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Wool from Cow’s Milk

THAT “necessity is the mother of invention” is a truism again called to attention with the discovery of “mechanical sheep” now in commercial operation at Milan, Italy. Like the German production of “Ersatz” materials during the World War (called mud by other nations), Italy was forced to seek a substitute for wool during her Ethiopian conquests, when “sanctions” were applied. Wool is one of the raw materials for which Italy depends almost entirely upon foreign countries. When foreign countries “refused” to sell wool to the “aggressor,” scientists strained to develop a substitute; and now, two years after the discovery of the method, a most satisfactory product is being produced in vast quantities, by one of the worlds’ largest rayon companies.
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HORSE MASTERY!

A FINE HOBBY —A GREAT VOCATION!
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Giant Electric Sign Is Carried by Plane

Called the largest of its kind in the world, a flying electric advertising sign is suspended beneath the lower wing of a large transport plane. Designed to be read at an altitude of 3,000 feet, the sign is of the “traveling” type—complete sentences travel across its face in moving letters as lights are switched on and off by means of an intricate control mechanism installed within the plane fuselage. A motor-driven, 4,500-watt generator supplies the necessary electric current to light the 1,000 lamps of the flying billboard.

Drive Right Up

A FLYING automobile with a 130-hp. Franklin engine cruises at 110 m.p.h, in the air and travels 60 m.p.h, on the road. Those speeds were set by the first model of a design by Ted Hall, aviation engineer. Portable Products Corp., Garland, Tex., is considering the possibilities of producing it.

The “roadable” plane has detachable propeller, wing, booms, and tail. The forward end of the engine crankshaft turns the prop, while a shaft extends aft from the engine into a conventional automobile transmission and differential. Power goes both to propeller and rear wheels for the take-off.

Odd Ventilator Pumps Pure Air to Bomb Cellar

Knowing that poison gas seldom rises more than thirty feet above ground level, a British inventor worked out an odd device designed to draw fresh air into gasproof shelters on or under the ground. Resembling a giant accordion, a special hand-operated bellows sucks fresh air into the shelter through a flue pipe that extends up forty feet above the ground. Said to be foolproof, the apparatus draws in air at the rate of 400 -cubic feet a minute.

Because the idea of making the entire area a non-smoking zone would just be unthinkable.

GUARD OIL FIELD WITH CIGARETTE LIGHTER
An electric cigarette lighter, shielded from the weather by a small roof, is an odd sight at a corner of a Beaumont, Texas, oil field. So dreaded a hazard is fire here that workmen are forbidden to carry matches. Violation of this rule is considered almost as serious an offense as it would be in a powder plant. To encourage its observance, the owners of the field installed the lighter, just outside the danger zone, for the convenience of employees who wished to smoke during the noon hour. As a result, the field boasts an enviable safety record.

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Behind the Razor Blade

by Robert W. Gordon

TAKE a look at any group photograph of half a century ago. No matter what their station in life, the faces of the men you see there will be adorned with luxuriant crops of whiskers. Some were clipped plain, with the simple dignity of a cemetery hedge. Others were brushed and trimmed in weird and wonderful designs, like decorations on a wedding cake.

Now take a look along the street—any street in almost any country. You see a new race of men entirely. You can really see their faces, and they are bright and clean. No more of this hiding behind the bush. Their jaws are as bare of foliage as an oak tree in January.
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How to Build an Electric Organ FOR ABOUT FIVE DOLLARS

WITH its deep, mellow notes, the electric organ is fast gaining the musical limelight. As a rule, these instruments are large and costly. Yet, for the price of a new hat, you can build a duplicate of a small organ that was featured in a recent coast-to-coast radio broadcast.
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Food Pops Out of Table Tops in Cafeteria

Food ordered by customers in a novel automatic restaurant recently proposed by a hotel man, pops up out of the center of each table. On entering the restaurant, the diner sits at a table having in its center what appears to be merely a tray. To order his meal, he checks off items of a special card provided for the purpose, which he then drops through a handy slot in the table. Sliding down through a chute to the restaurant kitchen below, the card is picked up, and the order filled. When ready, the meal is placed on shelves of a small elevator, which hauls the food up to the table and deposits it in front of the customer, as shown in the lower photograph at the left.

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Kachoo! Now Its a Mechanical Sneezer
Infectious germs are spouted from the mouth of a mechanical sneezer developed for medical research by William F. Wells of the University of Pennsylvania medical school in Philadelphia. By means of compressed air, the apparatus blows air-borne germs through a tube into a glass bell housing an experimental rabbit, to simulate the common method of transmission of germs by human sneezers and coughers.

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Coming_the Radio that Was Shot from a Gun

The tiny elements used in a great war invention are now ready to go to work in civilian transceivers.

By Harland Manchester

CARRYING a complete broadcasting station in the palm of his hand, a radio engineer walked out of his laboratory at the Bureau of Standards in Washington the other day, talking as he went down the stairs and out of the building. His voice came to us from a loudspeaker in the room he had left, as clearly as if he were still there. His transmitter, containing microphone, tubes, circuits, batteries, and aerial, was enclosed in a plastic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
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