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Automatic Milk-Bottle Safe

By DONALD A. PRICE

THIS simply constructed milk bottle safe will obviate the pilfering of milk from the door or porch, by automatically locking itself when full bottles of milk are placed inside. In addition, it provides a shelter from the weather.
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This is apparently the second article in the Modern Mechanix series: “How to kill yourself underwater”. The first being Build Your Own Diving Helmet.

They are seriously talking about getting in this thing and being towed 15-30mph at a depth of at least 30 feet. But don’t worry because “The air inside the boat will be sufficient for approximately half an hour’s stay under water”.

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Take Thrilling Underwater Cruise in ONE-MAN SUB

YOU get all the keen thrills of deep-sea diving and underwater cruising in this one-man submarine. Towed by a motor-boat, the novel craft will take you down to a depth of at least 30 feet, where you can explore the river or lake bed. Through a special conning tower you can watch the fish as you dart among them, the while maneuvering about like a real submarine.
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I love how they emphasize the fact that they used a COLOR camera.

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Our Color Camera Takes a Look Through a Kaleidoscope

By HARRY WALTON

Photographs by WILLIAM MORRIS and ROBERT SMITH

VISITORS to London about 1816 were amazed to see people in the streets gazing skyward through pasteboard tubes. But these watchers were peering at no eclipse or comet. They were fascinated by a scientific novelty that had taken London by storm—the kaleidoscope, invented by Sir David Brewster. First regarded only as a toy, it was soon adopted by artists as an aid in originating new designs. Sir David named his invention by combining three Greek words: kalos, meaning beautiful; eidos, form; and skopeo, I see. Almost anyone who has looked through a kaleidoscope will agree that the name is appropriate.
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It’s Fun to Play This Indoor Football Game

Played by two to six persons, this game provides endless fun for members of your family or your party guests. The object of the game is to drive a table-tennis ball into one of the two goal baskets at opposite ends of the box. This is done by hitting the ball with wooden paddles attached to dowel rods, which are turned and pushed back and forth by hand. There are eight rods; the two center ones have four paddles each, the next two toward each goal have three each, while the next pair have two paddles each and the last two next to the goals have only one paddle each. Read the rest of this entry »

This is another one of those things that would never get by the liability lawyers today.

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BUILDING a DIVING Helmet

Improvement follows improvement in the design of home made diving helmets as amateur divers become more and more acquainted with their use. This one of Hoag’s is the last word in helmets so far published by good old M-M.

ALL the thrills of exploring the lake bottom are yours with this simply constructed diving helmet; and, if you do not dive too deep, you are in no particular danger, either. Besides its use in recovering lost outboard motors at a substantial profit, the helmet will give you one of the most interesting experiences of your life; for until you have breathed and walked at leisure under water, you have missed something. It will take a good deal of nerve to go down the first time, but after that it will just be fun.
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MOUSE TRAPS HAVE MANY USES

BOYS practicing with air rifles like to shoot at targets that will reward them with action when hit. When the target shown is struck, it will leap into the air with a loud snap. Target holder is soldered to trigger of mouse trap.
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PS Builds a LASER …and so can you

The incredible ruby ray is the hottest scientific discovery of the decade, but practical uses are still scarce. Here’s your chance to join the search

-June, 1960: Dr. T.H. Maiman, of the Hughes Aircraft Co., reports the development of the first successful ruby laser.
—November, 1964: Popular Science publishes plans for the first do-it-yourself ruby laser.

By Ronald M. Benrey

IT MAY sound like science fiction— but it’s really science fact: You can build a working ruby laser. It could be the most challenging—and rewarding— home-workshop project that you have ever tackled.

A ruby laser is a source of coherent light. All of the light waves in the pencil-thin, bright-red ruby laser beam are in phase—or in step—with each other. This extraordinary property of the laser beam—shared by no other light source—has spurred a world-wide search for practical uses.

Ordinary light sources—a light bulb, for example—generate incoherent light; the light waves are out of phase with each other.

Drop a pebble into a still pond, and the waves ripple out smoothly in all directions. This represents a single light wave from a light source. All light sources produce more than a single wave, however.

They act as if you dropped a handful of pebbles at once: You get a jumbled clutter of waves one on top of another. This clutter of waves is analogous to incoherent light.

Suppose, though, you dropped your handful of pebbles one pebble at a time, each in exactly the same spot in the pond. The waves would continuously radiate from that point. All of the wave crests would be in phase. This is coherent radiation.

A ruby laser generates a coherent light beam by a similar process. Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Inside the ruby laser rod—heart of the ruby laser—excited atoms are stimulated to emit light waves in phase with each other.
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Light Harpoon Gun Spears Fish and Frogs

THIS efficient weapon operates on the same principle as the harpoon guns used in whaling in that it has a line uncoiling from a tank with which to retrieve the harpoon as well as the prey. Appearance and size (Fig. 3) are similar to a conventional gun with the exception of the tank for the line. The “barrel” (Fig. 1) consists of a length of cold-rolled steel channel secured to stock with 3 countersunk screws, and has a guide near “muzzle” with a-groove for harpoon shaft to raise one of the barbs above bottom of channel. Well or tank for line is one end of a 1 lb. fruit can, edges filed smooth and painted brown. Fit end of line with a ball or block; before firing wedge line in one of the forks as illustrated. To recoil line lift out end and, beginning at that end, wrap line loosely around your hand and replace in tank.
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Power It with a PULSE JET

THIS model plane project uses what may be the smallest successful pulse-jet engine ever built. It was developed after scores of experiments and the building of a dozen test models by Hiram Sibley, Jr., a California guided-missile engineer.
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Print Photographs in COLOR on METAL Gifts

YOU can inject a personal note into your Christmas gifts this year by placing on them photographs of yourself, of friends or of scenes you have snapped with your camera. Any smooth surface can be treated in this way, including metal, wood, glass or composition. The pictures are permanent, can be made in any color, and have the shiny, glass-like appearance of glazed enamel.
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Remember, EVERYONE should have a Geiger counter! No exceptions. If you don’t build one now, you’re going to feel mighty stupid when you’re trying to evade the radioactive hot spots in post-apocalyptic America.

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Geiger-Gun

Ultra-simple counter useful on camping trips or in CD survival kit

EVERYONE, prospector or not, should have a Geiger counter. Many wise householders are assembling survival kits of food, bandages, and water. By adding this handy, inexpensive radiation detector, you can provide your family with a means of detection of contaminated material in the event of atomic warfare. Simple as the counter may be, it will detect radiation as feeble as that given off by a watch dial—or it could make you rich by locating a uranium ore vein.
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Why divine? Well if you look at the diagram on the third page you can clearly see the image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Obviously the designer has been touched by his noodly appendage.

The next steps for me are an ebay listing, followed by the inevitable pictures of me in a Golden Palace Casino T-shirt and hat.

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THE “VARISTROBE”

High Speed Stroboscope Freezes Motion

By HARVEY POLLACK

WOULD YOU LIKE to examine the contortions of your high-speed circular saw, drill or handsaw under conditions that seem to slow it down to a crawl ? Any repetitive movement, whether rotary or reciprocating, can be viewed as though the moving body were at rest or in very lazy motion—under the flashing illumination of this wide-range “Varistrobe” (variable flash-rate stroboscope).
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