Gravity Clock Makes Unique Ornament
HERE is a combination water and weight clock that anyone reasonably adept with a soldering iron can construct. It makes a novel addition to the den and generally draws the interest of persons unfamiliar with the principle on which it operates.
The important part of the clock is a metal drum partly filled with water. It is suspended by two cords wound around a rod which passes through the drum. Gravity tends to cause the drum to revolve as the cord unwinds, but this motion is controlled by three baffle plates, each pierced by a tiny hole, which are soldered within the drum.
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This is awesome, you can hire this guy to rig up your house and scare away unwanted house guests.
SPOOKS FOR SALE
ARE your mother-in-law’s visits too frequent and too long? Or has cousin George been troublesome? Then Robert Nelson of Columbus, Ohio, is the man to help you. He’ll sell you rattling skeletons, headless monsters, squirming ropes, all guaranteed to rid you of the unwelcome guests.
Nelson spreads his ghostly touch far and wide. He dispatches crystal balls to Swamis in Georgia, eerie voices to spiritualists in Seattle. Once he supplied a planter in the Bahamas with a spook that kept natives from stealing fruit. He doesn’t belittle old-fashioned ghosts, however. He says “It’s just that mine are more reliable.”
Emergency Coal Mines
Use Old Automobiles to Furnish Power
Out of work and unwilling to remain idle, men in Pennsylvania have formed small groups and are working coal mines on their own, selling the output in neighboring towns. To supply the necessary power, they have rigged up old automobiles. The one at the right, geared to a shaker, is used to sort coal.
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This guy really should be inducted into the Maker hall of fame. If that doesn’t exist, they should create one. Just for him.
Makes Own False Teeth of Stainless Steel
From stainless steel, a Wilmington, Calif., carpenter has made himself a complete set of unbreakable artificial teeth. Buying a block of the alloy, he shaped each tooth individually with the aid of a hack saw and file. Then he vulcanized them into a homemade mounting of rubber, obtaining the material from a dental-supply house and making his own mouth impressions with paraffin. For molding purposes he employed plaster of Paris in electric outlet boxes.
I have no idea if this worked, or if it was even real, but it sure does look cool. Recently Boston Dynamics has made a robot pack-mule that is somewhat similar.
Here is a later article in Mechanix Illustrated with little tanks that look somewhat similar.
HORSE OF STEEL RUNS ACROSS FIELDS
A MECHANICAL horse that trots and gallops on steel-pipe legs, under the impulse of a gasoline engine, is the recent product of an Italian inventor. With this horse, he declares, children may be trained to ride. The iron Dobbin is said to canter along a road or across a rough field with equal ease. Its design recalls the attempts of inventors, before the days of the automobile, to imitate nature and produce a mechanical steed capable of drawing a wagon.
Rockets Lay Phone Lines
SIGNAL Corps linemen are adding rockets to their tool kits. The fiery missiles pull telephone wire from a new type of dispenser across streams, ravines, and other obstacles. One man, equipped with the dispenser, a few rockets, and a field telephone, can now set up communications in rough terrain faster than a large crew using conventional methods.
The new wire dispenser was developed from a model used during the war. With it. the wire-laying rocket may be fired without a launcher. The rocket is set off in the original cardboard packing case, which is placed in a wedge-shaped hole dug in the ground. Even when fired in this manner, the rocket will carry wire as much as 150 yards.
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