October 17, 2007

RAISE YOUR OWN SILK (Dec, 1944)

RAISE YOUR OWN SILK

Here’s an easy, profitable, spare time job for several million Americans that can make the U. S. world’s largest silk producer.

by Roger Clay

HAVE you ever considered growing your wife’s silk stockings at home? Well, it can be done. That is, the silk thread can be produced at home, in your spare time, at very little expense—and it will pay you a nice profit.

John Ousta of New York City, a naturalized citizen of Turkish birth, with a 400-year family tradition of silk producing behind him, is convinced this country can make enough silk to meet the whole world’s demands. One-third of our farming population, raising only one ounce of eggs (30,000 to 43,000 worms) regularly in their spare-time, could do it! And a silk industry on that scale would employ a quarter of a million people in reeling factories alone.

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October 9, 2007

Lone Girl Raises 15,000 Chickens In Indoor Cages (Jan, 1937)

Lone Girl Raises 15,000 Chickens In Indoor Cages

ADOPTING a system invented by Milton H. Arndt, of Trenton, N. J., a 19 year-old Long Island girl, Lillian Swenson, is raising and taking care of 15,000 chickens indoors. The chickens never see or need the sunlight for the necessary vitamin “D” is supplied in their food.

Each chicken has its own wire compartment measuring about one and a half feet square. Compartments are arranged in batteries of 100 chickens each making it possible to house them in a small area. Running water and individual feed troughs are located in each compartment.

Through the use of the indoor compartment system, using cellars, lofts, etc., and feeding the chickens scientifically balanced rations, mortality rate has been cut from 40-60% to less than 1%. So successful is this method that a large New York hotel raises its own chickens on the roof. The flavor of the eggs is said to be superior to those of barnyard chickens.

September 28, 2007

DOGS NOW NOSEPRINTED TO PROVE OWNERSHIP (Feb, 1933)

Filed under: Dogs, General — @ 12:32 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1933

I’m not sure how this prevents dog theft. If I steal your dog couldn’t I just make a noseprint of him and claim I had it all the time?

DOGS NOW NOSEPRINTED TO PROVE OWNERSHIP
Taking noseprints of dogs to guard them against loss or theft is the method being adopted by western owners. When two persons claim the same dog in court, ink noseprints, like the specimen illustrated, settle the matter. Like human fingerprints, the patterns on the nose of the dog are said not to change with age, and therefore a pet need submit but once to having its nostrils smeared with ink. No two dogs have identical patterns so a mistake is impossible.

September 9, 2007

Black Widow Spins Web to Help Build Weapons for U.S. Army (Nov, 1953)

Filed under: Other Animals — @ 10:40 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1953

Black Widow Spins Web to Help Build Weapons for U.S. Army

The black-widow spicier above is a defense worker. Its web filaments are used by Northrop as cross hairs in microscopes and telescopes for Army tank sights. Tougher than steel, they are so fine that 5,000 of them laid side by side take up only an inch.

At left, the spider is having a health check in the plastic box where it lives between jobs. At right, it has climbed out on a stick and is about to be shaken loose. As the spider falls on its back to the floor, it will spin a six-foot strand.

August 31, 2007

Kitten Kast and Slick Chick (Mar, 1948)

Filed under: Cats — @ 1:44 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1948

If ever there was an image that needed to be LOL-catted, this is it. Fire away.

Slick Chick plays a tune on the piano—a slick trick that’s been taught her by Prof. Keller Breland, psychologist, as part of his studies in chicken behavior. He’s taught another chicken to tap dance in special shoes!
————————
Kitten Kast. This little feline needed a bit of human help to keep her nine lives intact. Toffy (that’s her name) caught her paw in the door, and a modern vet prescribed a type of “airplane swing” just like the one used on human patients with broken limbs. Purpose is to stretch muscles so that bone can knit easily.

Radio-Controlled Rats (Feb, 1957)

According to National Geographic very similar research is still being carried out.

The National Geographic article talks about actually using the rats like smart little robots. The research in this article is supposedly aimed at learning more about electro-shock therapy in insane patients. I’m not really sure how the to are related. Maybe their goal is to make crazy people navigate mazes.

Radio-Controlled Rats

Rodents with radio sets in their heads get their brains massaged by electric impulses for science.

