Light Pipes

GLASS tubing—eight hundred miles of it each month—flows from the nose of the 100-ton mandrel furnace at right. Cut into five-foot lengths for 100-watt fluorescent lamps, the tubes are first thoroughly cleaned inside and out with the combination brush and suction cleaner shown above. Then each one is filled to the top with fluorescent powders called phosphors. The liquid drains out leaving a phosphor coating inside and the long bulbs are placed on the rack at left to dry. Above, the furnaceman inspects tubing as it emerges

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Are Patent Medicines Dangerous?

BY ROBERT L. HEILBRONER

Down in Washington. D.C., a constant, unobtrusive cold war is being waged by three organizations—the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and a quiet institution known as The Proprietary Association.

These three groups are vigilantly protecting the consumer against foods, drugs, and cosmetics that are adulterated, or labeled or advertised with false or misleading statements.

They also do occasional battle with the remnants of the once-famous quack-medicine makers, known to some as “the patent-medicine industry.” They were fugitives from justice, with a record both long and nauseating. Theirs was at best a cold-blooded operation built on the principle that there is no buck so easy to wangle as the buck of a person in pain.
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This totally explains my lack of sporting ability. Damn you cavities!

Why Billy C. was benched

There he sat on the sidelines . . . all through football days. With the finest new football outfit in the neighborhood .. . with everything but a place on the eleven.

Baffled and hurt as only a twelve-year-old can be he tried desperately. But fumbled the ball. Couldn’t keep up with plays. Just couldn’t make the grade.
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FUN JEEP, above, intended for beach use, touring, camping; seats seven. Farina-built, it features gas-stretching 4-cylinder mill.

Fletner S-Rotor Used for Windmill

TAKING a hint from the unique power plant of the rotor ship designed by Anton Fletner several years ago, Charles L. Lawrence, aeronautical engineer, has designed a windmill —the only one of its kind in this country — which uses the famous S-Rotor to catch the wind. Mounted high on a platform as shown in the accompanying photo, the cylindrical rotor is hooked to a pump which supplies water to a duck pond. Pump is housed in the shed beneath.

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Hollywood Star Chaser

Tired of being a fall guy for films, this stunt man got on the phone and called up a fortune.

By Carl Crawford

MAYBE I shouldn’t admit it, but I got my big money-making idea right after falling downstairs on my head eight times in a row.

Frankly, I don’t recommend such tumbles to anyone seeking inspiration for a novel business venture. I was a stunt man in the movies at the time and took those eight falls downstairs as a professional daredevil.

That afternoon, when I was wearily picking up my battered bones, I heard the director hailing an actor who’d just come on the set: “Where the devil were you this morning, Joe? I had a nice, little part for you—four days’ work at 60 bucks a day. But when the studio couldn’t find you, I had to get somebody else.” Read the rest of this entry »

HEN BRAVES FLOOD
ONE of the refugees in the recent Mississippi flood was an old Plymouth Rock hen who floated around on her box-board raft until she was rescued. The photograph shows biddy registering joy as her owner approaches in a canoe. The hen may be seen to be wearing a complacent, self-satisfied expression, but it must be explained in extenuation that it’s a rare chick which grows up to become captain, first mate, and roustabout of her own Mississippi steamer!

Patents ~ Nutty or Novel?

BELIEVE it or not, the United States Government has issued letters patent on the extraordinary devices pictured on this page. The average owner of a patent is lucky if he breaks even on expenses. Out of some two million patents granted in this country, the number which never make a cent for their inventors reaches staggering proportions.
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Behold the Cripple!

By Bernarr Macfadden

IF YOU lose an arm or a leg you are classed as a cripple.

If you walk with a limp, or have an unmistakable indication of a physical defect of any sort, you are put in the same class of the disabled.

Now there are plenty of people who are defective mentally and physically, but as far as you can see they possess normal powers.

There is no limp in their walk, and superficially they seem to be normal mentally. Read the rest of this entry »

Corner Windows Feature of New Gotham Skyscraper

A NEW step in office building construction has been marked with the completion of a new 34-story skyscraper in New York City. The most noteworthy feature of the building is that the supporting steel framework does not extend to the corners of the structure, these corners being left entirely clear, and windows being placed at each floor with only a thin metal window sash at the angle. The additional light thus available in the corner offices makes these suites desirable especially in the upper stories beyond reach of street noises.

MAC PANEL computer tape… ASSURED PERFORMANCE

MAC Panel Computer Tape is produced under rigidly controlled, scientific conditions to give you assured tape performance. Manufactured for Performance through the use of an improved oxide formulation that insures the presence and retention of the most critical magnetic properties as well as the prime physical characteristics: permanent coating adhesion . . . hard shell toughness . . . and flexibility under all conditions. Tested for Performance using procedures that far exceed the normal criterion for attention to detail. Read the rest of this entry »

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Freak Plane Crashes

By RAOUL WHITFIELD

Wartime Aviator and Famous Author of Air Fiction ISSOUDUN, FRANCE. August, 1918. Grey sky, spit of rain. Two fifteen-meter Nieuports doing combat work at eight thousand, just under the clouds. And then, wings too close, the crash!

I’ve seen a lot of sky bangs. This one took the prize. I watched it from the earth—it was my turn to take one of these ships up next. It was my turn, but I didn’t take one. They tangled wings, and one ship spun free like a top. A wing dropped loose as she spun, But not her wing—the other plane’s. Read the rest of this entry »