view additional pages

Science Studies the Nudists

STRANGE TESTS MADE IN THE LABORATORY REVEAL HOW THE NAKED HUMAN BODY REACTS TO SMALL CHANGES IN TEMPERATURE

By EDWIN TEALE

THREE hundred thousand men, women, and children, in America alone, are nudists. Followers of the “back-to-Eden” cult report that, during one ten-month period, members increased at the rate of 10,000 a month. Nearly 400 camps, scattered from coast to coast, are being maintained by the faddists for nude sun bathing.

Does nakedness really benefit health? Are the claims of the nudists justified? Can our bodies, if given a chance, inure themselves to cold and inclement weather?
Read the rest of this entry »

Paige

The Standard of Value and Quality

“The Call of the Road”

Come brother—wake up. Sniff the air and you will find that the thrilling breath of Spring is already there.

Look about you. Sense the newness—the freshness—of it all. See how the laggard step of the crowd has quickened into a full swinging stride.

See those cars “break ” at the traffic officer’s whistle. Watch them come down three or four abreast at the “getaway.” Hear the shrill, merry note of the sirens and the good-natured chaff of the drivers.

This means Spring. This means the “open season.” This means Touring at its best.
Read the rest of this entry »

Typewriter Keyboard On Typesetting Machine

Typists can now set type on Linotype and Intertype composing machines through the development of a keyboard that has the standard keys of a typewriter. Forty-four keys, electrically operated, fit over the 90 keys of a standard composing machine. The keyboard can be moved from one composing machine to another as there is no installation. The new keyboard is simply placed over the top of the existing keyboard and the unit is ready for use when it is plugged into an electrical outlet. The complete outfit weighs only 25-1/2 pounds.

Plumber’s Tree
More than 125 joints and fittings form a plumber’s tree displayed by a Chester, Pa., firm. All the bends, traps, elbows and other parts comprising it are commonly used soil and water-pipe connections. The joints are packed with oakum.

So basically this is just a facial waxing followed by lots of x-rays. Actually, I’ll bet this works. Most people who have been exposed to large doses of radiation do not have to worry about shaving, or combing their hair, or brushing their teeth.

BEARD IS REMOVED WITH MUD AND USE OF X-RAYS

Shaving beards from men’s faces, has been accomplished by a special mudlike paste that is undergoing experiments at the hands of a New York doctor. After the mass has been applied, it hardens and is torn off. To finish the operation, X-rays are then directed against the skin. The originator of the method claims that it is beneficial and if used regularly will remove scars and similar marks of long standing. It is also said that the sticky treatment does not leave any ill effects on tender skins.

Stencil for Lipstick

Lipstick is applied quickly and evenly with the aid of a stencil just invented. The stencil is adjusted and held over the mouth as shown in the photograph above, thus insuring correct shape and unblurred edges when the lipstick is rubbed on.

This is an excellent, very long, 1982 National Geographic overview of all aspects of the microchip. It covers advances in silicon tech, how chips are produced, their uses and their effect on society. Topics include robots, hackers, digital watches, computers in the classroom, AI, early navigation systems, online news and shopping, telecommuting and more. Plus a ton of great pictures. Check out this rather prescient quote about online privacy:

“With personal computers and two-way TV,” he said, “we’ll create a wealth of personal information and scarcely notice it leaving the house. We’ll bank at home, hook up to electronic security systems, and connect to automatic climate controllers. The TV will know what X-rated movies we watch. There will be tremendous incentive to record this information for market research or sale.”

view additional pages

ELECTRONIC MINI-MARVEL THAT IS CHANGING YOUR LIFE

The Chip

By ALLEN A. BORAIKO, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EDITORIAL STAFF
Photographs by CHARLES O’REAR

IT SEEMS TRIFLING, barely the size of a newborn’s thumbnail and little thicker. The puff of air that extinguishes a candle would send it flying. In bright light it shimmers, but only with the fleeting iridescence of a soap bubble. It has a backbone of silicon, an ingredient of common beach sand, yet is less durable than a fragile glass sea sponge, largely made of the same material.

Still, less tangible things have given their names to an age, and the silver-gray fleck of silicon called the chip has ample power to create a new one. At its simplest the chip is electronic circuitry: Patterned in and on its silicon base are minuscule switches, joined by “wires” etched from exquisitely thin films of metal. Under a microscope the chip’s intricate terrain often looks uncannily like the streets, plazas, and buildings of a great metropolis, viewed from miles up.
Read the rest of this entry »

Eye Exerciser Apparatus Resembles Circus Wheel
DESIGNED to strengthen eye muscles through exercise, a new apparatus invented by Dr. William I. Henry, of Akron, Ohio, resembles a carnival chance wheel in appearance. The device consists principally of a large rotating disc to which toy animals are attached in slots in such a manner that they assume different positions as the disc rotates by mechanical means.

To use the apparatus a patient sits before the disc, placing the chin on a special rest. Watching the antics of the toy animals as the disc rotates at various speeds provides exercise for the eye muscles.

I’m terrified of a “mental contagion of ideas”.

Suicide Caused by Mental Germs

SUICIDE as an infectious disease, to be stopped or prevented like any other infectious epidemic, is seen by Dr. D. H. Geffen, British Medical Health Officer.

It is unquestionable that the large majority of suicides are caused by temporary mental distress, and it is this condition which Dr. GefTen declares to be an infection; not an infection by germs but a mental contagion of ideas. Suspected thoughts of suicide, indicating a mild case of the “infection, ” should be treated by preventing new infection and by building up the patient’s mental resistance. Carpenters and others who work much with their hands seldom commit suicide.

Judging by the man in the picture, I would look for these “secret tests” somewhere really close to a tennis court.

Germans Try Out Mystery Gun

The novel one-man antiaircraft gun seen in the photograph below is now being tested secretly by German army experts. The gunner, seated behind the barrel, controls the gun accurately and rapidly by means of foot pedals and hand levers, according to reports.

This is a sort of early online gaming.

view additional pages

BILLIARDS by WIRE

College Teams Now Compete in Novel Telegraphic Tournaments

By ARTHUR GRAHAME

PLAYING separately in cities and towns scattered throughout the East and Middle West, teams representing many leading American colleges recently competed in the 1938 intercollegiate billiards tournament. During the entire competition, members of one team did not see their opponents on other teams. As the ivory balls rolled and spun on the green tables, clicking telegraph instruments carried the scores of individual teams to the director of the tournament. When all scores were in, the director wired the team standings back to the competing colleges.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Music Pals of the Nation

New friends, new pleasures, new and interesting experiences, invitations galore—dinners, dances, week-end parties, outings,—are some of the good things playing a Gibson brings into your life.

Gibson Instruments are easily learned in spare time without previous knowledge of music. A few weeks of pleasant, interesting study and you’ll be able to play. And there’s no other joy in life quite equal to hearing music you make on your own instruments.

$5.00 Monthly buys a Gibson. The ultimate in construction, finish, tone quality and volume. Built like a violin. Adjustable bridge, non-warpable truss rod neck and thirty other exclusive Gibson features. Guaranteed for life. Non-Gibson instruments exchanged.
Read the rest of this entry »