INSERTING a miniature crystal set beneath the skin of a rat’s head, Dr. Joseph A. Gengerelli, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, has been doing research on the subject of instructing rats by radio.

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August 29, 2007

DOGS BARK TONED DOWN BY OPERATION (Nov, 1936)

Filed under: Dogs, General — @ 12:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1936

Poor dog. Do vets still do this?

DOGS BARK TONED DOWN BY OPERATION
Toning down the barking of noisy dogs is the reported accomplishment of an Atlanta, Ga., veterinarian, who has performed the feat upon the pets of a number of apartment dwellers. In the simple, painless operation that he has devised, a dog’s vocal cord is relieved of a small V-shaped wedge on either side. No danger to the animal is involved, it is said, and the only after effect is that an ear-splitting bark is muffled to a dulcet tone that can cause no complaints from neighbors. In the photo at left, a pet is under treatment.

August 3, 2007

Luxurious Stable on Wheels Speeds Race Horses to Tracks (Oct, 1924)

I think that trailer was nicer than most people’s homes at the time.

Luxurious Stable on Wheels Speeds Race Horses to Tracks

Transporting race horses in railway cars or in ordinary motor trucks always has been attended with anxiety for the owner and more or less discomfort for the animals. To eliminate these difficulties and to save time as-well, a luxurious automobile has been designed. It is a. completely equipped stable on wheels. Cushioned upon a passenger-carrying chassis with shock absorbers, the car develops an average speed of thirty or thirty-five miles an hour and can swing along with ease and safety at fifty. Two horses and a groom besides the chauffeur can be carried in the roomy, electric-lighted interior. There are two stalls, separated by a partition on a pivot to facilitate loading.

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August 1, 2007

Things I Learned from TEN THOUSAND CATS (Oct, 1934)

Filed under: Cats, How to — @ 12:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1934

Things I Learned from TEN THOUSAND CATS

By A. J. Adamson

ONLY by dealing patiently and kindly with a cat, particularly during its early life, may you develop the sort of animal everyone wants as a companion and pet. Unlike dogs, cats will respond only to kindness. Punish them and they grow surly and spiteful. I speak from rich experience, having bred fully 10,000 cats during the last quarter of a century.

The old idea was that every animal should be punished when caught in a wrongful act, but cats do not understand the meaning of a whipping. They are weak-willed and easily tempted and must, therefore, be guided in paths of righteousness.

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July 27, 2007

Canine Stable Boy Helps Train Racer (Sep, 1940)

Filed under: Dogs — @ 12:28 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1940

Canine Stable Boy Helps Train Racer

High-strung, temperamental race horses often have mascots, whose playful companionship provides a diversion from the serious business of winning; turf events. Witness, for example, the friendship of Ba-ranca, a thoroughbred, and Flash, a pure-white dog. In the circle at the right, the trained mascot offers the racer a juicy carrot, and at left, he holds the halter and leads Baranca out for a light workout, at their Inglewood, Calif., home. Winner of his share of races, the horse could lead the dog a merry chase if he chose to set the pace instead of meekly obeying the “orders” of his affectionate canine trainer.

July 26, 2007

POACHING MADE BIG BUSINESS by Ruthless Gangs of Killers (Oct, 1933)

Filed under: Other Animals — @ 12:37 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1933

POACHING MADE BIG BUSINESS by Ruthless Gangs of Killers

HIDDEN among the P’s of the dictionary, you find: “Poacher, One who takes game or fish illegally.” To this time-honored definition, recent events have given a new twist. Outlaws are invading the forests and exploiting the game resources of the country. Organized criminals are’ dealing in illegal furs, fake bounty scalps, out-of-season game birds.

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July 24, 2007

This Trained Monkey Spends Most of Time in His Master’s Workshop (Sep, 1929)

This Trained Monkey Spends Most of Time in His Master’s Workshop
TINKERING with tools has earned this trained monkey at left the title of “house carpenter” on the estate of Cherry Kearten, famous African explorer and authority on animals. The chimpanzee was brought back from Africa after one of his expeditions and tamed and trained. He was allowed to wander about the estate at will and one day walked into Mr. Kearten’s workshop. His attendants couldn’t find him for a day and a half, and when he was finally discovered, he was busily engaged in nailing small pieces of board around the shop. Now he has a separate corner in the workshop and spends hours with the tools that have been provided for him.

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