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KEEPING AHEAD of the JONSES

ONE sure sign of spring is that annual urge to “do something” about the house and furniture.

Perhaps it’s because we stay at home more in the cold season and get a bit tired of looking at the same walls, floors and furnishings. Whatever the reason, the recent growing demand for change in the home has stimulated the invention and manufacture of more and different furnishings, gadgets and building materials than ever. Hundreds of these innovations will be found in your favorite department store, furniture showroom or building supply house this spring with possibly one exception, and this exception is likely to produce the greatest change of all in the home when it is ready for market.

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Manhattan’s $300,000 Roof Dwellings

By ORVILLE H. KNEEN

The Story of the Penthouse Apartment

Roofs of metropolitan skyscrapers are now the most sought-after and expensive sites for exclusive apartment dwellings. Rentals for some of the roof houses range around $2000 per room per year!

I HAVE heard much about New York penthouses lately. Thinking of a penthouse as a little shack on a dingy roof, I asked a realty friend to show me one.

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Soup Seventy-Five Years Old Is Still Fresh in Bottle
Seventy-five years ago Pasteur, the noted French scientist, bottled some soup in his experiments to prove that germs live in the air. That soup, still in its original bottle, and still fresh and edible as the day it was sealed, is now owned by Dr. Louis La Place of Philadelphia, to whose father Pasteur presented it after the elder La Place had studied under Pasteur. The faded, yellow inscription on the container reads “Prof. La Place. Veal bouillon. Pasteur.” By his experiments Pasteur demonstrated that germs do not generate in matter which is not exposed to air.

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A VISIT INSIDE UNCLE SAM’S New Gold Vault Fortress

Built to withstand fires, bombs and the raids of super criminals, the nation’s newest treasure house is the last word in safety. Here are the reasons why.

by JAMES NEVIN MILLER

UNCLE SAM’S new gold vault is the greatest and strongest fortress in the world. No fire can harm it. No bomb can damage its mighty walls. The most brilliant cracksmen cannot penetrate its baffling defenses.

Built of steel and concrete whose strength is unbelievable, this giant treasure house is equipped with mysterious passageways, secret doors and an automatic alarm system whose scale is the largest ever conceived by the mind of man.

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“COURTS” offer Luxury for MOTORISTS

YOU can see the world through a windshield today and live in your own private home each night while you’re doing it. Not the dwelling you started from, of course, but one offering similar comforts, luxuries and privacy.

You’ll find these overnight homes in motor courts, and if you’ve never spent a night in a court cottage, a pleasant surprise awaits you. The motor court is a recent development of the motor age, an individual type of accommodation designed specifically for motorists, entirely unlike any form of “night lodging” heretofore available.

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World’s Tallest Building

In this drawing, the artist has shown how the “Palace of the Soviets,” now under construction in Moscow, will compare in height with the Empire State building, in New York City, at present the world’s tallest structure, and with Europe’s tallest, the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Palace of the Soviets will be completed in 1942 and, including the stainless steel statue of Lenin ©n top, will be the world’s tallest and most spacious building. The main hall will seat 25,000 and another hall will seat 6,000. The ceiling of the interior dome will be 300 feet high. The building will be serviced by 120 elevators, 60 escalators, and will contain halls, clubs, galleries, museums, and will house government archives.

PISTOL SQUIRTS LIQUID THAT KILLS FLIES
A toy-like pistol, shooting liquid insecticide, is designed as a fly exterminator. A fly that is hit, it is said, immediately falls to the floor and dies. Mosquitoes and other insects also succumb to the liquid, which is said not to harm walls or draperies. The gun is cocked by squeezing the handle, and discharges a concentrated spray when the easily operating trigger is pressed.

New Building Construction
The introduction and use of metal and glass as construction material has been hailed as the greatest forward step in architecture since the introduction of steel frame buildings. The lighting features illustrated on this page are but one of the many advantageous features of this new combination. Buildings can be put up in one-half the time and at a 20% saving in cost from the ordinary masonry.

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ARCTIC CABINS HAVE WINDOWS HEWN FROM ICE

Log shelters constructed in northern Russia for Soviet fishermen have windows of ice instead of glass. Thick slabs, cut from clear ice, were hewn to shape, fitted into the window frames, and frozen in place. Constant sub-zero temperatures keep the ice windows frozen solid throughout the long winter months. Seen from the outside, the ice windows sparkle with the electric lights in the cabin’s interior.

Chimneys Blow Smoke Rings

To add an unusual touch to these Orvieto, Italy, chimneys, they were constructed on spiral lines so that the smoke comes out of them in graceful curves and rings.

Popcorn Stand Is a Locomotive

AN ACCURATE model of a locomotive built on a popcorn wagon is attracting considerable attention and has greatly increased the sales of a French popcorn and peanut vendor.

All locomotive parts above the wheels are ingeniously made from sheet metal. A small boiler supplies steam for the locomotive whistle, but this whistle has the characteristic squeaky note of the popcorn wagon.

Corn is popped from the cab by pushing the popper into the firebox.

ELECTRIC TABLE BRINGS IN FOOD, TAKES OUT DISHES

A magic dining table that brings in food, passes it to guests, and after the meal removes the dirty dishes, has been invented by Victor Marmonier, an engineer of Lyon, France. When the meal begins, Marmonier presses a button. A partition in the kitchen wall rises, the center part of the table, which runs along a track, appears laden with food, and the partition closes behind it. Before each guest, the moving centerpiece stops and a rotating arm passes food to two persons at a time, on opposite sides of the table.

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