Portable Darkroom Worn as Hood Aids Traveling Photographers

When regular darkroom facilities are not available, photographers may have a practical substitute in a portable one in the form of a close-fitting piece of rubber material that slips over the head like a hood. It contains a square of ruby glass for developing and changing plates, etc. At the bottom, it fits tightly to the body so that no light is admitted, but its folds are loose enough to permit ample freedom for the arms and hands. It can be quickly wrapped into a compact package and fits in a small space in the camera case.

Propeller-Driven Car Hangs from Monorail

An improved airline cab, capable of 155 miles an hour, is the latest invention of the French engineer who developed the trench mortar used during the World War. Suspended on monorails, the cabs resemble airplane fuselages. A small propeller at the front of the cab is driven by a fifteen-horsepower electric motor. Read the rest of this entry »

Someone needs to bring back the 3 in 1 Air Conditioner / Dishwasher / Washing Machine

Housework Made Easier With New Accessories

THE LATEST FOOD DICER cubes soup vegetables and potatoes for French frying by the simple operation of pressure on the cutting grid. Guests will wonder how you were able to achieve such uniform vegetable blocks with so little time to prepare dinner.

MOTORIZED NAIL FILES are fast becoming a necessary boudoir accessory, for the new machine sings magically over the nail’s edge, with none of that unpleasant rasping that comes from the ordinary file.
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TELEGRAMS IN CHINESE are being speeded for wartime communication between four of the most important cities of China by Telefax apparatus built by the Western Union Telegraph Company. Previously, the Chinese system of telegraphing has involved using a code number for each of the 9,000 characters employed in writing. On the receipt of such a telegram, it must be decoded by turning the numbers back into their corresponding characters. Such telegrams occasion delays that hamper the war effort. Since the Telefax apparatus electrically transmits in facsimile whatever is written on paper, there is no loss of time in either sending or reading the message. . At left, a Chinese telegraph employee examines a test message.

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Gyps Can’t Cheat You… If You Know the These Tricks
DISHONEST storekeepers are encouraged to use light weights and short measures by the indifference of their customers, according to Commissioner Joseph P. McKay, of New York City’s Bureau of Weights and Measures. Doctored scales give short weight. Crimped-in berry baskets deceive the eye as to their contents. Gasoline pumps can be manipulated dishonestly. Easy prey to these practices is the careless buyer. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that’s entertainment!

TEAM OF 30 ANIMALS HAUL HEAVY WHEAT LOAD

Driving single-handed a team of 20 horses and 10 mules, hitched to a wagon train loaded with more than 1,000 bushels of wheat, Ralph Morehouse, of Alberta, has established what is said to be a record in western Canada. The trip was made recently over a 22-mile stretch from his ranch near Buffalo Hills to a grain elevator at Vulcan, Alta., where, without unhitching any of the animals, the entire load was disposed of in 1 hour 17 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Millions in Gadgets

By Hugo Gernsback

THE American people spend more than $100,000,000 a year, in amounts from 5c up, on gadgets manufactured in this country—not counting the huge importations from abroad. Here is a field of invention, and unlimited new business possibilities, always open to the ingenious.

YOU will not find the word “gadget” in many dictionaries; perhaps for the reason that most dictionary compilers consider the word to be slang. Yet, the word “gadget” is well known to everyone, and is used in everyday language in connection with some article that has a practical use and, usually, can be bought at a low price.
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This is just cute.

Shampoo Shade Saves Eyes
INSTEAD of objecting strenuously when they have their hair washed, youngsters get a kick out of it when they wear this new shampoo shade, because it keeps soap and water where they belong, on the hair and out of the eyes. Made of rubber, with pneumatic edges, this practical protector stays gently but firmly in place.

Tiny Camera Is Built under Lens with Jewelers’ Tools

Requiring the use of jewelers’ tools and magnifying glasses in its construction, a miniature camera with parts that work, and less than an inch in length, has been made for the royal doll house of the queen of England. Three months’ continuous work by experts was necessary to complete the tiny instrument. All pieces were formed by hand and carefully checked with larger cameras to insure accurate shape. Read the rest of this entry »

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Common Chemicals that Misbehave

by KEN MURRAY

FOLLOWING textbook instructions in performing chemical experiments at home may be conducive to safety, but the real thrills of research come from those experiments which you work out for yourself.

Certain chemicals just do not get along well together, and can misbehave in a manner which may cause acute embarrassment—and pain. To avoid accidents, keep the following list of chemical tricksters in mind whenever you venture into free-lance experimenting. IODINE mixed with ammonia water forms a brown sludge at the bottom of a test tube. This is nitrogen iodide; when a piece the size of a pin head is dried on paper, it will explode with a very loud bang at the slightest jar. Larger quantities explode of their own weight before becoming powerful enough to do damage. Never add volatile oils to crystals of iodine—they will fulminate, and explode.
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ORBITING NEEDLES To Aid Communication

A MAN-MADE ionosphere—composed of millions of tiny metal needles—soon may replace the ionized layer of atmosphere presently used in radio communication. The artificial ionosphere, actually two narrow bands of needles, 3,000 to 6,000 miles from Earth, will make possible for the first time reliable, high-quality and low-cost, television, voice radio and teletype communication between any two points on Earth.

Unlike the natural ionosphere, the bands will stay at the same distance from Earth, have a constant density and the same radio-reflecting qualities undisturbed by storms and sunspots. The system has been developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Air Force Air Research and Development Command.
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Thermometer Boasts Dial-Type Scale

A new type of laboratory thermometer, provided with a dial-and-pointer scale encased in stainless steel and mounted atop an eight-inch stainless steel stem, has been developed by a well known manufacturer in Newark, N. J. The unit is said to be the first dial-type thermometer with an all-metal temperature element sufficiently accurate for scientific use, accuracy of 1/2 of 1% over the entire scale being guaranteed by the manufacturer.