April 28, 2007

Model Dynasphere Seats 5 Persons (Jul, 1932)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 12:34 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1932
| Buy on Ebay

Model Dynasphere Seats 5 Persons

FOLLOWING the successful trials of his Dynasphere—a huge wheel with a seat inside—Dr. Purves, English inventor, has now designed a Dynasphere de luxe, the model of which is shown in the photo below.

The enlarged version of the model seats five persons comfortably in a glassed-in cabin, which remains in an upright position while the outside wheel rolls down the road.

The motive power of the vehicle is supplied by a small engine in front of the driver, which runs on a geared track on the inside circumference of the wheel.

Jokes to Play on Smokers (Jun, 1933)

Filed under: General — @ 12:33 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1933
| Buy on Ebay
Tags:

Jokes to Play on Smokers

AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT
Several cigarettes are strung together in manner shown. Taking one, takes the whole string

A FAKE BOX OF SMOKES
With a razor blade, several cigarettes are cut into small bits and then stuck upright on a piece of cardboard that fits the box snugly. Trying to take one brings a laugh
Read the rest of this entry »

The Man Who Opened the Door to Space (May, 1959)

Filed under: History, Space — @ 12:32 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1959
| Buy on Ebay
Tags:

The Man Who Opened the Door to Space

NO MAN made a greater personal contribution to this fearsome and challenging era of missiles than the late Robert H. Goddard, an ailing, publicity-shy physics professor from Worcester, Mass., who sought only peaceful scientific uses for his epochal inventions.

This month, 14 years after his death at 62, the entire U. S. missile industry will honor him at a conference.

“He was just as surely the father of modern rockets as the Wright brothers were of the airplane,” Henry F. Guggenheim, noted patron of aeronautical research, has declared.
Read the rest of this entry »

Terraplaning on Boards Hooked to Motorbike Proves Thrilling Sport (Jul, 1932)

Filed under: Motorcycles, Sports — @ 12:32 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1932
| Buy on Ebay

Terraplaning” on Boards Hooked to Motorbike Proves Thrilling Sport

SURFBOARDS, whose usual habitat is the ocean, have taken to the land in a new sport devised recently by Portland, Oregon, youngsters. The surfboards, made of ordinary planks, are pulled along over the ground at a neat clip by motorcycles, as shown below, and the participants enjoy the sport despite the ever-imminent possibility of a fractured neck, leg or arm. A clean stretch of turf makes ideal course.

From Stage Thrills to Radio Drama (Dec, 1924)

Filed under: Radio, Sign of the Times — @ 12:31 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1924
| Buy on Ebay

From Stage Thrills to Radio Drama

Behind the Scenes in Studio Where Weird Devices Give Realistic Effects for Unseen Listeners

A SHOT rang out on the still night air, as the old-time fiction writers used to begin their stories. A farmer’s family in Maine; a banker in his library in a middle-western city, and a group of cowpunchers in a bunk house in Texas listened breathlessly; for the sound was carried by wireless. Untold thousands of radio fans scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico heard it, too, for all of them were tuned in on the drama “Pierre of the Plains,” broadcast from an eastern city.

The old-time thriller of the past, that reached its glory when the box office hung out the “S. R. O.” sign—standing room only—may have had as many as twelve hundred people hanging breathlessly on the actor’s lines, but nowadays when a melodrama is put on the air its invisible audience may run into the millions.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 27, 2007

Sipper With Built-in Refrigerant (Nov, 1950)

Filed under: Kitchen — @ 8:32 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1950
| Buy on Ebay

Sipper With Built-in Refrigerant
Every swallow is chilled when drinks are sipped through a novel aluminum tube containing a sealed-in refrigerant and tipped with a Tenite plastic mouthpiece and end. The sipper is kept in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator prior to use and its contents allowed to freeze solid. There is no dilution of the beverage and the plastic mouthpiece protects lips from frostbite. It is made in several colors and is easily cleaned and dried.

