August 21, 2007

This horse is better than most 1970 cars (Nov, 1969)

Filed under: Advertisements, Automotive — @ 7:48 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1969
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This horse is better than most 1970 cars

We are not joking. The run-of-the-mill 1970 car is an affront to progress.

It’s too expensive to buy. And too expensive to run. It’s almost impossible to park and maneuvering it through city traffic would try the nerves of a saint.

You’d be better off with a horse.
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EVERY MOVE IN BALL GAME IS SHOWN ON SCREEN (Dec, 1924)

Filed under: Sports — @ 7:47 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1924
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EVERY MOVE IN BALL GAME IS SHOWN ON SCREEN

Play by play, practically every movement made in a baseball game at a distant park is reproduced with realistic accuracy on a thirty-foot screen for the enjoyment of theater patrons with the aid of an ingenious electrical apparatus invented by an eastern man. It is virtually a motion-picture machine without film or projector, the figures being made to move across the screen by a succession of quickly flashing lights which are wired to the telegraph instruments. Read the rest of this entry »

Trick Marionettes Will Enliven Your Puppet Shows (Nov, 1936)

Filed under: DIY — @ 7:47 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1936
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Trick Marionettes WILL ENLIVEN YOUR PUPPET SHOWS

HOW TO MAKE A DANCING SKELETON, A JUGGLER, A DWARF THAT CHANGES INTO A GIANT, A PIANO PLAYER, A GHOST, AND OTHER AMUSING NOVELTIES

By Florence Fetherston Drake

MARIONETTES that will perform all sorts of amazing tricks can be made without difficulty, once the secret of their construction is understood. Ball tossing, for instance, is a simple trick. Then there is the skeleton that disjoints his limbs and throws his head into the air, and the dwarf who grows into a giant. Various adventures of Alice in Wonderland also can be portrayed.

For ball tossing, drill a hole through a wooden ball and run both strings through it, passing the ends through the palms of the marionette’s hands and knotting the ends, as in Fig. 1 of the drawings. Tie the other ends to an extra 12-in. stick. By tilting the ends of the stick alternately, the ball will fly up and down. There is less friction if the string is waxed and the hole in the ball is burned through with a red-hot wire, instead of being drilled.
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August 20, 2007

TINY RADIO BUILT IN CIGARETTE CASE (Nov, 1935)

Filed under: Radio — @ 8:06 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1935
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Of course you probably have to plug this thing in to actually use it. I doubt they managed to cram batteries in there.

TINY RADIO BUILT IN CIGARETTE CASE
A radio built into a cigarette case was a novelty exhibited at a recent British radio exposition. The miniature receiver employs a single tube —one of the smallest in the world— and has a pair of midget tuning dials. Only half the thickness of the case is occupied by the set, ample room remaining for about a dozen cigarettes. The radio is turned on or off by means of a knob at the outer edge of the case, which is shown open in the accompanying photograph to reveal the compact units of the midget receiver.

Child’s Scooter Folds Compactly for Storage (Nov, 1938)

Filed under: DIY, Toys and Games — @ 8:06 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1938
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Child’s Scooter Folds Compactly for Storage

Coasters and scooters often take up more space than the average apartment dweller is willing to sacrifice. Here is one that can be reduced to a small bulk in a jiffy so that it can be stored from one season to the next or squeezed into a small corner when not in use. The small hinge on the base is mounted so that it will fold back on itself, while the one on the upright should have the pin knocked out and a long slender bolt with a thumb screw substituted for easy dismantling. If the half of the large hinge which is screwed to the base is bent up slightly, the upright board will lie flat when the brace board is removed.

Scenes In Miniature (Oct, 1940)

Filed under: DIY — @ 8:06 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1940
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Scenes In Miniature

Hints on constructing small dioramas for home decorations, window displays, and advertising or educational purposes
By HERBERT LOZIER

IF YOU were able to visit the New York World’s Fair, you must have been impressed by the lavish use throughout the entire exhibition of large and small dioramas or miniature scenes. In almost every building these have been used to portray outstanding events, methods of manufacture, historic places, and all kinds of information in vivid, colorful, three-dimensional form.
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August 19, 2007

Three-Wheeled Midget Car Built in Spare Time (Nov, 1938)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 12:25 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1938
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Three-Wheeled Midget Car Built in Spare Time
In his spare time, stretched over eighteen months, a Californian built a three-wheeled midget automobile that has traveled sixty-eight miles an hour. It has a front wheel drive and rear wheel steering, and covers as much as forty to forty-two miles per gallon. There are buttons on the windshield for attaching a top.

