view additional pages

SEVEN WAYS TO GET A RAISE!

By James Berry

YOU’D like a raise. But how can you get one? Pay boosts depend on your boss’ decision. But helping him make that decision—in your favor—is often up to you.

Getting a raise merely because you deserve it is not only very rare, it is Dullsville. Where’s the fun? Life is a game when you know you’re worth more than you’re getting and you’re taking steps to get what you’re worth. Look at it that way—and remember that in nearly every job you must take steps to get as much as you deserve.

Here are the ways to go about it. You may use one or more or all of these tactics, singly or in sequence, but if you ever get the raise the chances are you will use at least one of them.

1. Know what the boss wants. Some guys knock themselves out for years and all they do is bug the guy they’re working for because they don’t give him what he wants. Jim Cassett, a marketing analyst in an ad agency, put in hours of overtime each week. The boss never mentioned it. One day Jim heard the big boy speak kindly about the neatness of someone else’s report. Jim quit working overtime. He worked on making the reports neat and clear. Within three weeks the boss was patting him on the back; within four months he was working on a hotter account—with a $10-a-week raise.

It’s easier to know what the boss wants when you’re in close contact, harder when you work for a big firm, with straw bosses, possibly in trouble themselves, between you and the real Leader.

In any company you must decide which boss to try to impress. Your immediate supervisor is first choice. If he is fair and confident of his own job, he’ll support fair requests for raises and promotions. If he’s indecisive, he’ll base his judgment of you on what his bosses think of you. In such a case, look aboveyour immediate boss to see the guy you must impress.

2. Get yourself known. Companies often see participation in community and firm affairs as the sign of leadership and sound character. Go to company dinners, join teams, committees, and other organizations to gain recognition. Become active in charity drives, volunteer fire departments and fraternal organizations.

There are other ways. Ted Kobin, a sheet metal worker, got his name recognized by keeping up a regular flow of sound ideas to his firm’s suggestion box. One of his first ideas was to mark each steel sheet with the code number of the machine it was meant for. This saved the company hundreds of dollars a year by avoiding mixups. By his fifth or sixth idea, Kobin’s name was known to most of the plant’s executives. He got a $10 weekly increase months before it was due.

3. Improve your skill. Leo Pacy, a 33-year-old lathe operator, asked his boss to send him to a night course in his specialty. The boss agreed and for three nights a week for six months Pacy improved his skill at the firm’s expense. Four months after he finished the course, his company got an order that demanded special lathing techniques Pacy’s course had covered. He was one of the men assigned to the new project —with $20 weekly raise.

Sometimes a company will pay for a school training course. Unions and trade associations sometimes run seminars or workshops covering your job specialty. Attend. If no such help is at hand, consider paying for outside training yourself. If no courses or workshops are available, read all you can about your field. This can often push your performance high enough to merit a raise.

4. Ask for the raise. Ted Lawrence, a waiter, worked harder than ever after the restaurant was expanded. His paystayed the same. Ted braced the boss and got the raise immediately. If he had brooded a few more weeks before asking, he would have got the raise that much later. Sometimes the boss knows you should have a raise but needs a nudge; sometimes he thinks “Why raise him until he asks for it?” Don’t count on the boss to be a hero.

Times not to ask for a raise: when the firm has just lost a big customer, when firm earnings are taking a dive, when the boss’ wife has just gone out and run up a big bill or had divorce papers served on him. When under a strain the boss may fire his best employee instead of giving him a raise—just to relieve his feelings. The monster is only human.

When asking for a raise, offer the standard reasons, using discretion. (Using discretion means don’t lie about anything he can check up on easily or knows about already). The reasons are: you have taken on more work, are doing the work more efficiently, men doing the same job are getting paid more elsewhere, the cost of living is rising, your family is increasing, you have doctor’s bills or other unavoidable added expenses. Emphasize the positive reasons —those involving your value to him— over your difficulties in living on your present pay.

5. Shoot for a promotion. Art Capatano, a shipping clerk, asked his fore-man if he, Capatano, was a candidate for an assistant traffic manager’s job that would open soon. The foreman said yes but that a man with accounting experience was wanted. In one blow Capatano let his boss know he was interested in the job, found that it had not been filled, and what training would help him land the position. Capatano went to an adult education course in accounting— and let his boss know, just casually. Three monthslater the job opened and Capatano got it— with an $18 raise.

When keeping an eye open for promotions, don’t only think of your department. Talk to the men and the foremen in other departments; there may be higher turnover, less skilled competition or lower seniority.

