Where would you even use a homemade bobsled?
Streamlined Bobsled
Chills, thrills, and spills make the sport of bobsledding a zestful experience you’ll never forget, and this two-man job will enable you and a friend to share exciting rides.
THE chief objective in the design of this bobsled was to provide a streamlined canopy that completely encloses the driver and brakeman. I had made some rough calculations using some data based on the use of an unstreamlined sled which indicated that a substantial increase in speed could be expected from even a moderate amount of streamlining.
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MUSICAL FREAKS Win Fame for MAJOR BOWES’ Amateurs
All right, all right! Wire, glass, tin cans— anything. It was all the same to these boys, who made jobs grow from their mechanical ingenuity. This article relates what you didn’t hear on the radio.
IT’S marvelous how a home workshop fan can make himself famous with a broom, a saw, a dozen tin cans or a few dingy bottles picked up from a junk pile.
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Hunter’s Crossbow
This old-time weapon has the hitting power and accuracy of a modern rifle.
By E. Milton Grassell
THIS crossbow, with all the romance and charm of a medieval weapon, is so powerful and accurate that it is used extensively for hunting and precision target shooting. It’s a deadly weapon, not a toy, exceptionally fine for hunting rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, and even capable of killing big game like deer, elk, antelope, and cougar when used by one skilled in its handling. Therefore it is most imperative that the crossbow be handled carefully. Never hold it in a position where it might endanger anyone if fired accidently, and always reckon with the area beyond the target or game in the event you should miss hitting the object aimed at.
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This stuff was a bit harder before photoshop.
HOW TO MAKE INCREDIBLE PICTURES
LAUGH-PROVOKING trick pictures are fun to make and more fun to show. Contrary to popular belief, such pictures can be produced by the amateur photographer, even though he has only limited equipment. Trick shots involve two steps: cutouts and pasteups. The equipment required for them, in addition to a camera and enlarger, is a sharp knife, a sheet of clear glass large enough to hold an 8 x 10 glossy print, and a piece of heavy cardboard of the same size.
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It seems like having to have a belt drive connect both the transmitter and receiver might be a bit of a limitation, but this is still pretty neat. I wonder what the results looked like?
Simplified Electric Picture Transmitter
A COUPLE of sardine and salmon cans, a few bits of brass and several pieces of wood are all the materials that are needed to assemble an experimental but very practical picture transmitter and receiver.
Two of each of the cans will be needed. The salmon cans should be of the small or half can size and the end that has been opened should be replaced by soldering in water tight, a new disc of tin.
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Wow, he looks 20 years younger in the drawing. Will you be his valentine?
TRICK Drawings From PHOTOS
MANY novel effects can be obtained by means of a simple process of converting ordinary photographic prints into black-and-white or colored line drawings. For engineering and other technical purposes, unnecessary or unimportant parts of machinery can be eliminated from a picture and the main structure thus given increased emphasis. For purposes of general illustration—serious or humorous—the faces or figures of people can be exaggerated or caricatured, double pictures built up, extra features inserted, etc. Comparatively little drawing ability is required, as the original print serves as a guide.
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Magic Garden
Dissolve a few chemical salts in waterglass and—presto!
CHEMICAL magic in one of its most spectacular forms can be practiced by any amateur who will borrow a leaf from his high school “chem” book and conjure up a few “crystal gardens.”
These aren’t difficult to make, and require no more material than the necessary chemicals, a good size aquarium and enough sand or fine gravel to cover the bottom to a depth of about 1 inch. The aquarium is filled with a solution of water-glass (sodium silicate), and the chemicals are dropped in it. As they settle to the bottom, they grow into a colorful pattern of intertwining clusters which might resemble a submarine forest in some as yet unexplored deep.
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How do you cheat in Tick-Tack-Toe?
Tick-Tack-Toe brain is invention of 18-year-old Noel Elliott, finalist in the Westinghouse science talent search. After three years’ work, involving a study of the 362,882 possible variations, he perfected the machine so that it either wins or ties every game. It responds with a light flash when you pull a switch in any square. Sometimes it’s caught cheating a little.
While this sounds like a vibrator, it actually just electrocutes “Milady” with a pair of spoons.
An Electric Massage for Milady
MILADY’S complexion will benefit immensely from an application of “juice” from this little massaging device. There’s no danger of shock, and the complexion will not suffer a charring from the current, so it’s all quite safe. The only parts needed are: Four or five dry cells, preferably new and fresh; a short length of bell wire, two silver spoons and some tape. The hook-up of all this equipment is shown in the accompanying drawing. Note that the handles of the spoons are insulated with windings of tape, so that all danger of a jolt is eliminated. Apply the spoons to the face as illustrated in the drawing, patting them gently so as to get full benefit from the sparking. If need be, the operator can wear rubber gloves.— Walter Menyhart.
Toothpick Engineering Is Dentists Hobby
By FRANK CAPORAEL
MAKING scale models of giant engineering projects with flat wooden toothpicks and household cement serving as the structural materials, is the unusual spare-time occupation of Dr. M. Russell Stein, a New York City dentist. Ably assisted by his wife, Dr. Stein transforms boxes of toothpicks into architectural masterpieces that are accurate models of their prototypes, practically perfect in every detail.
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