LOOK AND LISTEN

By JOHN FREE

Voice-controlled hi-fi

At a recent Toshiba press conference I noticed a stack of mini-hi-fi components [PS, Jan.] with a microphone attached. But the mike, I learned, wasn’t plugged in to record music. Instead, it lets you store 15 verbal commands in a microcomputer memory. After that, the hi-fi system responds only to your voice, enabling you to perform 19 functions—operating a cassette deck orally, controlling volume, or selecting tuner channels, for example.
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Booth girls’ costumes have gotten a lot skimpier since the fifties, though I suppose this outfit wouldn’t look that out of place at a Japanese gaming con.

Tripod Jack for cars is advertised

to be foolproof and upset-proof, and can be manipulated by even the daintiest of females as the photo clearly shows. It was shown at the Automotive Industries Show in Chicago. It is the bumper type, screw -driven. Vulcan Mfg., Winona, Minn.

A charm that is recognized everywhere

What a glorious thing it is to face each day, secure in the confidence that you are always attractive! That you can wear the alluring new fashions, so adorably feminine, with the grace and charm for which they were designed!
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Building Your Own Gasoline Station

By Fred T. Anderson

Gasoline can be obtained at the wholesale price only when a storage tank of 50 gals, capacity is available. With such a tank it is possible to buy directly from dealers at a cost usually about three cents a gallon less than the retail price. Read the rest of this entry »

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FLYERS have the World’s Strangest Club

By a Member of the Club

To join the famous Flying Jackass Club, one has to earn the title of “Flying Fool,” by being proved guilty of some outstandingly silly piece of piloting. Related here are some of the thrills which have made men eligible for initiation.

LOITERING in the benevolent shade of one of the hangars at Wright Field, a group of army flyers watched with casually interested eye the aerial capers of another lieutenant who was putting his machine through screaming chandelles, wing overs, and sickening dives. His masterful piloting was up to the usual army standard. The exhibition would have brought forth newspaper headlines ten years ago. Today it was all in the day’s work. With a last roar the gun was cut and the pilots yawned. The Curtiss pursuit leveled off for a landing.
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Wouldn’t it be easier to just build the factory in the mountain and leave it there?

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Bombproof Plane Factories ROLL INTO MOUNTAIN SIDE

Raid Shelters for Assembly Plants: A Swiss Inventor’s Solution to the Problem of Protecting Production AIRPLANE FACTORIES that literally run to shelter from raiding bombers have been invented by Antoine Gazda, noted Swiss armament designer, and erected at undisclosed places in Switzerland by the Pilatus aircraft concern as a national-defense precaution. A typical installation consists of a pair of twin assembly plants, normally standing in the open where their total of 360 workers enjoy natural sunshine and fresh air. Read the rest of this entry »

New FM Auto Radio

OUR recent survey “FM Radios for Your Car” (December 1959) contained several reports from leading auto radio makers which stated flatly they had no plans for marketing an FM auto radio. Motorola was one of them. In spite of their former stand—or perhaps because of our article—Motorola is now mass producing the FM-900, a mobile radio that tunes 88-108 mc. Read the rest of this entry »

What a difference Cantilever Shoes make

“Oh, come along.”

But Dorothy dropped back limply in her chair. “My feet hurt, Peggy. Honestly, I feel just all in.”

Peggy kept Bess from leaving, then went at Dorothy again. “You’ve been shopping with us not two hours and here you are, letting your feet spoil your fun.”

“I guess if your feet hurt the way-mine do, you—”

“They used to, Dorothy,” Peggy interrupted, “only I did something about it. My feet used to throb like a toothache. They spoiled ever so many good times. I was getting to be a real grouch, when Bess got me into Cantilevers. Read the rest of this entry »

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The World’s Safest Business

By G. Harry Stine
Viking-Aerobee Operations Engineer White Sands Proving Ground

AMATEUR rocketry is on the upswing in the United States. Many boys are building rockets today who would have been plane model fans a generation back. By rough count, there are approximately 100 amateur rocket societies in the U. S.—and no one knows how many young men building rockets. Read the rest of this entry »

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Photographic Hocus-Pocus

EVERY now and then, the best of us get the itch to break away from straight, serious photography and amuse ourselves and our “public” with photo-magic and tomfoolery. Sometimes our dabbling leads us into the production of interesting pictorial effects; at other times, our results turn out surrealistic or plain crazy, but amusing nevertheless.
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Science Makes It Possible

$2.00 For Each Idea THE word “impossible” has no longer a meaning in scientists’ and mechanics’ vocabulary; the most impossible things are made possible these days. On this page we have shown eight examples of so-called “impossible possibilities.”

Each year science and mechanics bring out new wonders and it is the purpose of this page to introduce them to the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Collapsible Fire Escape

SOMETHING unique in the way of fire escapes is shown in the photo at the right. When a fire breaks out, the crank on the contraption is turned. This shoots the platform up to the window, permitting the person whose life is endangered to step out to safety. Turning the crank also lowers the platform.