If your job is unionized, you might have a different problem in stalking a promotion. Often, the salary that goes with a given job is pegged by a union contract. In this case, your chance for a wage boost might lie working through the union as well as through your immediate boss.

Often, becoming active in union affairs aids in being shifted to a different job category where the pay is higher for similar work. Sometimes you can apply for a supervisory position through the union itself, which often recommends its own candidates to the company. Then, participation in a union often leads to landing an official position within the organization such as shop steward.

6. Get a better job. Today, employers in almost every field are screaming for efficient, honest, and qualified workers. If you have qualities that merit a raise, and you don’t get it, chances are another employer will pay you what you deserve.

Keep on the lookout for job offers in trade journals, newspapers, and professional meetings. The manager of an upstate New York service station was repeatedly refused a raise despite added work loads. Then, he attended a regional sales meeting sponsored by the automobile company that gave his station its dealership. From an acquaintance, he heard that the manager of a service station in a nearby town was moving to Florida. His colleague helped arrange an interview with the owner. The manager got the new job and a salary boost of $20-a-week.

7. Say you’re quitting. Often an employer just doesn’t take time to estimate the worth of an employee. Consequently, requests for wage raises are parried with vague promises that never seem to materialize. But one way to make the boss face the value of your services is by presenting the possibility of his losing them. •

view additional pages

Stamp Collecting For Profit

by Frank G. Stein

TO ORDINARY laymen, stamp collecting may seem like a waste of time, effort and money. But to those who have been “bitten by the bug” it is the most interesting hobby any man, woman or child can take up.

When such well-known persons as the late King George V of England, the late Arthur Hind of Utica, New York, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Queen Helena of Italy, Suzanne Lenglen, famous French tennis player, Adolphe Menjou and Clara Bow, of the silver screen, and countless other personages of world-wide fame were and are collectors, it is no wonder that this hobby is so popular with millions of Americans.

A collection numbering from 20,000 to 50,000 varieties can easily be assembled and arranged in three or four albums which can be transported, displayed or stored in a comparatively small space. Compare this with the space necessary to assemble 500 to 1,000 specimens of arrow-head coins, Chinese jade idols or fire-arms. So it is easy to see why millions collect stamps and only thousands collect other material objects.

With such a tremendous following, it is no wonder that many persons collect stamps for profit. Stamp collections are more “liquid” than arrow-heads, fire-arms, etc., and there is always a market for carefully selected copies. Mint stamps of the United States, Great Britain, the British Colonies and many other countries are always worth face value. They also show the best possibilities for increase in value. In most large cities in the United States there are reputable firms that will lend money on collections. A collection may also be insured against loss, fire or pilferage.

Stamp collecting affords many hours of entertainment and an intimate knowledge of history, foreign customs, etc., not acquired except through extensive travel. To get the most out of this branch of philately, a person should spend considerable time searching for information surrounding the subject pictured on the stamp. In this way he or she will have a detailed knowledge of each country, its rulers and its history.

The second phase of collecting deals with the building of a collection for monetary profit. This branch also demands intensive study, but with an entirely different objective in mind.

Here a person may progress just as fast as his finances permit. A definite budget should be set up and followed religiously. To accomplish this purpose, a certain sum of money should be set aside each week or each month to purchase stamps. In this way cash will be on hand when the stamps wanted become available or additional copies can be secured.

Be patient. Scrutinize carefully before you buy. To make your collection of real cash value, each stamp should be of very fine or superb quality. Look for perfect centering, clearness of color, complete perforation (except in the case of imperforates or part-perforates), and light cancellation when a used copy is desired. Be sure to check perforations, watermarks and secret markings. These identification marks are important, as they determine the exact cataloging of specimen.

If there is any doubt as to the authenticity of the copy, do not buy it until you have definite proof. There are many specialists among the dealers in the business who are competent to verify issues. Always purchase stamps from a dealer whom you know to be trustworthy. If possible, select one through whom you will do most of your buying. It will familiarize him with your requirements, thereby enabling him to offer you better merchandise at more favorable prices.

To start a profitable collection it is advisable to pick a country or countries in which you are going to specialize. Then get singles of as many varieties as possible (preferably mint unless used copies catalog at a higher price), and start with issues which can be secured easily. If you are going to specialize in United States issues, get acquainted with your local postmaster. If the postal clerk is informed that stamps are being purchased for collection purposes he will usually search for well-centered copies for you.

After a fairly representative collection has been assembled, the next step is to start buying varieties, blocks of four, or even whole sheets, if funds permit.

