What’s up with the flying girder on the second page? Is Superman trying to save New York?

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PEACE – OR ELSE!

HUMANITY is faced with the greatest decision it has ever had to make. The atomic bomb, in three gigantic, flashes, has transformed our planet into a world which has only one choice left. Earth has become a world of Either/Or.

Either—we are firmly determined that there shall be no war, and spend as much energy, thought and money on the problem of preventing it as we now spend in preparing for it. In that case—and if we succeed—the future promises a period of incredible achievements, of unlimited progress, of infinite riches of knowledge and material riches, of immediate preliminaries to humanity’s spread through the solar system as a first step to a spread through the galaxy. Read the rest of this entry »

That tail prop plane looks a lot like a Predator Drone.

Tail Props, counter-rotating, powered through a 60′ shaft by two Allison 1630 hp engines, drive the speedy new 48-passenger Douglas DC-8 transport.

3-Wheel Car powered by an aircraft engine, will do 100 mph and 40 miles to a gallon. In production now on West Coast, it will be on sale in 3 months.

Cigarette Holder Filters Smoke

TO MAKE a cigarette holder that filters and cools the smoke, procure a small size corncob and a close-grained cork. Trim the cork so that it fits tightly into the bowl with about 1/4 inch of the cork projecting to make removal of stubs easy.

For a filter and cooler, place a small cotton wad and menthol crystals in the bowl. With a red hot iron burn a hole through the center of the cork to hold the cigarette. Then cut the cork in half, place the fag between the corks and insert in the pipe.

This article was published during Science and Mechanics’ brief attempt to compete with Rolling Stone. I can just see some editor saying “We need to sex this magazine up!” Of course they could have just changed the name to S&M magazine…

Eye-Stopper of the Month

We’ve been getting a lot of complaints lately, especially from parents. “When are you going to publish an Eye-Stopper who isn’t clad in a skimpy bikini?” they ask. Well here she is, gracefully demonstrating American Standard’s new Ultra Bath. The oval “bathing pool” measures 5 feet long by 42 inches wide and 16 inches deep. Read the rest of this entry »

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HOLLYWOOD’S FROGMAN

Glen Galvin of MGM, attired in bathing suit and oxygen mask, is man behind the scenes in Hollywood’s fabulous underwater extravaganzas.

By Bob Willett

STANDING on the bottom at a depth of 12 feet, a man pulled steadily on a slender line. About 100 feet away, an object moved slowly toward him through the greenish-blue water.

As it drew near it took the shape of a beautiful young woman whose face and form could rival those of any mythical sea siren. She was bound hand and foot but, despite this apparent predicament, managed a cheerful grin when the diver finally reached out and grabbed her. Following twin streams of bubbles, they rose to the surface and he towed her to safety.
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IF

• you’re weary of matching one assembler instruction per one machine language instruction.

• you’re spending half of your machine time translating compiler programs into machine language programs of questionable efficiency.

• you’re using up time and money with hunt-and-peck machine language debugging and reprogramming.
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NOVELTIES IN JEWELRY

By ARTHUR DUCLOS

ACCORDING to Maiden Lane, the famous source of jewelry designs, there is really no reason ‘ why watches have to be round. The designers are proving this by bringing forward this year some very bewitching watches of every shape and size. Most of these designers are now putting out oval and square watches, making the face of the watch also square, oblong, or oval. One designer has even made the face of his watches in the shape of a triangle.
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Eerie Flight was “Slick” Goodlin’s description of his 19 minutes in the XS-1. He and the plane, above, were dropped from the belly of a B-29 at 27,000 feet. Once, to feel it out, he shot the XS-1 up to 550 mph. This summer he’ll try to crash the sonic barrier. He predicts 1,000 mph. (See Bell’s XS-1, MI, Oct. ’46.)

VESPA

Tom McCahill, famous Automobile Test Driver says: “Here is real fun … this car has a fantastic ride”

When Tom McCahill test drove the 1960 Vespa “400″, he stated that he experienced a thrill unknown in driving for a good many years… that it steered with the alertness of a Grand Prix car.
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There’s a new kind of blue note on this racy hit parade!

by JOHN TERRY

The hi-fi was giving out with Les Brown as the smartly-dressed guests cut a rug in the Park Avenue apartment of a Cafe Society playboy. Champagne and Scotch flowed freely and high-pitched laughter mingled with the deeper rumble of male mirth. Seductive women, reasonably handsome men, a luxurious apartment, what more could anyone ask?
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The Evil Eye?
NO, AND she isn’t trying to frighten anybody, either. Her eye is being illuminated by the ophthalmoscope, an important eye-testing instrument, which enlists the aid of Polaroid to shoot a beam of light straight through the eye into its background.

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Building AMERICA’S Largest Plane

Alfred W. Lawson, pioneer figure in aviation, who built the first commercial cabin passenger plane and the first tri-motored ship with heated cabin and sleeping berths, reveals to Modern Mechanics readers his plans for a 125-passenger air liner weighing 50 tons which he is now building in his New Jersey factory.
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