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Engineering the Magic Carpet’s Flight

Problems in Mechanics that Make the “Movie” Engineer’s Profession Recall the Magician’s Miracles

BUILD me a magic carpet on which I can ride; a flying horse like Pegasus and arrange a set so that I can disappear in a whirlwind.”

The “boss” of the moving-picture lot, without more ado, walked out of his chief engineer’s office, leaving that hard-working individual the three problems which he mentally added to the score or more of similar commands he had executed since the actual “shooting” of the scenes in the huge spectacle had begun months ago. For the engineering staff of the larger moving-picture producers is used to facing and conquering problems that for sheer unusual-ness are perhaps unrivaled.
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“Limousine” Sled for Small Children
Small children greatly appreciate the “limousine” sled shown in the photo, as it gives them the thrill of riding in their
own sled, yet keeps them much warmer than an open one. The frame is made of smooth 1 by 2-in. wood, securely attached to the sled. The lower part of the frame, the floor of the sled, and the top are covered with heavy canvas, and panes of glass or heavy celluloid are fitted in the upper half of the frame as shown. The back serves as a door, being hinged on so that it can be opened or closed, and a screen-door hook provided to keep it closed. The door is made of 1-in. wood, covered on the outside with canvas to match the rest of the body.—Eugene Holland, Detroit, Mich.

WALKING CANE IS ALSO A FISH POLE

A cane that turns into a fish pole, as demonstrated above, permits a fisherman to try his luck whenever he encounters a promising stream. Telescopic fiber sections join to form a hollow shaft, through which the line is threaded from a detachable reel. The curved handle holds hooks, small sinkers, and an extra line. When closed, the cane is of conventional appearance.

COATS COAT COAT STORE AS NOVEL SALES SCHEME

OVERSTOCKED with a large supply of men’s spring and winter coats, a clothier in Copenhagen, Denmark, adopted a unique sales scheme. He erected a scaffolding around his store building and completely covered it from roof to sidewalk with more than a thousand overcoats. The novel display attracted prospective customers in such droves that police were summoned. Although the police ordered the proprietor to remove the display, he succeeded in selling all the overcoats.

This is part of a whole series of Camel ads all with the theme: “It’s fun to be fooled – It’s more fun to know”. Which I find pretty funny considering that Camel spent the next 80 years or so lying through their teeth.

Robot Cow Moos and Gives Milk

Hidden Motors Give Exhibit for World’s Fair the Movements of a Living Animal

AN ELECTRIC cow that chews a cud, breathes, moves its head, winks its eyes, moos, and gives real milk will form one of the exhibits at the World’s Fair next summer.

This robot animal has just been completed at the New York City workshop of Messmore and Damon, specialists in creating mechanical beasts that range from prehistoric dinosaurs to modern puppies. It is an exact reproduction of a Holstein milk cow, the hide which covers the papier-mache body being that of the real animal. This particular Holstein was chosen as a model because it had a large black spot on one side. In the reproduction, this spot forms a door that can be removed if anything goes wrong with the mechanism inside.
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HOME EXPERIMENTS

SILENCE IN A VACUUM can be demonstrated with a glass flask and a small sleigh bell. Hang the bell on the end of a length of dowel or glass rod that can be pushed through the hole of a snug-fitting flask stopper; then put a little water in the flask, boil it long enough for steam to drive out the air, remove it from the heat, and fit the stopper in as soon as the steam stops expanding. Cool the flask with running water and shake it near your ear. You will barely hear the bell tinkle, the steam having produced a partial vacuum—sound waves will not travel through a vacuum. But let air in and again shake the flask, and the tinkle will be heard clearly.
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No Job Too Tough for Minute-Men Cops

Emergency Division of Police Trained to Handle Tragedies and Freak Accidents of a Great City

By Thomas M. Johnson

A NEW building was going up. Before it stood a big concrete mixer. To chew up stone, gravel, and sand, its vat-like interior had strong teeth, powerful flanges, and cogwheels. To keep these fed, was the job of one man who stood on a running-board and watched those teeth grind concrete. Suddenly the man slipped. Frantically, vainly clutching for safety, he toppled into the mixer’s jaws. Bruised, half-smothered in liquid concrete, he was shocked by violent pain. His leg had been caught in the cogs. Those crunching teeth were tearing flesh and breaking bones. His screams of pain and terror brought men on the run.
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What exactly are the books supposed to be protecting them from?

What’s Extra Protection Worth to You?

You get more miles from your car, more life from your engine, with Casite’s extra protection.

Casite cuts engine wear because it improves lubrication—gets oil around quickly and into the tight spots. Casite retards formation of sludge and gum . . . keeps your motor clean and free-running . . . guarantees Better Motor Performance or Double-Your-Money-Back.
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The Need to Make Things

IF, BY some miracle, you could be transplanted backward in time to the days of our prehistoric ancestors, what would be the first thing you would do?

It makes no difference whether you are a banker, a farmer, a politician, or a factory worker, your first action, assuming that you didn’t drop dead at the suddenness of the change, would be to search for food. The second would be to search for shelter both from the elements and from wild beasts. In other words, the two necessities of existence, which you now take so much for granted, would occupy your thoughts to the exclusion of everything else. Guessing what you would do after that depends on the particular kind of primeval wilderness to which you were transplanted. You might, for example, find yourself in a time and location in the past when the struggle for existence was fierce. Getting food and shelter would, in that case, occupy every waking thought until you met death under the claws of some carnivorous beast. And you wouldn’t last long, either, for only the exceptionally skillful in the art of self-preservation lived even to middle age under such difficult conditions.
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THE FLIGHT OF ATOMS PHOTOGRAPHED

By W. D. HARKINS

Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Chicago

An atom is 2,000 times too small to be seen through a microscope and it is apt to stagger the imagination of most people to hear about photographing atoms in flight. Not so long ago an atom was spoken of as the smallest particle of matter, but now it is believed to represent a grouping of electrons around a nucleus, much in the manner that the planets arranged around the sun constitute the solar system.
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The Bicycle Comes Back

In amazing revival of fad of the nineties

By John E. Lodge

THE bicycle is back. Four million Americans now pedal along streets and highways. And, last year, factories in the United States turned out 750,000 machines, nearly equaling the peak production of the gay nineties. News items from all parts of the country tell the story of this dramatic boom in popularity.

In Chicago, Ill., for instance, 165,000 persons recently signed a petition asking for cycling paths to be constructed in the city parks. In Washington, D. C, a huge crowd of enthusiastic spectators, last winter, braved frigid winds for hours to watch an amateur bike race. From coast to coast, cycling clubs are i springing up. The veteran League of American Wheelmen has come back to life. The Amateur Bicycle League of America has approximately ninety affiliated clubs; the Century Road Club, promoting amateur races, has twenty-five or thirty, and there are upwards of 300 unassociated clubs in the country.
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