When a single and a block of four are in your possession they should be mounted in neat style in a loose-leaf album. By doing this it will not be necessary constantly to change stamps from one album to another, thereby chancing damage. Sheets are easily rearranged.

After a good start has been made on more recent issues, a collector can work back on catalog numbers to acquire some of the older stamps and to complete sets with some of the higher priced items. A collection is usually valued by its number of completed sets of fine or superb stamps.

It is amazing how quickly a collection builds into sizeable proportions and monetary value, and it is gratifying to watch the values of various issues climb from year to year.

Dwelling for a few moments on U. S. issues, a study should be made of individual issues in order to determine which ones deserve the most attention. Commemorative stamps are always in demand and show the greatest possibilities for improved value.

Many commemoratives issued during the last decade have jumped in catalog value from two to ten times their face values. An outstanding example of increased value is the series of three Zeppelin stamps issued during 1930. These had a face value of 65c, $1.30 and $2.60, a total of $4.55. Today selling prices on these three stamps total $48.00 in mint or used condition with few sets available at this price. Another value that increased tremendously is the 50c Zeppelin stamp issued during the Chicago World’s Fair. In slightly over three years the price jumped to $4.00 for well-centered copies.

Another outstanding value is the 3c Bi-centennial issue. This was replaced by the present Washington stamp on June 16, 1932, after it had been on sale only a few months. Catalog price over face value has jumped 600%. Another stamp to watch is the Maryland Tercentenary issue released in 1934. This was printed in red instead of violet and was taken “off sale” in a short time because of confusion in some post offices.

It can readily be seen that careful study should be made of issues as they are released so that adequate copies may be secured before the philatelic agencies remove them from sale.

Other stamps issued by the United States during the last 10 years which have shown tremendous increases in value are Burgoyne Campaign issue released in 1927, increase 2000%; Valley Forge issue 1928, 750%; and “Molly Pitcher” overprint issue 1928, 900%. The Hawaiian commemorative issue of 1928 had two values. The 2c value has increased 1250% and the 5c value 1200%. A later example is the Bi-centennial issue released in 1932. This issue had 12 values from 1/2c to 10c.

Below is listed the percentage of increased values found as against face values for each:
1/2C…………..400%
1 c……………500%
1-1/2C…………665%
2 c……………250%
3 c……………835%
4 c……………300%
5c…………….300%
6c…………….335%
7c…………….285%
8c…………….275%
9c…………….277%
10c……………400%

An outstanding example of popularity in recent issues is the “Farley Follies.” At first dealers and collectors refrained from buying because they felt that something had been “put over on them.” But soon after the issues were removed from sale at the Philatelic Agency in Washington, collectors and dealers realized that here was a set of issues which were bound to increase in value. Prices skyrocketed, and now it is almost impossible to secure a good set at less than $3.00.

Other U. S. issues which should receive intensive study and consideration are the air mails, parcel post issues, special delivery and revenues.

Another branch of philately which a collector should investigate is “covers.” These are envelopes which have been postally used. They have a stamp affixed which is “tied” to the cover by a cancellation. Stamps should not be removed from “covers” until their value has been determined so affixed. Many valuable stamps have been dis- covered in old trunks in attics. Old correspondence sometimes contains “covers” of high value and careful search should be made to discover these rarities.

Practically the same possibilities for profit exist with issues from foreign countries if a collector will make a study of releases, quantities and condition of the stamps he purchases. This is of vital importance if the greatest profits are to be realized from investments in philately.

Next to the United States issues, perhaps the greatest possibilities for profit exist with Great Britain and British Colonies. This monarchy and its colonies do not make it a practice to foist issues on dealers and collectors to fatten their treasury. It will be found that mint copies of these releases increase in value faster than do used copies.

The increased popularity of Great Britain and British Colonial stamps is especially noticeable in the Silver Jubilee issues released during 1935. In most cases these were bi-colored stamps of the large size which form a beautiful addition to any collection. These stamps were on sale only a short time and were soon exhausted. In two years’ time most values have increased 300% to 500%.

On the subject of British Colonies, we find that the most popular are Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand and Union of South Africa. Individual colonies in these dominions supply their own postal adhesives, so a collector will find the British Empire a fertile field for study and profit.

Another classification which demands study is “dead” countries—nations which have passed out of existence through conquest or absorption. Latest of these is Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, as we have learned to call it from newspaper reports.

In September, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and by April, 1936, had conquered a territory approximately as large as the states of Texas and Oklahoma combined. Shortly after the successful campaign Premier Mussolini proclaimed Abyssinia to be part of Italy. New stamps have been issued to supplant those which were being used at the start of the conquest.

