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HOW GOOD ARE THE NEW WAR MACHINES?

By ARTHUR GRAHAME

SINCE shortly after the World War ended, we have read and heard much about marvelous new weapons that were going to win “the next war” between major powers. We have been told that swarms of airplanes would bomb the world’s greatest cities into piles of smoking ruins—or at least win the war before a soldier could march across a frontier, by pulverizing transportation arteries and destroying concentrations of troops and war materials. Monstrous land battleships would crush resistance beneath their ponderous tracks, while deadly little tanks would spin across-country so fast that there could be no effective defense against them. Gases would suffocate and poison soldiers and noncombatants alike. Germs, death rays, and new explosives of terrific power would reduce the infantryman, who for centuries has ruled the battlefields of the world with his rifle and his bayonet, to the ignoble role of a mere mopper-up after the devastating new machines of Mars.
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Mechanical Ride Thumber Speeds Hitch-Hikers Across Country

CREDIT for their crossing of the continent in twenty-seven days is given by two Maine college students to the odd mechanical thumber which they used to hitch auto rides. A wooden hand with thumb extended is pivoted to a metal destination sign supported by a hollow pole. Pulling a wire operates a spring to jerk the hand in the approved hitch-hiker’s gesture.

PROPELLER DRIVES NOVEL BICYCLE

A whirling, three-bladed propeller provides the motive power for a bicycle of odd design recently exhibited in Paris by a French inventor. Mounted at the front, the propeller is attached to a driving rod in a gear box supported over the front wheel by a metal frame. The gear mechanism is connected by a chain to the conventional bicycle sprocket wheel, which is pedaled in the usual manner. An extremely high gear ratio, it is said, enables the cyclist to drive the propeller at high speed. A hand lever is used to operate a rear-wheel brake, as in ordinary European bicycles.

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Back O’ the Yards Where Wild West is Still Seen Every Day

WITH the cutting up of the great ranges, the vivid cowboy with his wide sombrero, gay bandanna, chaps and spurs is fast fading into a dim shadow on the flickering screen of movieland.

Surrounded by towering buildings, clanking switch engines and a wilderness of tracks, the never-old drama of the wild west also is vanishing from one of its last strongholds—the Chicago stockyards.

Cattle still pour into Packingtown from their peaceful homes on the Texas plains or the prairies of Kansas or Oklahoma, but gone is the time when the 500-acres of pens represented a live part of a far-flung frontier.

Cowboys are still to be seen in and “back-o’-the-yards,” but they are city cowboys, although they can ride a horse just as well as the old timers who used to accompany the cattle to market. Nowadays, the railways feed, water, and exercise the animals so that the shipper does not have to send his cowboys with them. On arrival they are herded into pens by men who, in most cases, have grown up in the district, but who can rope a steer with as much skill as their brothers of the plains.
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HEDGEHOG HUNTING GOOD TRADE AND GOOD SPORT

By SAM E. CONNER

TRAPPING hedgehogs does not sound like a very attractive pursuit, but a man in Maine has found it to be a profitable business, as well as one that has an element of danger, and therefore offers excitement in excess of that which comes to a rabbit or fox hunter. While it is not generally known, there is a steady demand for these ugly-looking creatures from all sections of America and Europe. They are desired for zoos and menageries, both private and public, and country-fair and street venders, who use them to aid in selling preparations, disposed of under the name of hedgehog oil, hedgehog liniment, and like titles, provide still another market.
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Trained Cockroach Smuggles Smokes
How a prisoner in solitary confinement received forbidden cigarettes was revealed by Amarillo, Tex., jail officials. Inmates tied a cigarette and match to the back of a trained cockroach, which smuggled them into the cell.

Gee, I can’t imagine why these cigarettes never caught on, not to mention the tobacco salad with tobacco oil dressing. Sounds delicious!

