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Nutty Inventions Paid Me A Million

by RUBE GOLDBERG
Famous Cartoonist as told to Alfred Albelli

Four hundred inventions a year, all of them of exceedingly “nutty” brand, qualify Rube Goldberg, the famous cartoonist, as one of the country’s most prolific and best paid inventors. The fact that his inventions never get beyond the pen and ink stage doesn’t prevent him from “cleaning up” from them.

“How did you get that way? How do you do it? How do you get away with it? How do you get them to fall for your stuff? How are you, anyway?”

There you have the barrage of questions which are popped at me every day of my life, including days when the game is called on account of rain. It’s a good thing a humorous cartoonist has got a sense of humor. Or I might borrow from that jolly English expression and say, “It’s fortunate my humor is not bad.”
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NO FENDERS ON NEW AUTO
An unusual automobile, now being manufactured in Colorado, has a front axle that arches completely over the engine, while the body extends the whole width of the fenders so that separate fenders outside the body are not necessary. The width of the car makes it possible for an ordinary adult person to sleep crosswise in it. The drive is on the front wheels, and the design of body, as photo shows, is ultra-modernistic.

I thought about putting this in the Origins category since it is clearly the progenitor of Skeletor.

Seeing Ghosts NOW EXPLAINED BY SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS

GHOSTLY, sheeted figures, seen as one runs past a dark cemetery, are not merely figments of the imagination. They are actually seen as real ghosts looming out of the night.

This is the conclusion arrived at by psychologists who now claim that people really see with their own eyes the apparitions that form the bases of “true” ghost stories.

According to these psychologists you can, at will, see synthetic specters, in the following manner:
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CAR RADIO VENTURE PROVES BIG SUCCESS

STARTING from scratch eighteen months ago, F. L. Schlink, of Portland, Oregon, has made a profit from the beginning by selling, installing, and servicing of car radios exclusively. At the present time, he is the only one so specializing in The Pacific Northwest.

Early in 1932, he rented a small garage for a service shop. It would accommodate only four cars. He had only one service man and did all the selling himself, helping with the service work in spare moments. Even now, while engaged in bigger deals and more of them, if there comes a momentary interim between telephone calls or demonstrations to customers, he is into a car in an instant with pliers or test set, helping the men. It is this drive within him for utilizing every spare moment which, I believe, is in no small measure accountable for his success.
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Thumbnail Amplifier
This thumbnail-size transparent cube is a complete amplifier circuit for the infrared guidance system of a missile. Packaging transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors in the solid plastic block reduces volume and weight, prevents damage from shock. It’s made by Convair.

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Crime-Detection Tests FOR THE Home Chemist

How Hidden Fingerprints May Be Found by Using Iodine Vapor — Forgeries Also Are Revealed by This Remarkable Element

By Raymond B. Wailes

NEW thrills await the home chemist who experiments with iodine. Besides its queer properties and varied uses, it serves as the gateway to a new branch of chemistry—the mysterious and interesting art of scientific crime detection.

With iodine, the amateur experimenter can transform his home laboratory into a miniature crime bureau. In a few hours, he can master some of the chemical tricks that aid the modern sleuth in his search for hidden fingerprints, clever check alterations, and forgeries.

First, however, the amateur must learn how to obtain this active element in its free state. For years, it was recovered commercially from a giant type of seaweed called kelp. Now it is obtained from the solutions left behind when Chile saltpeter is crystallized in large quantities.
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Blind Man Remodels Home
OVERCOMING the handicap of being blind, M. F. Jones, of Tampa, Florida, remodeled an entire house unaided. One of the features of the job was the removal of an enclosed stairway and the rebuilding of it on an outside porch. Before losing his sight, Mr. Jones had been a construction foreman.

BULLET-PROOF STEEL INCLOSES NEW CAGE FOR CASHIERS

Electric locks foil hold-up men in a new cashier’s cage for filling stations and small-town banks. Just large enough for one person to enter at a time, it is completely inclosed in bullet-proof steel and fits conveniently in a corner of a room. When the attendant enters to make change, cash a check, or leave a deposit, he presses an electric contact. The door glides shut and locks him in, simultaneously exposing the money drawer and fifteen numbered buttons on a panel above it. Pressing a certain combination of three buttons opens the drawer. It must be shut by pressing another secret three-button combination before the outer door can be re-opened by a concealed electric switch. As the outer door swings open and the attendant steps out, entrance to the money compartment is again barred by a metal curtain.
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Russian Invents Double Recording Discs

A VIOLINIST playing his own piano accompaniment or a vocalist harmonizing as a trio may sound incredible, but it is quite possible according to Professor Vladimir Karapetoff of Cornell University. The eminent Russian scientist has perfected a device which makes it possible to record as many as three different instruments or voices on a single phonograph disc.

Provided with earphones, a violinist can accompany a piano rendition previously played by himself. When the recording is played back both violin and piano will harmonize. It is possible for the musician to add a third instrument to the recording, producing a stringed trio rendition. A singer who can sing alto, mezzo soprano and soprano can blend her voice into a trio when recorded on the unusual apparatus. Prof. Karapetoff’s instrument uses regular home recording blank discs which are cut with a special electric pick-up. Records are played through an amplifier.

For the life of me I can’t figure out what rules these people use to decide what to capitalize in their headlines. If you want to put the important words in all-caps, fine. But why is the word “the” lower case when the word “By” has one cap?

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AROUND the WORLD By AIR

by H. R. Ekins

First Man to Circle Globe Via Air Lines

IT TOOK a flight around the world, entirely by air, to bring home to me the tremendous strides made by commercial aviation in the last ten years. For me the journey of little more than 18-1/2 days, during which I flew a route of approximately 26,000 miles, was a study in aviation as it is today compared to what it was only a few years ago. On my journey I used eight aircraft in all. The first was the German dirigible Hinden-burg, the latest development in the science of lighter-than-air craft. The designers, builders and operators of the Hindenburg expect, however, that soon it will be surpassed by new giant ships of the air.
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I have just one question: Why?

Full Size Airplane Made of Soap

A FULL size monoplane built entirely of soap was the feature attraction at a recent soap manufacturers’ exhibition in Berlin, Germany.

Wings, fuselage, landing gear, propeller —everything is covered with plates of soap.

THREE-WHEELED SKATES HAVE RUBBER TREADS
Rubber-covered balls of fiber replace steel wheels in roller skates of new design. The three-wheeled skates are said not to mar floors or carpets, and to be virtually silent. According to the maker, they require no lubrication, and are lighter in weight than ordinary steel skates. The illustration shows the standard size and also a smaller model, with front wheels set well forward to prevent overbalancing, intended for the use of very young children.