Car Replaces Broncho, Tiny Prayer (Oct, 1923)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 8:32 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1923
| Buy on Ebay

AUTO DISPLACES BRONCHO IN RIDING TEST

In the one-time wild and woolly West, riding the bucking automobile may give way to the honored test of skill in horsemanship— riding the bucking broncho. For it has been found that a seat on the radiator of a small auto with the wheels off center gives all the thrills of a broncho-busting contest, with an element of novelty. In a recent performance of this sort in California, a saddle was placed on the hood, and a prize of $25 offered for riding two blocks. At 10 miles an hour, the rider had difficulty; at 15 miles, he went off. With the hub of each of the wheels of the car removed and reset 2 inches off center, it gives a realistic imitation of the bucking broncho, though, having no reins, the rider is, perhaps, even more helpless than on the “orneriest” animal. Read the rest of this entry »

They Blow Up Broadway (Sep, 1949)

Filed under: General — @ 8:31 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
| Buy on Ebay

They Blow Up Broadway
THAT sinister character above is getting set to blow up Broadway.

Comes the revolution? Nope. The FBI won’t be tracking down this fellow or any of his gang, who are making their daily living from spectacular blowups. For “spectacular” is the name for the huge neon signs that skilled craftsmen are creating in a modern revival of an ancient art.

Glass-blowing dates back to 300 B. C, when some bright Phoenician worker tried a new way of working the molten material. Today’s glass-blower still uses the basic technique developed in that distant past.
Read the rest of this entry »

CHILDREN’S PICTURE-STORY DEPARTMENT (Oct, 1923)

Filed under: Other Animals, Toys and Games — @ 8:31 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1923
| Buy on Ebay

I would be more worried about someone stealing my cheetah than my car. Of course I’d be much more worried about my cheetah stealing some some curious child’s arm.

CHILDREN’S PICTURE-STORY DEPARTMENT

A Modern Lilliput That Has No Lilliputians, Being an Uninhabited Miniature Village Constructed by the Children of a Denver Man near His Summer Home in the Rocky Mountains: The Church Has Spires Three Feet High. To the Right Is an Electrically Lighted Brick Block in the Village

South Pasadena, California, Is Proud of Possessing What Is Doubtless the Youngest Band in the World. Including the Bandmaster, Seen in the Foreground, Each of the 60 Members of the Band Is Seven Years Young or Younger. All Are First and Second-Grade Pupils of the Local Public Schools, Where They were Trained. Left: Close-Up of Three of the Musicians
Read the rest of this entry »

Revolving Paddles Lift Odd-Style Plane (Jul, 1933)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 8:31 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1933
| Buy on Ebay

Revolving Paddles Lift Odd-Style Plane

Built entirely without propellers as such, but deriving lift from revolving wings which spin in windmill fashion, a unique auto-airplane invented by Paul Lewis, of Denver, Col., gives promise of portending a new trend of development. Principles of its construction are explained in these photographs and drawings. One of the photos shows the lifting wings being tested in the workshop, where they developed a vertical lift of 12 pounds per horsepower. The diagram immediately above shows how lift is obtained.

Apple’s Flavor Squeezed into New Delicacies (Apr, 1948)

Filed under: General — @ 8:30 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1948
| Buy on Ebay

Apple’s Flavor Squeezed into New Delicacies

How scientists solved the problem of the apple’s lost flavor and then captured its essence in a bottle.

By John P. Arnold

IF YOU must have your apple a day, you can now enjoy it in a variety of forms. A new method of extracting pure apple essence from the fresh fruit has brought the flavor and aroma of the ripened Mcintosh or Red Delicious to candies, ice cream, soda pop, gelatin desserts, and many other homemade and commercial products.

And if current experiments are any indication, you’ll soon be able to chew your apple in chewing gum, inhale it in cigarettes, smell it in perfume, or enjoy its taste in apple-flavored medicines.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 26, 2007

ULTRA-SHORT-WAVE RADIO AT VATICAN (May, 1933)

Filed under: Radio — @ 7:30 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1933
| Buy on Ebay

ULTRA-SHORT-WAVE RADIO AT VATICAN

An ultra-short-wave radio station has been installed at Vatican City, Italy, for communication between the Vatican and the summer residence of Pope Pius XI at Castel Gandolfo, twenty miles away. The set uses waves only fifty-seven centimeters (about twenty-one inches) in length. According to its noted designer, Gugleilmo Marconi, it represents the ”first practical application of microwaves.” Marconi has been endeavoring for more than thirty years to harness these waves, which are a minute fraction of the length of those used in ordinary broadcasting. Read the rest of this entry »

20 queries. 0.908 seconds.