April 28, 2008

AUTOMOBILES NOT POPULAR IN HOLLAND (Nov, 1928)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 10:09 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1928
| Buy on Ebay

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.

April 26, 2008

Off to Prison Convicts Ride in Rumble Seat “Jail” Cage (May, 1936)

Filed under: Automotive, Crime and Police — @ 10:25 pm
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
| Buy on Ebay

Off to Prison Convicts Ride in Rumble Seat “Jail” Cage

Oklahoma has a jail on wheels to take its convicts to prison. Instead of a rumble seat, the prison transfer car has a barred steel cage mounted behind the coupe body. Alex Watson, in charge of the transfer of prisoners, can watch his wards in the cage by a mirror from the driver’s seat. The traveling jail accommodates four convicts, having a padded seat on each side. The floor is carpeted and the back door is covered by a drop curtain of heavy duck for protection from the weather.

Mobile Home Expands to Form Three Rooms (May, 1936)

Filed under: Automotive, House and Home — @ 10:24 pm
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
| Buy on Ebay
Tags:

Mobile Home Expands to Form Three Rooms

Light and compact enough to be drawn behind a motor car like a trailer, a movable type of house can be expanded to form three rooms at its destination. On the road it is supported on two wheels with drop axle and is sixteen feet long and six and one-half feet wide. Read the rest of this entry »

Monster Bus Is Equipped to Serve As Traveling Movie Theater (Jul, 1931)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 10:24 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1931
| Buy on Ebay

Monster Bus Is Equipped to Serve As Traveling Movie Theater

A black and silver thirty-four-foot juggernaut of the road, just completed in California, will bring talking movies to country dwellers, in towns too small to boast theaters of their own. The huge bus carries a complete talkie theater in its spacious interior. When the bus is drawn up at the side of a road and two doors at the rear are opened, a screen is disclosed. An audience of 2.000 can see and hear the pictures that are projected upon it from inside the bus.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 23, 2008

This Automobile Is a Complete Airport (Dec, 1938)

Filed under: Automotive, Aviation — @ 10:15 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1938
| Buy on Ebay

This Automobile Is a Complete Airport

TWELVE-TON TOOL BOX ON WHEELS TURNS ANY LEVEL COW PASTURE INTO A SERVICE BASE WITH ALL EQUIPMENT FOR REPAIRING PLANES.

ROLLING swiftly down highways on ten oversize balloon tires, a revolutionary airport-in-miniature for use by passenger air lines and military air forces now provides quick and complete assistance to stranded airplanes. This curious “twelve-ton tool box” is the invention of Kibbey W. Couse, of East Orange, N. J. It is capable of turning any level cow pasture into an airport complete with machine shop, repair parts, floodlights, and radio.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 21, 2008

Lady Docker’s Golden Chariot (Aug, 1956)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 9:05 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1956
| Buy on Ebay

I hear that genuine zebra hide upholstery is making a comeback.

Lady Docker’s Golden Chariot

English milady designed $50,000 car to help cheer up the toiling masses.

BIRMINGHAM Small Arms Co., the owner of the famous Daimler auto works, has among its assets what might be called the world’s most second-hand car. This ivory and gold confection, the only one of its kind, was dreamed up by Britain’s Lady Nora Docker, built to her specifications and forever stamped with her personality. Whoever drives it now will hear people saying, “Look who’s driving Nora’s car!”
Read the rest of this entry »

April 18, 2008

NEW KIND OF AUTO EYES MAKES NIGHT DRIVING Safer than Day! (Aug, 1931)

Filed under: Advertisements, Automotive — @ 11:45 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1931
| Buy on Ebay

NEW KIND OF AUTO EYES MAKES NIGHT DRIVING Safer than Day!

Fits Any Headlight. . . Ends Dangerous Dimming . . . Doubles Roadlight!

