Motor-Driven Car Carries Machine-Gun Crew in Action

Low-slung and fitted with four diminutive wheels, a novel vehicle undergoing tests by U. S. Army officials is designed to serve as a mobile machine-gun carrier to enable gunners to fire continuously during an advance or retreat.

Manned by two soldiers, the curious machine is powered by a gasoline motor geared to the rear wheels. While one man operates the gun, the other controls the speed and direction of the vehicle by means of special pedals operated by his feet. At the same time, the steersman assists the gunner by feeding racks of cartridges into the gun.

Manicure Fad for Bridge Players
AND now comes the bridge manicure — the latest bright idea which adds to the fun of the game for bridge addicts! In this fad, to have your nails properly manicured for a bridge game you must have a heart, a diamond, a spade and a club enameled on each finger nail, and a question mark on the thumbnail for no-trumps. The photo at the right shows Miss Martha Zamm of Los Angeles, originator of the fad, with fingers properly decorated for a game. Symbols are painted in black on the nails.

DELUXE QUALITY MOVIE VIEWER only $34.95

8MM & SUPER8

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• Handles 200′ reels of 8MM and Super 8

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• Adjustable speed-Fast to Stop Action for single frame viewing and editing

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Bridge of Boats to Guide Trans-Atlantic Air Mail

by BEVERLY BARNES

Within a few weeks you’ll be able to drop a letter in your local mail box and have it delivered in Europe in a few hours, carried by airplane all the way. How this trans-Atlantic air mail will be guided by a bridge of boats or seadromes is explained in this timely article.

THE “bridge of boats” which America rushed to completion thirteen years ago to carry an American army to France and help win the war, may become a bridge again to guide the first trans-oceanic air mail line across the North Atlantic.
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TELEVISION TODAY

A—Two-unit experimental portable television receiver gets a tryout on the beach at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island. Intended for use at picnics, beaches or on boats where power lines are not available, this set is operated with a separate portable power unit which may be seen behind the receiver. The 3-in. screen is located at upper right in the TV set. All controls are simplified and mounted on the front panel within .easy reach of the operator. Both units are housed in neat sheet-metal carrying cases Read the rest of this entry »

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Mechanical Aids for Play or Work

TEACHES YOU TO DANCE—A Berlin dancing master invented this checkerboard affair to make it easy to learn dancing steps. It is a floorboard, designed to fit the average size room. On it are numbered squares. A code tells upon what square the feet should be for each step.

A TINY PROJECTOR—This movie projection machine, invented in Germany, is less than four inches long—small enough to fit in a coat pocket. A special size film is used. The battery is so powerful that 200 shows can be given without changing it. The image that is thrown on a screen or wall by the tiny device is about the size of a picture frame.
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Skeleton Gets A Shave

AT LEAST this is how a skeleton would look if it did shave with an electric razor. Actually, it’s an X-ray photograph of a man shaving himself, taken at 1/1,000,000 of a second. The picture was taken by L. F. Ehrke, of the Westinghouse Research Lamp Laboratories, Bloomfield, N. J.

When lovely women vote

To thousands of women of this type — charming, educated, well-to-do, prominent in the social and civic life of her city, we put this question: What tooth paste do you use?

To our delight, the majority answered Listerine Tooth Paste. Certainly to women of means, the price of 25c could not possibly have been a factor in deciding upon a tooth paste. Obviously, the quality of the dentifrice itself and the brilliant results it accomplished were responsible for their choice. Read the rest of this entry »

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Optical vs mechanical: the coming battle of the video-disc players

Several incompatible disc machines will tease the eager buyer next year

By JOHN FREE

If you’re confused by ads citing advantages of one videotape machine over an incompatible competitor, brace yourself. More befuddlement is brewing. Early next year, makers of two— and perhaps three—mutually incompatible video-disc players will each be shouting the virtues of their products while cleverly knocking the others.

Battle lines between two differing disc technologies took shape in the early 1970′s with demonstrations of early lab prototypes. Despite attempts at standardization, the lines hardened for two types of disc players: Optical, involving touchless disc playback with a laser beam, and mechanical systems, requiring contact between the disc and pickup stylus.
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MACHINE MIMICS GLOW OF FIREPLACE

Electric light is transformed into a screen-play of moving color forms for entertainment in the living room by the home “Clavilux,” a form of the symphonic light organ intended for the theateror auditorium (P. S. M., Feb. ’29, p. 37). The new instrument, adapted to the home, is designed as a dual cabinet in the modernistic style, the upper section containing a screen upon which color symphonies are played from a projection apparatus in the cabinet below.
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Name Elements 99 and 100

Two great scientists who died within the last year, Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, have been honored by the naming of elements 99 einsteinium and 100 fermium. The symbol for einsteinium is plain E, that for fermium, Fm. Now all discovered elements are named, since 101 was previously named mendelevium after the Russian, D. Mendeleev, who announced the periodic system of the elements in 1869.

Rubber Cord Used as Self-Starter for Light-Plane Engine
USING the principle of the rubber-band-powered model, William Strohmeier, of Lock Haven, Pa., recently demonstrated a new lightweight self-starter for engines on private planes. By turning a crank on the instrument panel of his Piper Cub monoplane, Strohmeier winds up a rubber shock-absorber cord that runs the length of the fuselage. Thirty turns of the crank stretches the cord to the required tension. Read the rest of this entry »