.Something New in Midget Autos
MIDGET car builders will take keen interest in the Lilliputian motor car shown below. Powered by a storage battery, the vehicle dashes about the streets of Berlin to the amazement of spectators. The car was designed by a German engineer for his son, who is seen taking his girl friend for a ride. No plans on the machine are available.
.Your Child’s Portrait in a Doll
PORTRAIT DOLLS, modeled after children or adults by Dewees Cochran, New York painter and sculptress, reproduce all the details of features, hair, and complexion found in the original. Supplementing conventional sculptor’s tools with dental instruments for fine work, Miss Cochran models the amazingly lifelike figures from real life, or from written descriptions and photographs, one full face and one profile. The doll head is first shaped in a claylike material. From this a plaster mold is made in which the head is cast in a virtually unbreakable substance that simulates actual skin texture.
That kid’s record recorder is pretty awesome. It works like a tape recorder. I wonder how well it worked.
“Playtalk” electronic toy for children uses a grooveless paper disk coated with “powdered” iron to record and reproduce magnetically music or voice. Records hold about two minutes of recording; can be “erased” and reused often
.RADIO and ELECTRONICS TODAY
A — Twelve-pound self-powered tape recorder swings over the shoulder like a camera case. It is used by newsmen to cover news for the “Mutual Newsreel” programs; the small microphone may be held in the hand, or strapped on wristB — All-channel television and FM indoor antenna of unusual design employs parabolic-dipole arrangement on telescoping rods. Swivel joints make numerous adjustments possible
.HOBBYHORSE REALLY GETS SOMEWHERE
When a child jumps up and down in the saddle of a hobbyhorse of new design, the mechanical steed carries him forward several feet with each bounce. The secret of the ingenious motion lies in a locking mechanism that enables the rubber-tired wheels to move frontward only. Each jounce compresses the spring frame, exerting a forward kick against the movable front wheels and a backward kick against the locked rear wheels, and thus propelling the whole vehicle ahead.
This looks like an early Viewmaster.
.POCKET STEREOSCOPE SHOWS VIEWS ON FILM
Gone is the old-fashioned parlor stereoscope of a generation ago, but its counterpart, in modern guise, has just made its appearance. The new pocket-sized form of the instrument, illustrated above, is as small as a pair of opera glasses and uses thirty-five-millimeter motion picture film instead of paper photographs. A shift lever causes the pictures to appear.
This is a sort of early online gaming.
.BILLIARDS by WIRE
College Teams Now Compete in Novel Telegraphic Tournaments
By ARTHUR GRAHAME
PLAYING separately in cities and towns scattered throughout the East and Middle West, teams representing many leading American colleges recently competed in the 1938 intercollegiate billiards tournament. During the entire competition, members of one team did not see their opponents on other teams. As the ivory balls rolled and spun on the green tables, clicking telegraph instruments carried the scores of individual teams to the director of the tournament. When all scores were in, the director wired the team standings back to the competing colleges.
What movie does this remind you of?
.Piano Students Use Giant Keyboard
WHEN Arthur Zahorik, a high-school music teacher in Milwaukee, Wis., tells a student to “run up the scales” he means it literally. For on the classroom floor stands a two-octave model of a giant piano keyboard, with white keys a foot wide, upon which students step to demonstrate their mastery of chords and scales. Each of the keys is actually a treadle which, when depressed, closes an electrical contact, causing a metal rod to strike a tuned metal plate and sound the correct note.
.Movie Theater Lets Cars Drive Right In
First of its kind in the world, an open-air movie theater exclusively for motorists has just been opened at Camden, N. J. Patrons drive in and park their cars in semicircular rows. Then, without leaving the vehicles, they enjoy talkies projected on a sixty-foot screen. Occupants of a car may chat or smoke without fear of disturbing others, since their car is for practical purposes a private theater box. A newly perfected system of directional sound projection make the talkies as plainly audible to the farthest as to the nearest of the 400 cars accommodated. Each row is inclined so that cars may use the rear part as an aisle without interrupting anyone’s view.
.MAKING A SMALL ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILE
By E.B. Stack.
THE electric automobile described in this article is not merely a toy, but a real electric car. It was designed and made for children, but will carry a load of four hundred pounds with ease. Every part, while made as light as possible, is strong enough to stand any amount of rough usage. It is ideal for the youngster who is past the coaster-wagon stage, but not yet old enough to be allowed to run the “flivver.”
.“Limousine” Sled for Small Children
Small children greatly appreciate the “limousine” sled shown in the photo, as it gives them the thrill of riding in their
own sled, yet keeps them much warmer than an open one. The frame is made of smooth 1 by 2-in. wood, securely attached to the sled. The lower part of the frame, the floor of the sled, and the top are covered with heavy canvas, and panes of glass or heavy celluloid are fitted in the upper half of the frame as shown. The back serves as a door, being hinged on so that it can be opened or closed, and a screen-door hook provided to keep it closed. The door is made of 1-in. wood, covered on the outside with canvas to match the rest of the body.—Eugene Holland, Detroit, Mich.
