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A Breadbox-Size Navigating System

By R.F.Gallagher

WE’RE all navigators to some degree. Navigating is simply rinding your way from one place to another and knowing where you are along the way. Usually, though, we think of navigating in terms of ships and planes.

Navigating systems have come a long way since Capt. Bligh’s famous 3,600-mi. journey on the South Seas. All he needed was a sextant because all he really wanted to do was get within sight of land. He even might have considered sailing to within miles of a pile of rocks pinpoint navigation.
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Explosion of Sun Overdue

ACCORDING to calculations of astronomers, an explosion of the sun is some 600,000,000 years overdue, assuming that our private star has the same number of outbursts as the average star—which may not necessarily be correct. A definite number of star explosions occur in a definite area of space in a given period, and from these facts it is computed that the average star explodes once in 400,000,000 years.

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HOW TO MAKE A PHONOGRAPH

By WALTER LEE

IN case any person of a mechanical turn of mind wishes to try his hand at building a talking machine, I will explain what I used and how I used it. But before I do so, it may be well to explain, in a general way, the principle of phonography, so that the experimenter will know just what he is doing and why he is doing it that way.
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Robots ARE People!

By Richard Dempewolff

Modern scientists can make automatons that walk, talk, see—even think like a man. But only an 18th-century artisan created ‘human9 puppets.

A fantastic family lives in Neuchatel, a watch-making town hidden deep in the Swiss Alps. It’s a small family—only two boys and a girl; but it has a long history. For each one of the three was born nearly 200 years ago!

Despite two centuries of living, they show no signs of age and still look fresh and elegant in their fancy 18th-century costumes. One brother is an artist, the other a writer and the young lady a musician. These wonder children may keep all their endearing young charms and continue to use their creative talents for a thousand years. Neither youth nor health ever fails this remarkable family, the uncanniest members of that queer race man dreamed up—the robot people. Read the rest of this entry »

Lamp Shade in Football Motif
SOMETHING distinctly unique in the way of desk lamps was introduced at a University of Southern California sorority house. The shade was cut from parchment and made to resemble a football helmet, while the upright, cast in metal, forms a football. The lamp attracted wide attention and gave a sportive air to the room which it decorated.

We don’t care about your age.

Men!

Men!

Just tell us kind of woman you wish to meet.

Our women are anxious to meet you.
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Tamed Humming-birds Sip Honey

TRAINING humming-birds to sip honey from his lips is the unusual accomplishment of Ralph Ayer, a farmer living near Eastonville, Colorado. These tiny birds have heretofore been considered untamable.

Perfume bottles filled with honey and flowers first attracted the birds. They now return each year.

Sure, it’s a “telescope”.

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German Telescope is UNIQUE in Design

ANEW departure in the way of design and operation of high power telescopes has been effected at the Treptow astronomical observatory, near Berlin, which is one of the best in Germany. Of a design that is distinctly unique—it might be called modernistic—the new mammoth telescope, shown in the photo at the left, has many features that add immensely to the facility of star-gazing.
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Girl Exhibits Safety Gadgets
DENORE DOLIN prepares herself for all sorts of emergencies by wearing some of the safety devices exhibited at a safety show in New York City. Around her neck is a felt filter respirator. A transparent mask protects her face. Steel plating encases her shins and feet. The toe-guards, capable of withstanding a falling three hundred pound object, are used by workers in ice plants and steel mills.

“Ergometer” Checks Pensioners

DISPUTES between pensioners and government officials at Hamburg, Germany, as to their working capacities are now being settled by the “ergometer,” a machine which registers electrically the capabilities of different people for all sorts of work.
The queer machine is first adjusted to the height of the person.

A mask is adjusted over the face to meter the amount of air breathed in and out. The patient then cranks a device which records electrically the amount of work being done. From this reading a fair pension allotment can be found for any person. The machine will expose persons who claim disability when they are too lazy to work.

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Draining New Orleans Flood Bowl

HOLLAND, constantly waging war against an encroaching sea, has long excited the admiration of engineers and tourists alike with its network of canals and pumping stations. But in New Orleans, La., the same battle, occasionally intensified by sudden risings of the Mississippi river, has been going on for years with little or no public attention. Quietly New Orleans has constructed her canals, pipe lines and pumping stations until now her drainage system is rated as one of the most efficient in the world.
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“PLAYER PIANO” ROLL Controls Sky Sign

USING a musical siren to gain attention, a new sky sign, designed by Edward Link, Cortland, New York, aeronautical engineer, after five years of experimental work, took to the air for the first time over Miami this winter.

The sign, constructed as a lower wing to a high wing monoplane, is operated from an automatic “feeler” roll. It can display ten letters at one time, using as many as 75 words per message.
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