view additional pages

Housekeeping Tools TO MINIMIZE LABOR

UP-TO-DATE COAL STOVE. Here is a mod-ern coal range. It is so perfectly insulated that you can rest your hand any place on it but on the cooking plates. Coal is fed to it automatically and it burns only eight pounds a day. It has two ovens, one thermostatically controlled for baking, the other water-jacketed to keep the temperature under the boiling point. Hot water is available from a tap at the front. Draft is regulated by the lever at left. “Hot” and “medium” cooking plates are provided with this modern range

SINK-DRAINSTRAINER
The appliance shown above prevents refuse from washing down the sink drain. It also acts as a stopper when the handle is turned. It is easily lifted out so that the drain and its connecting pipes can be kept clear
Read the rest of this entry »

Upturned Rowboat Forms Roof of Tiny One-Room Cottage
All’s shipshape in this little cottage at Whitstable in Kent, England! An upturned rowboat forms the tight gable roof of the one-room house, whose walls meet in a point beneath the bow of the boat. Not so nautical is the big brick chimney.

Wow that looks simple…

AUTOMATIC RADIO CLOCK TUNES IN STATIONS
A radio set that operates itself has recently been perfected in New York. The control board is fitted with a clock that can be set to start or stop the instrument automatically at any hour of the day or night. The same device may be set to bring in any chosen stations by means of metal tabs inserted in the proper slots.

Toy Press Prints Type
Any child who can read can set type on this printing press. The rubber type snaps into slots on the press and is so grooved that it is impossible to set characters upside down. Made in three sizes by the Superior Marking Equipment Co. of Chicago, the press will also print pictures.

view additional pages

Doctors Face Death TRAILING Living Poisons of MYSTERY DISEASES

By Sterling Gleason

ACTING as human guinea pigs in the war on a mysterious disease, three courageous scientists are now working in an isolated laboratory of the United States Public Health Service. Deliberately they have exposed themselves to the bites of mosquitoes suspected of carrying epidemic sleeping sickness (encephalitis) which, at this writing, has gripped nearly a thousand persons in St. Louis. If, as they believe, these insects carry the deadly virus, they will contract a malady for which medical science has no sure remedy.

Whether the three brave experimenters recover and learn the secret of the dread disease, or succumb to a heroic death, the fight they are waging will go on. It is but one phase of a war today being fought on many fronts.
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

Coin Magic

Spectacular, but simple tricks with coins that can be performed by any one, young or old.

by Kenneth Murray

COIN MAGIC is fun! These tricks are as astounding as larger illustrations and can be performed anywhere. All equipment for a ten or fifteen-minute exhibition will fit nicely in a vest pocket. As it is unlawful to mutilate U. S. coins, use imitation half dollars such as sold by toy stores. Practice each trick in front of a mirror before performing it in public.

The illustrations show how to pass a half dollar through the neck of a narrow-mouth bottle, through a finger ring, and half way through the brim of a hat. Also the method of vanishing three coins in one hand, changing a nickel into a half dollar, causing coins to become magnetized and as a spectacular climax, producing coins out of thin air.

Harpoonists Spear Flying Fish by Searchlight off Catalina
OFF Catalina Island, “where the flying fishes play,” outdoor men and women have invented a new and fascinating sport.

Powerful searchlights are mounted in the bows of sea-going speedboats. As the sturdy craft cleave the waves, huge swarms of flying fish rise like enormous sea moths into the rays of the brilliant lights which cut through the darkness.

Armed with short harpoons, to which a retrieving cord is attached, men and women crowd the rails of the speedboat. A quick thrust of the harpoon, and the flying quarry is bagged in mid air by the skill of the fisherman-hunter.

The fish are good eating and their filmy wings are used for a variety of decorative purposes.

Dog Rides Tricycle, Drinks Pop

A Terrier, that rides a tricycle and drinks pop through a straw, has been trained by his boy master.

The dog has been taught to sit on the cycle seat without fear. He balances himself by putting his rear paws on the bars supporting the rear wheels. He rests his front paws on the handle bars. His legs are a bit too short for pedaling, but his young trainer enjoys pushing him around.

While the boy cools off with a drink of pop, his dog also goes through the act of sucking through the straw.

How well the terrier knows his stunt is shown in the photo on the right.

view additional pages

Fight Artillery Duels in Fascinating War Games

by PAUL R. RANNIE

You fight real, deadly battles on a small scale in these fascinating war games, which have all the strategic elements of nation-against-nation campaign. Exploding battleships, forts and tanks and an accurate long – range mortar compose your fighting forces, built as described in this article.

MANY of us have been fascinated by photographs or moving pictures of huge artillery pieces sending their shells screaming up into the air on their way toward a target perhaps out of sight beyond the horizon. The gunners usually do not see the target, but fire in a certain direction and at a certain elevation from data furnished to them.

The toy mortar shown in the photographs and drawings will shoot small soft clay balls in the same manner as the big guns and with surprising accuracy. It can be used as the basis of some interesting games that will attract many of the older folks in addition to the youngsters. Easily constructed targets which explode (mechanically speaking) when hit, a moving target and others are also part of the equipment described.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new material has come into the world

By means of this important discovery food is now baked in transparent glass dishes so durable that the hottest oven will not break them. This glass transmits heat so perfectly that the food bakes faster and more uniformly, holds its flavor better and does not burn.

The progress of the baking can be seen right through the dish.
Read the rest of this entry »

My first reaction to this was “Wow, I’ll bet you that waterproof coating is really bad for you when you smoke it.”, as if smoking the cigarette without the coating were good for you. Although it would be cool to see just how deadly they could make it. Perhaps if they used an asbestos filter, made the little silver band of mercury and managed to coat the tobacco in lead.

NEW CIGARETTE PUT UP IN WATERPROOF PAPER
Accidental wetting does not harm cigarettes of a type just placed on the market, for the paper with which they are made is waterproof. In the test illustrated above, an experimenter held one of the new cigarettes in running water for three minutes. He then removed it and promptly smoked it as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Cigarettes made by the new process are said not to break apart at the tips from the moisture of the lips, a feature designed to appeal to smokers generally. Their waterproof characteristic, however, is expected to be especially popular among bathers and campers and in general they are designed to appeal to all who, for sport or work, are likely to be outdoors during inclement weather. The treatment to which the paper is subjected is said not to affect the aroma of the cigarette.

view additional pages

Atomic Clock Verifies Oldest Bible Manuscript

By James T. Howard

They shall heat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

—Isaiah II, 4.

WHEN the atom bomb first mushroomed its message or death and destruction into the sky six years ago, there were many who speculated on the future uses of atomic knowledge. But few if any put Bible study on their list.

Now, as Christmas of 1951 nears, we find the seeming miracle has come to pass. Science is revealed as the handmaid of religion; radioactive carbon-14 and the Geiger counter are instruments for casting new light on the accuracy of our modem Bible. Cosmic rays that bombarded the earth when Christ was born have left behind a coded message for nuclear physicists to decipher.
Read the rest of this entry »