“Waffle Iron” Makes Cushions Of Foam Rubber (Oct, 1947)

Filed under: General — @ 12:25 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1947
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“Waffle Iron” Makes Cushions Of Foam Rubber

WAFFLES of rubber, “grilled” in molds resembling giant kitchen utensils, make comfortable upholstery padding that does not lose its resiliency. Production of foam-rubber automobile seat cushions and train seats, interrupted by the war, has now been resumed at the Mishawaka, Ind., plant of the United States Rubber Company. Featherweight mattresses of the same material, easy for any housewife to straighten or lift from a bed, will soon be available.

Millions of air bubbles whipped into the raw material—milky latex from Malaya plantations—give the foam rubber its light weight and flexibility. Seasoned with a dash of chemicals, the mix goes into a mold and is popped in an oven for a baking that vulcanizes the rubber and imparts its permanent shape. Thoroughly washed to remove chemicals and soaps, the nroduct emerges clean and odorless from a drier.

Dollars in Hares (Mar, 1922)

Filed under: Advertisements — @ 12:24 am
Source: Physical Culture ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1922
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The thing I love about this ad is how literal the graphic is. You know that the artist was thinking something like: “Well the headline is ‘Dollars in Hares’, let’s draw a little hare here, and um, well, let’s just put a big dollar sign IN the hare. The client’s gonna love this”.

Dollars in Hares

We supply guaranteed high grade stock and buy back all you raise at $7.00 to $18.50 and up a pair, and pay express charges. Big profits. Use back yard, barn, cellar, attic. Contract and Illustrated Catalog Free,

Standard Food & Fur Association
403Y Broadway, New York

STUNTS WITH High-Frequency Current (Nov, 1935)

Filed under: DIY — @ 12:24 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1935
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STUNTS WITH High-Frequency Current

By Kendall Ford

READERS who have followed the constructional articles on high-frequency apparatus that have appeared in past issues will be interested in learning how some of the amazing experiments are performed. The 36-in. high-frequency coil and its associated apparatus (P. S. M., May ‘35, p. 82, and July, p. 82) will be used for the purpose of illustration in this article.

The 110-volt line current is stepped up to approximately 12,000 volts by means of the transformer. The high-voltage current flows from the secondary of the transformer into the condensers, which become charged. If the circuit comprising the condensers, primary of the high-frequency coil, and spark gap has been properly adjusted, the condensers will discharge across the spark gap with a series of sparks, the frequency of which is many times the original 60-cycle charging current.
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August 18, 2007

BUT WAS JOE REALLY DUMB? (Nov, 1935)

Filed under: Advertisements — @ 12:09 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1935
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For a long time computer ads used exactly this same tactic, though with a bit more tact. “Your underachieving child will simply blossom when you give them a brand new [insert defunct brand of computer here]!”

We tried to joke about it
BUT WAS JOE REALLY DUMB?

HIS father and I talked it over after every report card. “Was Joe dumb?” “Can’t he try harder?” We tried to joke about it. But inside it hurt.

Then his teacher made a suggestion. “Other children have learned how to concentrate by learning how to type!” And sure enough, it worked with Joe.

He quickly learned to type—and it fascinated him. Then he started to express himself more freely. His English marks were the first to improve. Spelling followed. Now it’s helping with his arithmetic! Joe may never lead the class. But at least he is no longer anchored at the foot. His Remington has helped him up. And for that we can never be too grateful!
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MOVIE SHOWS CONQUEST OF THE AIR (Nov, 1935)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 12:08 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1935
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Here is another example of a diaeresis being used on the second e in reënacted. Also, I would just like to point out that the world would be a much cooler place if things like that could actually fly.

MOVIE SHOWS CONQUEST OF THE AIR
Stirring episodes in the history of man’s conquest of the air are being reënacted for a movie in England. The odd scene reproduced above shows the filming of one of the earliest and least-known experiments of Otto Lilienthal, German pioneer. Seeking to fly by flapping wings, he built this curious machine in 1868, and tested its lifting power by hanging it and a counterweight from a boom attached to a barn. The experiment was a failure, since he found that by the utmost exertion he could lift only half his weight. Turning aside from the flapping-wing idea, he devoted himself to the historic gliding experiments for which he is famous, and which helped pave the way for the eventual success of heavier-than-air machines.

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