AT LAST! An amazingly queer yet simple invention lifts the curse of night driving from the motoring world. This altogether new discovery called “Perfect-O-Lite,” replaces old glass “bulbs” in your automobile headlights with truly amazing results. Road illumination is instantly doubled yet glare is absolutely banished. Ordinary objects in the road, ruts, animals, obstructions, etc., are made clearly visible at least three times as far. Instead of ordinary “direct” light, this beam is composed entirely of double-reflected or “infused” light. This new kind of light cuts right through the other fellow’s headlights. Even shoots through fog, mist, rain and snow. Read the rest of this entry »

Automatic Food Cooker Runs by Exhaust Heat of Car (Jun, 1930)

Filed under: Automotive, Kitchen — @ 11:44 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1930
| Buy on Ebay

Automatic Food Cooker Runs by Exhaust Heat of Car

MEALS can literally be cooked on the run through the use of the automatic cooker shown in the photo above. The cooker is mounted on the rear bumper of the motor tourist’s car and an extension from the exhaust pipe connected up with it, as shown in the insert. The cooker contains a steam pressure kettle which is heated by the hot exhaust gases. An hour’s drive is quite sufficient to thoroughly cook meats and vegetables. Total weight of the unit is so slight that running qualities of the car remain quite unaffected. Motor tours are much more pleasant when one is assured of a well-prepared meal at the end of the trip.

April 17, 2008

License Tag in Miniature Identifies Auto Keys (Oct, 1939)

Filed under: Automotive, Useful — @ 9:33 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939
| Buy on Ebay

I think this is a great idea. Though I’m sure that Bruce Schneier could explain to me why this is a bad idea, I’d still love to have one. I can never remember my license plate number! Here is an awesome gallery of similar key chains.

This guy sells them, but they don’t look nearly as nice.

License Tag in Miniature Identifies Auto Keys

A metal tag stamped out as a miniature reproduction of your automobile license plates is attached by a chain to a novel key ring designed to hold car keys. Tiny copies of any individual license plate of any state may be obtained. The identifying tags are especially useful where a number of sets of keys to different cars are kept in one place, as in a public garage.

Giant Truck Will Carry “Mail Order” House (Jun, 1935)

Filed under: Architecture, Automotive — @ 9:33 pm
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1935
| Buy on Ebay

Giant Truck Will Carry “Mail Order” House

For the delivery of complete prefabricated houses to all parts of the United States, a special tractor-trailer unit is planned. The trucking arrangement is intended to serve a house manufacturing company in which Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors and other industrialists are interested. According to plans, each of the 1,500 proposed vehicles will carry one complete house ready for assembly, two drivers, a master mechanic and a building supervisor. Sleeping accommodations above the seat will enable the crew to travel night and day, speeding up the movement from one site to another. Local labor will erect the houses, supervised by the crew from the factory or distribution point. The houses, which will be low-cost, modern residences, can be completely assembled, ready for occupancy, in two weeks.

Hitch-Hikers Get a Waiting Room of Their Own (Oct, 1939)

Filed under: Automotive, Sign of the Times — @ 9:33 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939
| Buy on Ebay

Um… This doesn’t seem like the greatest idea.

Hitch-Hikers Get a Waiting Room of Their Own

Performing the role of the good Samaritan to the nation-wide fraternity of automobile hitch-hikers, the owner of a service station in Albion, Mich., recently established a hitchhikers’ depot hard by his row of gasoline pumps. Nailed to a tree, a large sign visible to approaching motorists at a good distance, identifies the spot, while a painted hand, with the thumb outstretched in the traditional manner, does the spade work for tired hikers.

April 16, 2008

Baby Cyclecar Speeds at 80 Miles an Hour (Apr, 1923)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 11:25 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1923
| Buy on Ebay

Baby Cyclecar Speeds at 80 Miles an Hour

A DIMINUTIVE one-man sport car, said to attain a speed of 80 miles an hour and combining the advantages of larger cars, is equipped with a three-speed transmission and a powerful four-cylinder air cooled engine.

The clutch is controlled by a pedal and gear shifting by a short lever. The transmission drives to a jackshaft and thence by side chains to the rear wheels. Brakes operated by lever act on the rear wheel drums.

The entire car weighs 800 pounds and clears the ground by only six inches.

21 queries. 0.785 seconds.