Wheel-Less Truck Walks on Metal “Feet”

A NEW wheel-less motor truck that actually walks on metal feet is the invention of a German manufacturer. The “walking” truck is a development of the tank idea and is equipped with two sets of runners, each of which has five heavy metal “feet” that sink into heavy or muddy ground and thus gain traction.

While one set of runners is being raised and moved forward, the weight of the truck rests on the other set. As the forward moving set gains a footing, it pulls the load forward, while the other set repeats the motion—similar to the walking motion of a human being or an animal, conveying heavy loads on comparatively little power.

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“The Box” – All Wheels Steer and Drive

Look at this ultralight on-and-off-road vehicle that hits new highs in mobility

By JIM DAVIS / PS West Coast Editor

Racing car? Economy car? Dune buggy? Off-road vehicle? The answer, every time, is yes; the Box is all of these. It began life as a multipurpose car suitable for street, track, and off-road use; but because it has a fully watertight body, it even converts to an amphibian when paddles are fixed to the wheels.

The designers, Dan Hanebrink and Matt Van Leeuwen of Costa Mesa, Calif., aimed for aircraft lightness. They also had their own ideas on just about everything in the chassis department.
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The Trailer Grows Up

By Julian Leggett

ROM the time, only ten years ago, when it was little more than a big wooden box perched precariously between two wheels, the trailer has come a long way.

Just recently, an auto-and-trailer unit was traveling the desert road beside the Salton sea, with the speedometer needle hovering close to seventy. As the driver picked up the telephone to inform his family in the trailer that they were nearing their destination, there was a loud bang. The driver felt a quick tug at the steering wheel, a sudden drag on the car. But nothing else happened. There was no loss of control, no careening. Cautiously he set the brakes and brought the two vehicles to a stop. Investigation revealed that one of the trailer tires had blown out—at seventy miles an hour-yet not even a dish was out of place in the trailer’s cupboard.
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How’s This For Luxury?

This Englishman’s car is literally his castle— a plush, sumptuous $14,000 dream on wheels.

PLUSH seems a woefully inadequate word to describe the Bentley Countryman Saloon, the fabulously luxurious auto owned by Mr. A. Walker of Watchers, Hastemere, Surrey, England, With whom Uncle Tom is shown in the photo above. The Bentley’s rear seat armrests have concealed cocktail shakers and glasses, canapes, nuts and olives. Two fold-out tables on the rear seat allow you to savor these goodies in lazy leisure. Converting the seats to beds, you have a six-foot, six-inch station wagon—a dream on wheels.

If that lady isn’t careful I’ll bet the coach would run fine on her as well.

Coach Runs on Roads or Rails

WHAT might be termed a land amphibian capable of traveling on road or rail has been developed by railroad engineers to put forth competition to the buses which now ply the highways, cutting heavily into railroad revenues.

For traveling on ordinary roads the coach has the regular pneumatic tire equipment of a bus, but for taking to the rails it is provided with four sets (one for each wheel) of small flanged wheels which engage the rails and keep the car on the track. A special mechanism permits the driver to raise the flanged wheels when he desires to return to the highway.

Prism Glare Shield Reduces Night Driving Hazards

CONSISTING of two finely polished optical glass prisms set in a metal mounting, this device is designed to serve as a glare eliminator for automobiles. Fastened over the windshield, it is perfectly transparent so that the driver can clearly see the road. Startling as it may seem, however, on the approach of another car with glaring headlights the device immediately lowers an “optical curtain” so that the oncoming car and lights vanish and the driver can see as clearly as ever. Read the rest of this entry »

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What Tomorrow’s Cars Will Look Like

By Donald Gray

The automobile industry, always one of the country’s most progressive, is today on the verge of astonishing changes in engineering design which are likely to make your next automobile so radically different in appearance that you’ll hardly recognize it. Probable lines of development of tomorrow’s car are here authoritatively presented.

PROFILES of automobiles, like profiles of women’s hats, have a habit of changing swiftly and drastically in response to the whims of fashion.
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SIGNS GUARD INVALIDS FROM HONKING CARS
When the city surveyor of Birmingham, England, recently sought a way to end the honking of automobiles outside the homes of sick persons, he devised the means shown in the photograph. Signs bearing a warning legend were prepared and placed in readiness by city officials. Now a written or telephoned request brings a messenger who will affix the notice outside the afflicted home, to stay until it is no longer needed. The scheme is a boon to invalids, as public hospitals have hitherto been the only ones favored with “Quiet” signs.

Japs Greet Midget Car
This startled MP has seen everything. Luckily there wasn’t any traffic to snarl up when the Jap inventor drove his tiny, electric-powered car down a Tokyo street. Named the “Baby Star,” it is about one-fifth the size of an ordinary automobile. A 400-watt motor, developing one-half horsepower, runs it for three hours at 25 miles an hour before the batteries need recharging. It can be converted to use gasoline. A homemade job, the wheels of this bantam auto were taken from dismantled airplanes. It is supposed to be a two-seater.

Show of hands, who thinks this car looks like a wooden clog?

THE HIDROMOBILE

A Los Angeles corporation is preparing to put on the market a remarkable combination of the automobile and motor boat, invented by W. C. Mazzei, E. E., of New York City. This machine, which will sell for the same price as a high grade automobile of the usual type, is intended particularly for use by travelers, who must cross streams and flooded areas.
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Blinders for Learners Teach Driving Dangers

To demonstrate how defective vision and dirty side windows on an automobile can affect the driving efficiency of motorists, students of a traffic school drive a special car equipped with dual controls while they wear glasses that distort their eyesight and blinders that narrow their field of vision, making them unable to see to the right or left without turning their heads. An instructor accompanying each student takes over the duplicate set of controls whenever driving conditions become dangerous enough to justify it.

AUTOMOBILES NOT POPULAR IN HOLLAND
There is a bicycle to every 2-1/2 inhabitants in Holland, but automobiles have failed to win great popularity in the low country. Holland is a country without hills, and the popularity of the bicycle is attributed to this fact. Separate bicycle roads running parallel to the regular highways are provided by the authorities.