July 31, 2007

Crib Clips to Baggage Rack (Sep, 1953)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 12:03 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1953
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Crib Clips to Baggage Rack
Baby gets an upper berth all to himself in this new rig under test by British Overseas Airways. Made of metal and plastic cloth, the crib has a side flap that clips up to hold baby safely in.

Egg-Shaped Wheels Pull Through Mud Without Chains (Sep, 1949)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:03 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
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Egg-Shaped Wheels Pull Through Mud Without Chains

Wheels with “corners” on them may seem useless, but a New York inventor believes such “flat” wheels may replace the track-type drive on military vehicles and tractors. Each driving unit is actually a pair of oval wheels synchronized with their long axles at right angles to each other. This means that the point of one wheel and the flat part of the other are in contact with the ground at the same time.

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Original Hollywood Wolf Whistle (Sep, 1948)

Filed under: Advertisements — @ 12:02 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1948
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Original Hollywood Wolf Whistle

You, too, can become a Hollywood Wolf. Give the wolf call and make other weird noises with the original HOLLYWOOD WOLF WHISTLE on your car. Precision made. Works off the intake manifold. Easily installed in 15 minutes. Works in trucks, motorcycles, motor boats, outboard motors, too. Guaranteed. If your dealer cannot yet supply you, order direct, giving us your dealer’s name. No cod’s or stamps. No individual foreign orders. Automotive dealers & jobbers write for information on this fast selling, proved item.

YODER MFG. COMPANY
2403-21K East 103rd St., Los Angeles 2, California

New Kitchen Built to Fit Your Wife (Sep, 1953)

Filed under: Kitchen — @ 12:02 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1953
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New Kitchen Built to Fit Your Wife

Tall, short or medium-sized, she’s bound to save energy in this kitchen.

By Gardner Soule

BUILD the cabinets to fit the woman. Build the shelves to fit the supplies.

Build the kitchen to fit the family.

Starting with these three principles, Cornell University has re-engineered the most-used room in the house.

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Dynamite Made from Corn (Jul, 1936)

Filed under: Chemistry — @ 12:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1936
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Better not let the TSA see this or they’ll ban corn from all flights.

Dynamite Made from Corn
Production of a highly explosive dynamite from corn is one of the latest developments of the chemical laboratory. It is the result of the recent discovery at the University of Iowa of an inexpensive method of extracting inositol, a sugarlike substance, from corn. Inositol is a non-explosive form of alcohol but when nitrated becomes a powerful solid explosive. It can be produced from the waste by-products of the manufacture of cornstarch.

July 30, 2007

TV Tubes Get Bigger…And Tuners Cross the Room (Sep, 1950)

Filed under: Television — @ 8:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1950
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TV Tubes Get Bigger…And Tuners Cross the Room

Larger TV screens are featured in most current telesets, with 14- to 19-inch tubes getting the biggest play. General Electric promises a 24-inch set for this fall, and Du Mont is showing the giant 30-incher above. It’s the largest direct-view set to date, has 536 square inch picture area, and is suitable for restaurants, clubs, schools, and other public places.

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SHIP-LOADING METHODS IN MANCHURIAN PORTS (Oct, 1923)

Filed under: History — @ 8:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1923
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Apparently our country has a long and not-so-proud history of exploiting cheap Chinese labor. “Sure we could use our loading equipment, but it’s so much easier and cheaper to have the coolies do it by hand!”

SHIP-LOADING METHODS IN MANCHURIAN PORTS

American sailors hail with joy the entry of their vessels into Manchurian ports.

There is no work for them at Dairen, the ocean terminus of the South Manchurian Railway, situated 28 miles east of Port Arthur, and full shore leave is allowed. Native coolies, working for 20 cents a day, load and unload the ships. The automatic conveying machinery on hoard the American vessels making this harbor is never uncovered while in port, because coolies perform the labor more cheaply.

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Hot Rods and Electrons (Sep, 1949)

Filed under: General — @ 8:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
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Hot Rods and Electrons

Tenny Lode was an inventor at the age of 10. Today he’s the campus genius at the University of Minnesota, with a normal flair for hot rods and an amazing capacity for taming electrons

HEIGHT, six feet two inches; weight, 200 pounds; age, 17 years; hobbies, hot rods and ice cream; I.Q., somewhere in the genius class. That’s Tenny Lode of St. Paul, Minn.

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U. S. Makes New Bike Shift (Sep, 1950)

Filed under: Bicycles, Sports — @ 7:59 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1950
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U. S. Makes New Bike Shift
This new three-speed transmission gives a bicycle as many forward gears as an automobile. Made by the New Departure division of General Motors, it is designed to fit any bike having a New Departure coaster brake and can be installed in 20 minutes.

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Paul Bunyan Comes to Life (Sep, 1949)

Filed under: General — @ 7:59 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
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Paul Bunyan Comes to Life

VISITORS to the 1949 Railroad Fair in Chicago can have a heart-to-heart chat with Paul Bunyan, legendary super-lumberjack of the North Woods. A complex array of microphones, sound-recorders, speakers, electric motors, and gears enables the giant figure to talk with passers-by and answer their questions. Sitting down, Paul towers 23 feet above the floor. If he stood up he’d stretch 35 feet. He wears size 69 boots, a 42 cap, size 80 shirt, and pants with a 150-inch waist. The Gardner Displays Co. built the gigantic model for the Chicago and Great Northern Railway exhibit.

Machine GUNNER SITS SUSPENDED Under Plane (Sep, 1932)

Filed under: Aviation, War — @ 7:59 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1932
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Machine GUNNER SITS SUSPENDED Under Plane

PILOTS of combat planes in the World war were acutely conscious of the fact that their ships had a “blind spot” in which they were peculiarly vulnerable to attack by the enemy. This spot included the underpart of the tail and rear section of the fuselage, which could not be defended by machine gun fire from the cockpit for the reason that the gunner would have to fire through his own plane.

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July 29, 2007

Diving Suits Used to Raise Mastodon Bones (Oct, 1933)

Filed under: General — @ 12:16 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1933
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Diving Suits Used to Raise Mastodon Bones

Diving for mastodon bones was the strange occupation of a group of scientific explorers at Silver Springs, Fla., not long ago. When the bottom of a large spring was found to be the resting place of remains of prehistoric, elephantlike creatures, an expedition was organized to recover them. Divers descended thirty-five feet to exhume the bones from the mud and silt in which they had lain for thousands of years. Despite the difficulties under which the divers worked, they recovered a magnificent collection of teeth and parts of jawbones. The underwater photo, reproduced below, shows one of the divers at work at the bottom of the spring.

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