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IT’S NEW!

AUSTIN-HEALY SPRITE, new British sports car, seats two, gets 35 mpg, tops at 80 mph. It has four cylinders, lour speeds, costs $1795 F.O.B. New York without the little extras.

FISH SCALER to lit your power drill; the $2 answer to the scale-fearful fisherman’s prayer. The nylon cylinder will not tear or harm the skin of fish or fisherman, but a child can clean fish like an Indian guide if Daddy will let him use his 1/4″ holemaker. Jaco Mfg. Co.. P.O. Box 2659, Lakewood, Ohio.

PNEUMATIC SPLINT for first aid support to injured limbs is a new German gismo. Rigid frame contains four air cushions.
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Smokes Without Glow
A HOME-MADE aluminum shield with vent holes enables this English air raid worker to enjoy his cigarette and obey the “Lights Out!” warnings.

Taxi of the Future as sketched by industrial designers Martial and Scull, will maneuver more easily in city traffic and be cheaper to use. This one holds 4 or 5 people and has sliding doors, and outside indicator to show when it is not being used. Another marked improvement is a shorter wheelbase, giving it a narrower turning radius.

DOG SHOWS MUSICAL TALENT
EVERY now and then a dog is seen on the stage that seems to almost have human intelligence. This dog shows exceptional musical ability when he sits on the bench of an automatic piano and pats the keys, as the piano plays. That he has a musical sense of rhythm is shown by the fact that he pats the keys in time with the piece that is being, played. He is owned by a Berlin vaudeville performer.

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Haywire House

By R.W.K

I’VE been there, I’ve seen, I’ve taken pictures—but I still don’t see how such things are possible.

The Editors of MI heard some wild stories about a place called the House of Mystery. What stories! People go around ten degrees off the vertical! A golf ball thrown straight up comes down several inches to one side! A bottle rolls uphill! A broom stands by itself—at an angle to the floor! People grow taller or shorter, depending on where they stand! All this happens in Oregon, in a peculiar area called the Oregon Vortex, a circle, or rather a sphere, exactly 165 feet 4-1/2 inches in diameter up in the Gold Hill country!
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Automatic Aiming Cannon Could Hit Invisible Aircraft

New anti-aircraft gun aims itself by sounding device to guard America from air raiders.

PEOPLE who lived in London during the late World War will vividly recall the feeling of helplessness that possessed them when Germany bombed that city on several occasions.

They will tell you that the murderous cargoes of bombs were dropped from Zeppelins and Gothas which cruised the thin upper realms of the heavens with nothing more harmful than an occasional searchlight beam touching them. The anti-aircraft guns were powerless. Why? Any aviator familiar with anti-aircraft ordnance could tell you. He would laugh at the thought of an anti-aircraft gun actually scoring a direct hit. Planes brought down by shrapnel from the ground were planes that were just “in the way,” he would tell you. Read the rest of this entry »

New Bell Solar Battery Converts Sun’s Rays Into Electricity

Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrate new device for using power from the sun.

Great and kindly is the sun. Each day it bathes the earth in light, bringing life to everything on earth.

Scientists have long reached for the secret of the sun. For they have known that it sends us nearly as much energy daily as is contained in all known reserves of coal, oil and uranium. Read the rest of this entry »

It Would Make A Swell Fan, Too

IT LOOKS like a new-fangled kind of windmill, or at least a trick water turbine—but don’t let appearances fool you. It’s an unusual aerial designed for W6XAO, the only television transmitting station in Los Angeles. The aerial is 60 feet high, and the paddle-like elements are intended to produce television pictures with better definition than former aerials have given. Made of duraluminum, it is being inspected by Harry Lubcke, its designer, and Thomas Lee, who owns the station.

First-Aid Booth

THE Germans have designed a street first-aid booth which seems to have everything. Well, practically everything.

First, naturally, there’s a first-aid kit and a folding stretcher on wheels. This is so light it can be pushed by a child. Then, there’s a public telephone and a fire alarm. For the policeman on beat, there’s a special wire to the station and on the wall is a mirror for last-minute grooming. On top of the booth is an illuminated clock and a blue light which blinks if somebody wants a policeman.

If plumbing facilities had been available there’d probably be a kitchen sink, too.

Zero to 60 in 7 Seconds!

WHEN Donner Denkler of Southampton, N. Y., purchased a Nash-Healey a while back he was impressed with the lines of the car and with its fine handling characteristics. But something was missing; in the acceleration and top speed departments his “bomb” just wasn’t fast enough in its class for racing. He decided to add a shot of jump juice but the question that remained was how to go about it. After due consideration he concluded that instead of souping up the old power plant he would add an entirely new one—a Cadillac V-8. Read the rest of this entry »

KING OF THE EGGHEADS

THE drollest collection of painted eggs in the world probably belongs to Stan Bult, curator of a London museum. Bult’s hobby is living part-time in the world of circus clowns—a habit he got into as a boy when a troupe of friendly clowns lived next door. The faces he paints on his eggs are authentic copies of those belonging to members of the International Circus Clown Club. As secretary of the European division of the club Bult keeps a file of faces so that clowns can avoid copying each other. Each clown’s make-up is his professional, jealously guarded property.

BOOKS in Postage Stamp and billboard Sizes!

WHETHER you want a book that you can carry around in a thimble, or one which requires a truck to move about, you can find what you are looking for in the great libraries of the world. The pictures on this page show some of the Davids and Goliaths of the book world.

Taller than an average man, this huge atlas is more than 400 years old, dating from the 16th century. It is housed in the University of Rostock, Germany. The man in the picture is studying a map of the world as it was known to scholars of the middle ages. Note the hinges for clasping the book shut when not in use. Read the rest of this entry »