At a current value of $362 I’m pretty sure you could just get a human answering service for considerably less money.

view additional pages

Self-Answering Telephone Thinks and Talks

By Harry Kursh

“HELLO, hello. This is the residence of Mr. John Smith. Your message is being recorded automatically. Ready! Please speak now.”

Don’t be surprised if that’s what you hear one of these days when you dial the familiar number of one of your friends. For Ipsophone—the robot telephone device with a brain—has been placed on the market and is rapidly coming into use all over the world. Three of these ingenious Swiss inventions have already been installed for the King of Egypt but their cost ($38 per month) will make them practical for even the smallest businessman.
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

FROM THE EDITOR’S Scrapbook

SELF-CASTRATION. An interesting case was presented recently of a 29-year-old male who had attempted to amputate his penis. The year before he had castrated himself by removing his testes. A most unusual aspect of the case was the fact that, for six years prior to his attempt, he had had alternate periods of bodily feminization and remasculinization.

During the periods of feminization, he reported, his breasts became protuberant, his voice became higher, he did not have to shave and fat distribution became markedly feminine. When examined by a gland specialist, he was found to be a normal male; the changes he reported could not be verified. Read the rest of this entry »

3-D trip inside a drawing, via computer graphics

Slip this display device on your head and you see a computer-generated 3-D image of a room before your eyes. Move your head and your perspective changes, just as though you were actually inside the room. Architects could use the device to draw buildings in three dimensions; realtors could use it to show buyers the interiors of homes without even leaving the office. Dr. Ivan Sutherland, University of Utah, invented the device, essentially a computer-graphics version of the old stereoscope.

The actual Chunnel ended up taking 6 years to build, cost around $17 billion and opened in 1994.

view additional pages

TUBING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
By DAVID WALES

DOVER, England, is within gunshot of Calais, France. The German 42-centimeters could drop a shell across the 22 miles of water that intervene. The floor of the Straits of Dover is white chalk, underlaid by a stratum of chalk and clay. Beneath, to a depth of 208 feet, lies a ledge of gray chalk, very solid, of the same general character as that quarried in France for use in making cement. This substance is easy to bore, is self-sustaining, and is practically water-tight.
Read the rest of this entry »

We Americans are so behind the times. The British were being promised HDTV in 1935! I wonder how many “lookers” there were at that point.

England Will Broadcast First Chain Television Programs

VAUDEVILLE, opera and outdoor sports events are predicted to be among some of the feature programs which will be broadcast to British firesides this fall when the first national television network in the world swings into action in Great Britain. Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

3D Color-TV is Here!

Remote operator of nuclear reactor can now view in depth and color

By LOUIS E. GARNER, JR.

Three-dimensional coior-TV is now providing realistic viewing of adjustments inside a nuclear reactor. Use of stereo allows the precise depth perception necessary for correct positioning of controls, and use of color-TV permits quick identification by the control operator of reactor equipment in the dangerous area where no human is safe. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure what happened with this, but people are now making transistors where paper is actually a functional part of the device.

view additional pages

Now They’re Printing TRANSISTORS ON PAPER!

Flexible circuits printed by machine on paper, aluminum foil, or film may make possible cheap, disposable radios, hi-fi’s, and many other electronic devices.

By W. STEVENSON BACON

Someday soon you may be able to buy a pad of operating electronic circuits just the way you now buy a pad of paper. On its pages will be printed amplifiers, radio receivers, computer circuitry, oscillators—anything you can name. They’ll be so inexpensive you’ll be able to tear them out, use them, and junk them. Read the rest of this entry »

The explanation given sounds roughly like how an LCD works. What do you think the mystery material was that went transparent when current was applied?

Scanning Method Brings Television Movies

THE progress of television has long been retarded by the lack of an efficient light source which could react instantaneously to the fluctuations of incoming radio currents and at the same time be powerful enough to project the image upon a large theatre screen. Read the rest of this entry »

Tamed Humming-birds Sip Honey

TRAINING humming-birds to sip honey from his lips is the unusual accomplishment of Ralph Ayer, a farmer living near Eastonville, Colorado. These tiny birds have heretofore been considered untamable.

Perfume bottles filled with honey and flowers first attracted the birds. They now return each year.

view additional pages

DON’T GET STUCK By STOCK GYPS

Want to make a buck in the market? You can be bilked of your dough.

By SIMON LEE GARTH

IN AN upstairs bedroom a woman lay dying of cancer. Downstairs in the living room her husband was talking business in low tones with a distinguished-looking stranger.

The stranger was Joseph H. Schoenberger, 70, and every inch of his well-groomed appearance suggested the prosperous, sincere businessman, the pillar of the community.

Their business completed, Schoenberger suggested, “Let us now bow our heads for a few moments in silent prayer for your afflicted wife.”
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

One Woman’s Confession: I HATE SUBURBIA

Yes. I’ve been a long-term resident of the suburbs,” the attractive woman next to me replied in answer to my question. Her brown eyes seethed with excitement. “And I think the word ‘term’ is very appropriate. It’s been almost a jail sentence!”

We looked around us as we drove through the streets of one of the towns in a suburban area called The Five Towns, on Long Island. Neat little houses bordered the roads, each painted white and framed by shrubbery or forsythia, with the number of the house painted in script above the garage. Often, a car was parked in the driveway. It seemed to be Hollywood’s version of suburbia—a way of life to which every young woman facing marriage must aspire. Read the rest of this entry »