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Ancient Seer of Modern Marvels

Nylon and air-conditioning wouldn’t have surprised Sir Francis Bacon. He predicted them, along with most of our other present scientific wonders, over 300 years ago!

by Tyche Ayres

WILL we soon be broadcasting smells? Three centuries ago, when the Earl of Essex was flirting with Good Queen Bess of England, a genius sat down and wrote an amazing prediction of the wonders of science which were to be realized in our day.

Writing in an era of intellectual darkness, when alchemists and wizards practiced their black arts, this astounding man foresaw the airplane, television, movies, submarines, automobiles—almost the whole range of modern discoveries.
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Motorized Scooter

IN the near future, we are told, no one will walk at all. As a further step-saver, here is Amelia Earhart with her new 15-mile-an-hour vehicle at Burbank, California.

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World’s Largest Strongbox

By John L. Kent

UNCLE Sam is storing priceless historical documents in the world’s largest strongbox—the National Archives Building in Washington, D. C.

As a precaution against loss or damage in case of war or other catastrophe, special committees in government bureaus are picking out important records which must be preserved because of their historical value. These are shipped to the strongbox—or to dispersed storage points outside the city.
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This was a remarkably progressive law for 1961. Texas enforced it’s anti-sodomy laws up until 2003 when a 6-3 decision of the supreme court ruled them unconstitutional.

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a radically new SEX LAW

Private sex acts of any nature between consenting adults, says Illinois. are no longer illegal. By Donald Webster Cory and John P. LeRoy

Mr. Cory is the well-known author of “The Homosexual in America” and editor of “Homosexuality: A Cross-Cultural Approach.”
Mr. LeRoy is a free-lance writer.

The laws under which American men and women are regulated in their sexual behavior and are punished for sexual transgressions are written in the 50 different state penal codes of the United States and are interpreted in the courts of 50 states.
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This is a contemporary account of the discovery of Pluto. At the time it had not yet been named. The article lists Atlas, Prometheus, and Pluto as suggested possibilities.

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How They Trailed a New Planet

Study of many photos of stars disclosed to a farm boy what may prove a new world where a famous astronomer said it would be. Old theories are upset by find.

By

ALDEN P. ARMAGNAC

A NEW planet has been announced. Out in space, four billion miles beyond the globe we live on, a yellowish object, a little larger than the earth, swings in a vast circle about the sun; a frigid little world, bathed in the dim light of perpetual dusk. Its discovery is called the most important event in astronomy in nearly a hundred years.

A new planet is not found every day. As many of us learned in school, a planet is one of the exclusive company of heavenly bodies that get their light and heat from the sun. They swing about it, as the earth does, in great circular paths, or orbits. These earthlike worlds are so few in number that they may be counted on the fingers.
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President Roosevelt’s White House Hobbies

When storms toss the Ship of State, the President finds diversion with his great collections. Modern Mechanix sent James N. Miller to the White House for this story of the nation’s great hobbyist.

by JAMES NEVIN MILLER

A SECRET service agent rapped on the door of the home of a retired minister in a suburb of Washington.

The clergyman opened the door. The government agent flashed his badge. Timidly, perhaps apprehensively, the minister asked the man to step into the living room.

Imagine his astonishment when the agent announced:

“Your Reverence, the President would like to have you drop in some day at the White House. He’d like to see you about your stamp collection. He says that you should bring it along so that he can take a look at it.”
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Eclipse to Check Einstein

Astronomers Journey Halfway Around the World to Study Five-Minute Spectacle, as the Moon Blots the Sun’s Face

By GEORGE LEE DOWD, JR.

EINSTEIN’S theory of relativity receives a new test in the wilds of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies on May 9, when leading astronomers of Europe and America study and photograph a remarkable five-minute total eclipse of the sun, for which they will have journeyed halfway around the world. The duration of the eclipse, and the fact that this island off the Malay Peninsula lies directly in its path, offer an unusual opportunity for scientific observation. The average eclipse lasts only from one to four minutes, and the longest possible duration of a total eclipse for a single observer is seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds.
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Part I

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Don’t Pity the Poor Eskimo – Part II

By Ruth and Bill Albee

PART II

ESKIMOS of the Bering Strait region probably did not invent the pneumatic tire, but they seem to have known about its basic principle and utilized it long before the white man realized its possibilities.

These Eskimos, just emerging from the Stone Age, offer a wonderful opportunity to observe a primitive people in a primitive environment, and to compare their standard of intelligence with that of people of our modern age. Those who cherish illusions that modern man represents the acme of mental development are likely to have their illusions shattered.
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Part II

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Don’t Pity the Poor Eskimo – Part I

By Ruth and Bill Albee

PART I

DON’T pity the poor Eskimo — at least not the Alaskan Eskimo of Bering Strait.

He lives in a land of ice, snow, howling winds and sub-zero temperatures. But he thrives on it—and likes it. He lives a stone-age existence in many respects, but he has an air-conditioned house. Most Eskimos have never seen an automobile, yet many of them fly to work in airplanes. Most of them never heard of vitamins, but they probably get more vitamins in their daily diet than any people on the globe. The Eskimo has little in the way of natural resources, but he is smart enough to make the most of what he has.
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Locks of Ages

LOCKS are almost as old as culture itself and the origin of them is lost in prehistory. The earliest lock on record was found in the ruins of a Persian Palace some 4,000 years ago. Oddly enough, the modern pin-tumbler cylinder lock employs a system used by the ancient Egyptians. The Romans, highly developed locksmiths, left no records for they used iron which rusted. The Middle Ages and Renaissance produced many interesting locks but of poor quality and some were so sadistic anyone trying to pick them would lose a finger or hand. Robert Barron, an Englishman, invented the lever-tumbler lock in 1778, the first forward step in lock mechanisms in several thousand years. Modern locks operate on principle of jamming by internal, movable parts. Keys simply unjam them to open.

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Revising the Map of America to Save a Nation

By William Dyce

DISASTER threatens the United States. Productive farm lands are becoming desolate deserts. Cleared lands, where once stood thick forests, are being ravaged by destructive floods. Uncle Sam is in danger of losing hundreds of thousands of acres that are now helping to feed his 125,000,000 citizens.

To avert the threatened calamity the government is in effect revising the geography of the country. Where waste land now exists, happy farmers are expected to till a productive soil. Where flat prairies sweep to horizons on all sides, great forests will arise. Where rivers never existed, water will flow. Shallow, sluggish streams will become principal arteries of commerce. And, in some cases, where civilization rules today, a wilderness will exist tomorrow.
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These stories are always the same: bold white explorers set out on a quest with local guides. At some point the locals will prove how cowardly and superstitious they are and the white men will have to either beat or bribe them back into shape. And oh yea, they’re not civilized like we are. They actually execute people.

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Strange Scenes in the World’s Dark Corners

RETURNING from travels across the “no man’s lands” of the uncivilized spots of the world, hunters and explorers tell of seeing people and animals and passing through adventures so strange that they were impelled to take the evidence of them by trap or camera, even though these things did not come within the purposes of their trips.

Recently, a young member of an exploring party which had entered the forbidden regions of Tibet in Asia decided to take up the venture alone when the rest of the party turned back at one of the most dangerous points. Selecting a few native servants who declared they were brave enough to accompany and assist him, he resumed the journey through precarious wilds. Read the rest of this entry »