July 2, 2009

Mechanical Flying Goose Decorates Radiator Cap (Jan, 1932)

Filed under: Automotive, DIY — @ 10:39 am
Source: How To Build It ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1932
| Buy on Ebay

Mechanical Flying Goose Decorates Radiator Cap

For novelty in radiator ornaments, you’ll have to go a long way to beat this mechanical flying goose. As you speed along in your car, an ingenious arrangement of mechanism in the bird causes it to straighten out and flap its wings to simulate a real live goose in flight.

WHILE your car is standing still this wild goose isn’t so wild. He perches sedately upon the radiator cap surveying the world with a glassy eye. But as soon as you start up and shift into high he flattens out his tail, stretches his neck forward and begins to flap his wings as if he were going somewhere, and going there in a hurry.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 1, 2009

Approval Meter (Apr, 1947)

Filed under: DIY — @ 6:29 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1947
| Buy on Ebay

Approval Meter

BY SAMUEL KAUFMAN

WITH the “approval meter,” program directors will no longer have to rely on laughter, applause or boos to learn just what the audience thinks of entertainment.

The method—developed by Schwerin Research Corporation—works automatically and records reaction for study later. All you do is push or pull a tiny lever at your side.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 12, 2009

“Perpetual Motion” Machine Makes Novel Window Display (Jul, 1931)

Filed under: DIY — @ 10:56 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1931
| Buy on Ebay

“Perpetual Motion” Machine Makes Novel Window Display

For novelty in window displays you can’t beat this “perpetual motion machine” as a means of attracting the attention of passers-by. Powered by magnets concealed in the tracks, the steel ball whirls round and round, bewildering those who pause to watch.

SCORES of people will walk right by an artistically decorated store window without giving the display a glance. On the other hand, another store window with a novel display catches the eye of every passer-by.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 30, 2009

SWAMI (Apr, 1957)

Filed under: DIY — @ 11:10 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

SWAMI

As mystifying as the Indian rope trick, this magic marvel defies the laws of gravity.

PROBABLY Isaac Newton was right; but you couldn’t prove it with this gadget. It just seems to work contrary to all laws of gravity.

Swami, by itself, reacts like any other object: supported at one end only—it falls. But, add a fairly heavy belt, as shown in the photo, and it will not only stay up but actually take quite a bit of extra pressure to make it tilt down, even slightly.

We won’t tell you how or why it works. That is part of the mystery. Go ahead and make one and try to find out for yourself. You’ll be truly amazed.

April 27, 2009

Animate Your Photographs (Apr, 1953)

Filed under: DIY, Photography — @ 11:04 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1953
| Buy on Ebay

Animate Your Photographs

A pull on a string and this photo comes to life. To make this toy choose or make a photograph of your child (or even yourself) in a pose which shows the arms and legs suitably extended. Make two identical enlargements and glue these on thin Masonite or plywood.

Now you have two mounted prints; on one you will want to use only the torso, so mark off the legs and arms.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 14, 2009

Easter-Egg Zoo (Apr, 1947)

Filed under: DIY — @ 9:27 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1947
| Buy on Ebay

Easter-Egg Zoo

BERTHE MARCHAND used her ingenuity. Needing something original for the Easter table—something for the children to admire—she hit on the idea of making an entire zoo of animals, using colored Easter eggs and other odd bits of material easily obtained for a few cents at any stationer’s.

Why don’t you do the same? It just takes patience, nimble fingers, and extreme care in handling the eggs— which can be dropped only once.
(Maybe you’d better boil them.)

“Poor Man’s” Yacht (Apr, 1957)

Filed under: DIY, Nautical — @ 9:20 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

“Poor Man’s” Yacht

This floating dream-home will allow you to cruise the river in millionaire style.

By Rudy Arnold

HAVE YOU ever dreamed of cruising down the river in your own private yacht? If you have, now is the time to do it and enjoy the plushness of a modern dream-home complete with front and back yard.

Wesley H. Dyer’s “Dumbo” has made a low-cost family yacht a practical reality for the water-loving landlubber. Dyer, president of the Metal Products Company of Nashville, Tenn., named his original family yacht, shown on these pages, after Walt Disney’s flying elephant because his novel craft was big but surprisingly agile for its size.

Read the rest of this entry »

March 30, 2009

Interesting Experiments with Air Currents (Jul, 1930)

Filed under: DIY — @ 9:37 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1930
| Buy on Ebay

Interesting Experiments with Air Currents

by C. FRANCIS JENKINS - Famous Inventor

You’ve seen flags flutter in the breeze, watched airplanes fly, read of buildings which collapsed from the inside out in tornadoes—but do you understand the cause of these phenomena? Mr. Jenkins, famous for his inventions in the field of television and inventor of the movie projector, has devised a number of fascinating experiments to test the behavior of air currents. Try them for yourself, as explained below, and you’ll have a better knowledge of why airplanes fly and why gliders glide.

Read the rest of this entry »

February 9, 2009

“ICE LIZARD” (Feb, 1940)

Filed under: DIY — @ 11:09 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1940
| Buy on Ebay

“ICE LIZARD”

by L. B. Robbins

AIR minded, ice-boat and mechanically-inclined fans: here is something to arouse your imagination and ingenuity—an air propelled ice-boat using a washing-machine engine for power and capable of good speed and breath-taking thrills. Let’s build a fleet of these “Ice Lizards” for the height of the skating season and give the populace something to talk about.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 15, 2009

STAINLESS CHOPPERS (Apr, 1957)

Filed under: Cool, DIY, Just Weird — @ 12:18 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1957
| Buy on Ebay

Wow, this is actually the second guy I’ve seen with homemade stainless steel dentures. Here is another from 1937. I wonder how common this was.

STAINLESS CHOPPERS
STEELY SMILE of John Gilpin, village blacksmith of Livingston, Mont., is really friendly although strangers are sometimes awed by it. Gilpin broke a set of store teeth 16 years ago, replaced them with rugged stainless steel.

January 6, 2009

Build A Glider-Copter (Aug, 1954)

Filed under: Aviation, DIY — @ 12:16 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1954
| Buy on Ebay

Build A Glider-Copter

AN 86-lb. helicopter glider, believed to be the smallest aircraft in the world today, has been developed and flown by Bensen Aircraft Corporation of Raleigh, N. C, for use in engineering tests of lighter-than-man helicopters.

Like soaring gliders and sailplanes, the helicopter glider has no engine; it is towed by a car until it becomes airborne and will stay in the air as long as it is towed or as long as there is sufficient wind to keep its rotor blades turning.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 3, 2009

Simple Electromagnet Does Mystifying Stunt (May, 1932)

Filed under: DIY, Science — @ 9:56 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1932
| Buy on Ebay

Simple Electromagnet Does Mystifying Stunt

THE well-known barrel of monkeys could produce no more entertainment than an electromagnetic “circus,” consisting of a powerful solenoid magnet and a number of accessories, that you can construct in an evening.

And besides being a source of fun. such a device is highly instructive, and will serve to clear up many of the mysteries of everyday electricity for you.

The electromagnet or solenoid consists of nothing more than a quantity of insulated wire wound on a spool, and provided with a suitable base, connecting wire and plug.

Read the rest of this entry »

23 queries. 0.543 seconds.