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From Cats to Cataclysms

LLOYD’S OF LONDON WILL INSURE EVERYTHING

By Lester David

THE owner of a private zoo in England recently offered a huge cash reward to anyone who brought him the legendary Loch Ness monster, dead or alive. But he isn’t worried about paying up if the elusive horror is ever hooked—he’s insured.

Last year a golfer had to pay $37 for a round of drinks in the clubhouse after making a hole-in-one. But it actually didn’t cost him a cent— he was insured.

Dozens of men in the U. S. who become the proud fathers of twins don’t wring their hands at the prospect of the added expense—they’re insured.

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ELECTROCUTING WHALES
BIRGER HOLM-HANSEN, a Norwegian engineer, has invented a device for the instantaneous electrocution of whales. It consists of a small but powerful generator which is carried in the whaleboat, and a flexible, insulated line conveying a current of high voltage to the harpoon. At the in-slant the harpoon hits the whale the current is thrown on and the electric charge shot into the monster.

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How To Gather Fleas from a Grizzly Bear

How to get fleas from a grizzly bear might puzzle a less resourceful man than Walt Sutter of Tacoma, Wash. From a radio program he learned that a wealthy Englishwoman was in the market for grizzly-bear fleas, to complete a collection taken from various wild animals. So he went to a zoo with a long-nozzled vacuum cleaner, and soon the coveted specimens were in the bag, ready for a purchaser.

Police Dog Rides Aquaplane Behind Speeding Power Boat

ONE of the sensations of a recent water circus held at Atlantic City, N. J., was the performance of Rex, Belgian police dog, who gave a demonstration of plain and fancy aquaplaning behind a speeding-power boat.

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Guinea Pigs Test New Beauty Aids

GUINEA PIGS are partly responsible for the beauty of many of the glamorous faces that flash across the screen of your neighborhood movie theater. Tests with these patient little rodents have even saved the film careers of actors and actresses whose skin reacted unfavorably to ordinary studio make-up. Now applied to the manufacture of cosmetics for the general public, similar tests are guarding the beauty and health of millions.

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Electric Chicken Plucker
Lay a scalded chicken or turkey against the whirling 4-1/2-inch rubber fingers of this electric machine, and in a jiffy the bird will be stripped of feathers. Half a minute per chicken is average. Machine is made by Mercury Company, Los Angeles, Calif.

Dog’s Tail Forms Radio Receiver
A DOG’S tail serves as a radio receiver for Frank G. Kerk, Los Angeles experimenter. Kerk attaches an aerial to the collar of his Great Dane and hooks an ear phone to the animal’s tail. The canine radio is then complete and all that is necessary is to place the phone to the ear and listen.

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Beaver paratroopers!

Airborne Beavers Fight Floods
OUT in Idaho, the Department of Fish and Game is teaching eager beavers to yell “Geronimo!” These busy little creatures are being dropped by parachute to terrain where they can do their bit in the conservation battle.
Idaho state caretakers trap unwanted beavers which may be a nuisance in certain areas, round them up at central points and pack them in pairs in specially constructed wooden crates. After they are dropped, the boxes remain closed as long as there’s some tension on the parachute shrouds but pull open as soon as the chute collapses on the ground. Then, out crawl Mama and Papa beaver, ready to start work.
After they’re settled, the 40-pound, web-footed rodents multiply and become outpost agents of flood control and soil conservation. Fur supervisor John Smith reports that in carefully observed early operations,
the beavers headed straight for water and started building a new dam within a couple of days.
However, one problem still remains to be solved—a question of ethics more than conservation. Are these eager beavers bona fide members of the Caterpillar Club?

Blows Glass Globe Around Cats
TO WIN a bet, Dick Manley, California glass blower, performed an unprecedented glass blowing stunt. He placed three kittens in a glass tube and within three minutes fashioned it into a perfect 26-inch globe with the kittens inside and unharmed. A small hole admitted air.

Carrier Pigeons Take Aerial Photos With New Camera
IT IS no longer necessary to send planes over enemy lines to get photos of troop operations—carrier pigeons have now been pressed into service for this hazardous task.

This unusual feat is made possible by the development in Germany of a new diminutive aerial camera which is strapped to the pigeon’s breast, as illustrated in the accompanying photo. Two hundred views may be taken while in flight, the shots being made possible only after the bird has left the ground. Each bird also carries a message tube strapped to its leg.

The German government has opened a school to train carrier pigeons for service in aerial photography.

Cattle Get Headlights-Horns Standard Equipment

After several of his livestock had wandered onto dark country roads at night, and been killed by passing automobiles and trucks, an English farmer solved the problem by providing head and tail lights for his cattle. Tiny lamps powered by small dry cells are affixed to the horns and tails of the animals, making them visible to motorists coming from either direction along the roads that border the farm. In the photograph above, one of the tiny headlamp-and-battery units is shown strapped to the horn of a steer.

Entertaining article that explains why the core of any military force will always be made up of men and horses.
“Machines of war can only be adjuncts to their superior flexibility.”

Do we still have any mounted cavalry? I’ve seen pictures of those Special Forces guys in Afghanistan, but that’s about it.

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Why Modern Armies Still Cling to the Cavalry

by M. W. MEIER

The tank is a powerful weapon, but the faithful horse can still outfight it in many situations encountered on modern battlefields.
Here is told the cavalry’s side of the story.

YOU may not know it but Uncle Sam has the finest cavalry on earth—pitifully small though it is.

It may lack the swank, color and picturesqueness of that of other nations but what it may lack in fancy-drilling ability it more than makes up for in equipment, firing-power and maneuverability—the things that really count in war.

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