is designed after the pattern of the formal horse-drawn landau used by the ruler and takes its place as a state coach. The body seats four persons and is suspended on C-springs, the lower extremities of which are continued to meet the underside of the carriage and thus prevent excessive swing or rolling while giving complete isolation from road shocks and jars. There is said to be no sense of mechanical propulsion, the feeling being more that of floating than of riding on wheels. Four side lamps are lighted by electricity.
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