This seems a bit less subtle than the jaws of life…

Rescue “Knife” For Crash Victims
To save survivors trapped in wrecked or burning aircraft, Australian engineers have developed a giant rescue “knife” that cuts through metal fuselages as if they were paper. Eight feet high, with a razor-edge steel spearhead, the knife is mounted on the front of an armored car. In a test at Melbourne, it quickly severed the tail from a surplus bomber.

But is it worth it if you also get seasick?

ROCKING BED EASES HEART STRAIN
Sufferers from heart ailments are said to be aided by a new rocking bed. Operated by an electric motor, the bed alternately raises
the head and feet of the patient, helping the blood circulate to all parts of the body, thus easing the strain upon an over-taxed heart.

Yum! Nothing makes food sound more appealing than auto industry terminology. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of that new-model 1950 beef. My mouth is watering just thinknig about it’s square streamlining and shorter wheel base!

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Engineering Better Meat

Nature needs help as a hungry world calls for food. “Blueprints” drawn up by animal engineers promise to give us more meals from each animal

PLANS for the 1950-model beef critter already are on the drawing boards of the nation’s animal engineers—and never did you see such a streamlined creation!

Built with square lines, low to the ground and with shorter “wheelbase,” this advanced model will carry more T-bones and tenderloins for its weight than any animal yet to appear on American ranges.
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RUNNERS USE TREADMILL AS TRAINING TRACK

A one-man training track for runners is part of the equipment recently installed by an English sporting club. The device consists of a small treadmill platform with an upright pipe frame in front. Gripping the frame, the runner begins his workout, a speedometer at one side of the apparatus indicating how fast he is going. Speeds up to twenty miles an hour are recorded by the indicator. Because of its construction, the treadmill enables runners to work in a small room.

Horns Made from Tree Trunks Give Odd Musical Tones
Horns hollowed out of tree trunks are used by-native musicians in the Tyrol region of Austria. The novel instruments, said to imitate the tone of a cello, are fitted with stops so that they can play all the notes of the scale. Tree bark is left on the horns in the belief that it has a softening effect on the tones of the instruments.

I’m not sure what’s going on here. Did he kill his wife over a thermos? Or just beat her? Or did he yell at her, then SHE beat him? Is that why he has a shiner? Or did the cops do that?

This ad leaves so much unexplained. I think I’ll email this to Aladdin asking for an explanation.

“It all began when she lost my Aladdin Angler vacuum bottle!”

Aladdin Vacuum Bottles and Lunch Kits
Pints, Quarts and Workman’s Lunch Kits

Aladdin Industries, Incorporated, Nashville, Tennessee

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Living LIGHT Effects Marvel of World Fair

by WILLIAM J. HARRIS

Gigantic waterfalls cascading down the sides of buildings—huge towers of living flame—buildings glowing in all the brilliantly flickering shades of the rainbow—these are among the marvelous lighting effects created for the Chicago World’s Fair, all produced by methods so simple that the amateur constructor can easily duplicate them as described here.

WHEN the giant telescope at Yerkes Observatory picks up a flash of light from the star Arcturus on the night of June 1, 1933, and flashes it as an electrical impulse to Chicago to start the second Chicago World’s Fair it will turn on, among other things, the most amazing collection of electrical effects the world has ever seen.
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Invalid “Fed” Cigarettes on a Stick

Because a patient with two broken arms was unable to hold a cigarette, authorities in a St. Louis, Mo., hospital devised the odd six-foot holder pictured at the right. A roommate lights a cigarette, places it in a hole in the end of the stick, and holds it to his friend’s lips. To raise his body for the purpose, he uses a support suspended above his bed, as shown. A nail in the end of the holder is used to feed the patient candy.

This just seems like a bad idea.

FLYING PLANE REFUELS FROM SPEEDING AUTO
Transferring gasoline from an automobile to a speeding airplane was a feat accomplished at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif., the other day, demonstrating a new way of refueling on the fly. Hitherto an airplane making an endurance flight has been able to take on fuel only from another plane. For the unusual stunt, a small sedan was fitted with a special superstructure to handle the hose, and contact was successfully made between plane and car after a few minutes’ maneuvering. When the fuel tanks had been replenished a supply of oil was pumped to the plane. The success of the stunt depended on keeping the machine at the same speed.
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PHONE CALLS ARE ANSWERED BY MACHINE

For the convenience of telephone users, an instrument has been devised to take messages and answer calls received when the owner is absent. It consists of a small cabinet containing records similar to those used in dictating or talking machines. If the person is not at home when the phone rings, the instrument repeats a message which has been dictated to it, stating that Mr. So-and-So is out and will the caller speak his message, or any other greeting the owner wishes to give. Read the rest of this entry »

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$100 SUBMARINE
ADMIRAL Ray Bass achieved his rank in – the Texas Navy the hard way. He built his own submarine to explore the 20-ft. depths of the town lake of Corsicana when the city fathers forbade skin diving. The $100 sub took three months to build with volunteer help. A six-volt motor and six-volt car battery power Turtle II for 45 minutes running time submerged. A 7-1/2 hp outboard motor is used on the surface.

The conning tower is a scrounged 20-in. section of steel pipe; the $17.60 hull is a 750-gallon Army surplus hot water tank; portholes are sealed by old inner tubes.

This one-man navy runs on sheer nerve!

Odd Devices Wake Sleepers Who Scorn Alarm Clocks
Taking the place of the traditional alarm clock, two odd methods of rousing sleepers are illustrated by the photographs above and at the right. An enterprising Englishman makes his morning rounds on a bicycle, using a pole to place an electrically operated bell against the bedroom windows of his customers. In Tennessee, a hotel telephone operator blows a hunting horn into the phone to rouse hunters.