NEW TOBACCO PLANT HAS NO NICOTINE

Tobacco minus nicotine is produced from the leaves of a remarkable plant raised in Germany. This botanical freak
is the reward of experiments conducted under the direction of the Ministry of National Economics, at a research institute established in the midst of the tobacco-growing fields of Pfalz. Although an extract from the leaves is virtually as harmless as drinking water, the “smokes” made from the plant are said to have all the flavor of ordinary tobacco.

An unexpected by-product of the experiment was the discovery that the leaves could also be used to prepare a succulent salad. As if that were not enough, the salad may be flavored with oil extracted from the same plant, according to Dr. Paul Konig, director of the institute.

JETS OF WATER, HURLED OUT BY MOTOR, DRIVE THIS BOAT

Jets of water, spurting backward from nozzles at each side, drive an unusual craft that has just met its first tests successfully on the Vltava River near Prague, Czechoslovakia. Instead of turning a propeller, the motor at the rear of the odd craft operates a pump that sucks up water and discharges it through the nozzles. As the water is forcibly hurled backward, the recoil propels the boat forward, much as a big gun recoils when a shell is fired. Since the jets are constantly in action, however, the driving force is continuous. Having no propeller protruding from the botton, the boat can navigate in water so shallow that there is barely enough to float the hull. Tests showed the boat was. economical and fast.

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Inventors on the Air

BUDDING EDISONS NOW HAVE A RADIO AMATEUR HOUR ON WHICH TO TELL THE WORLD ABOUT THEIR NEW DEVICES

THROUGH the microphones of broadcasting station WQXR in New York City, amateur inventors describe their new devices to radio listeners in a regular weekly program aptly named “Can It Be Done?”

In addition to placing their ideas before a potentially large audience, they benefit by the criticisms and suggestions of an advisory board of manufacturers, merchandisers, and business executives. A phonograph recording made before the broadcast protects each inventor in his claim to prior conception.

Although comparatively new, the novel radio feature is said to have resulted in the sale of several inventions to manufacturers. Some of the devices presented on the program are shown on these pages.

LEARN TELEGRAPHY – MORSE AND WIRELESS

“THERE’S MONEY IN IT”

TEACH YOURSELF in half usual time, at trifling cost, with the wonderful Automatic Transmitter, THE OMNIGRAPH.
Sends unlimited Morse or Continental messages, at any speed, just as an expert operator would. Adopted by U. S. Government, and leading Universities, Colleges and Telegraph Schools. 3 Styles. Catalog free.

If you own a Radio Phone Set—and don’t know the code—you are missing most of the fun.

OMNIGRAPH MFG. CO., 16-22 Hudson St., NEW YORK

Yes, all you need to recreate the universe is a hand-drill, a thumb tack and some oil. Amazing!

Simple Experiment Shows How the Universe Was Formed

By Gaylord Johnson

A TINY globule of machine oil, spinning around in a beaker of wood alcohol, will reenact for you one of the most stupendous dramas of the universe—the formation of a giant spiral nebula.

Photographs of these far-off galaxies of stars made through giant telescopes show that, in spite of minor physical differences, they all have one feature in common: the main structure consists of two curving arms spiraling out from opposite sides of a central mass.

Obviously, this structure is the result of a whirling, centrifugal force. But why should there always be just two arms? That is what this simple demonstration will show you.
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Chicle Quest Beats Highway to Tropics

World’s Taste for Chewing Gum Once Known to Ancient Aztecs Builds Giant Industry in Few Decades

WITH well over a million dollars a week being spent in America for chewing gum, an enterprise that was launched amid much doubt on the part of the public, not so long ago, has become a leading industry.

It has been only a few decades since it was discovered that the combination of chicle and sugared flavors made a pleasing confection and in that short span of time, its use has become so common that today it is estimated the delicacy claims 75,000,000 devotees in America alone. Abroad, too, the demand for the sweet has caused abundant exportations of the commodity which now is known to almost every people under the sun.
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