Robot Plays Card Games Press Button - It Deals a Hand
TO PLAY a game of cards with this robot merely press a button. Miniature cards are speedily shuffled and a full hand of five cards flash into view. Each hand is awarded points according to the value of the cards. A pair counts five, three of a kind counts fifteen, a straight represents fifty, and so on up the scale.
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I remember wanting one of these so badly when I saw The Toy.
Plastic Water Wheel
Swimmers have a new play item this summer—a huge water wheel which spins on the surface to provide the thrills of a roller coaster. The wheel, made of Vinylite, is six feet in diameter. When inflated, it forms a double ring that has circular openings spaced uniformly between the two rings. It can be made to roll across the surface, used in a competitive “king of the mountain” game or anchored as a float for diving or sun-bathing. The plastic resists abrasion, oil, grease and temperature change. Deflated, the wheel rolls into a small bundle weighing only eight pounds.
Unique Game for Party Amusement
“SPIKE the Potato” is a highly entertaining game for any party. All that is needed is a single large potato, a number of paper cones and some needles. The paper cones are about 7 in. long and 1-1/2″ in diameter at the large end. When you roll them into shape, slip a needle or pin into the small end and daub it with glue. This, when dry, will hold it in place. At the same time, glue the edge of the paper fast. Then pull a small tuft of cotton into a fluffy ball and after rubbing some glue on the inside of the open cone end, push the cotton in.
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An Electric Miniature Mono-Railway
IT IS a well known fact among experimenters that when a whirling gyroscope is set in an upright or inclined position it will not change unless some strong exterior force is applied. Due to this peculiar quality, which is known as the precessive effect, the gyroscope can be utilized in the construction of many scientific instruments and practical devices which are used in every day life.
One of the most important uses to which the gyroscope is put is that of keeping a mono-rail train in an upright position as it speeds along on its single track. The most practical and outstanding railway of this kind is known as the Brennan Mono-railway, which is used in Ireland.
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He’s Forever Blowing Bubbles
Nat Fisher’s fluid for forming sudsy spheres may be the start of a $1,000,000 business.
By Bob Willett
BUBBLES FISHER is no strip-tease dancer as the name may imply—he is Nat Fisher of Hollywood, Calif., who says there are three things that will never die: marbles, tops and bubbles.
Most Americans are familiar with Fisher’s Billion-Bubble machines which he ‘began manufacturing nine years ago. A standard attention-getter at fairs, conventions, theaters and department stores, Nat’s bubbles have also become an important part of ice show, circus, nightclub and TV performances and his miniature plastic bubble-making machines are sold in novelty stores throughout the nation.
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Galloping DINOSAUR is Fascinating Toy
A TOY saurian from the far-away past proves to be a refreshing novelty to the youngsters. The toy is extremely simple to make, as there are only six major parts. In addition to these, four wheels and some wire complete the whole thing.
The sides or the two body pieces are separated about an inch or more. This is accomplished by using glass beads for spacers on the wires which form the joints. Stiff copper wires about 2 in. long are cut for the two pivots. These are bent over about % in. at one end and thrust through the holes in the side pieces. The rear wire is first passed through one rear leg. The side and leg are then laid upon the table with the wires pointing upward.
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Toys Keep Pace With Children’s Tastes
A YOUNG father of a two-year-old youngster, noticing the eagerness of his offspring to lay hands on something with wheels on it in which he could move about, sat down one evening in his basement workshop and knocked together that simple mechanism of juvenile locomotion known to millions as the kiddie-kar. Observing the popularity of the toy with children of the neighborhood, the father concluded that it would be a good idea to manufacture the cars on a commercial scale.
He was right. It was a good idea—good enough to set him on the path to financial independence. Today his invention is produced by the thousands, and this Christmas Santa Claus will slide down an unguessable number of chimneys on a kiddie-kar.
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