It is reported that at the time of fleeing from Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie took with him all available stamps which had not been sent out to the various post offices. This is one country on which a collector-for-profit may safely make an investment, because values are bound to rise.

Other countries which deserve attention from collectors are Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroons Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Carinthia Caroline Islands, Corea, Crete, Danish West Indies, Fiume, Georgia, German East Africa, Mariana Islands, Natal, Orange River Colony, Palestine, Penrhyn Island, Philippine Islands (under jurisdiction of U. S.) Prussia, Rio de Oro, Saar, Spain (prior to 1931) Togo, Transvaal, Upper Volta, Vatican City (stamps containing pictures of Pope Pius XI), Victoria, Western Australia, Wurtemburg and Zambesia.

view additional pages

Your Own Mail Order Business

By John Winkler

When Arthur Johnson decided to earn some extra cash during his spare time he chose the mail order business because it could be run right from his own home. He reasoned that it was one of the few fields still open in which you could start your own business with a minimum of capital. In fact, his total investment was less than $100.00.

What began as a spare time job mushroomed into a profitable full-time business.

How successful was Johnson? Well, he drives a Cadillac convertible, owns a home in Nevada and a summer place in Florida, with a Cris-Craft cruiser to boot!

No, Johnson didn’t find Uranium or answer the $64,000 question. He simply cashed in on the fabulous mail order business—with the help of one of the new mail order organizations which back enterprising new comers to the mail order business.

Like so many other beginners in this field, Johnson was plagued with the problem of finding the ‘ideal’ mail order product. One that would have a large market, offer a good profit margin, bring repeat sales, and one which could be easily shipped by mail. After reading several books and courses on the subject, it seemed impossible. In order to obtain wholesale prices from manufacturers he had to purchase large quantities, which meant all his capital would be spent in inventory. The additional cost of sales letters and advertising and the risk of picking a poor mail order product and being stuck with all that merchandise made it even more obvious he’d have little chance of success.

Then he heard about Mail Order Associates of Maywood, New Jersey—an organization set up to aid the small mail order operator.

He wrote to M.O.A. for full information, sent in his application for a franchise and within three months the profits started pouring in.

Johnson attributes his success to the large selection of novel and unusual mail order products carried by M.O.A.

Mail Order Associates is one of the few new pioneers in the fabulous mail order business. One of the first organizations formed to put the small mail order operator in business—big business, they fill a definite need for the beginner with little capital. Here’s what they offer you: (1) Complete, ready-to-mail catalogs printed with your name and address … in any quantity you wish. Catalogs, sales letters or self mailers may be based on any of the following typical categories: BABY GIFTS AND NOVELTIES VITAMINS INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS AND COURSES COSMETICS You select your own market.

(2) Profits range from 50% to 150% on most items. For example, you may sell a $20.00 mail order course and make $10.00 on each sale. Or you sell two appliances at a discount, give one away free and still make a 50% overall profit!

(3) Everything is drop-shipped for you. You have no merchandise to carry—no capital tied up in inventory. All merchandise is stocked and shipped for you by Mail Order Associates or the manufacturer. You forward orders and your own shipping labels to M.O.A. and all merchandise is sent direct to your customer—using YOUR OWN LABEL (4) Up to date mailing lists are made available to you. Lists of proven mail order buyers are compiled for the market you select. Records are kept so that no two distributors use the same names. All names are supplied on gummed labels—all you do is apply them to your catalogs.

(5) A consultation service is provided to answer any questions you may have. In addition, you’re supplied with a list of leading national magazines that provide free editorial write-ups. You’re even given form letters to use to obtain free advertising of your products from these magazines.

(6) Your choice of at least four new mail order programs during the year. One may be a catalog of baby items, another on household gadgets, etc. You may select one or as many as you can handle.

Here’s how they operate: Unlike the individual mail order dealer who looks for the ideal product, M.O.A. searches the market first! After making surveys and tests to determine a profitable mail order market, they select the products to suit the market. For example, the market of selling baby items to new mothers is a big one. Over four million babies are born in the U. S. each year. This is the first step in selecting a mass market for their franchised dealers. Then comes the selection of products to suit this market. They contact every manufacturer of products sold to new mothers. From thousands of items offered by various companies, only those suit- able for mail order are selected for preliminary tests. The final survey is made for new novelties and products not yet manufactured! If they feel certain ideas for new products have merit, they’ll manufacture the items on a royalty basis and produce them for their dealers exclusively!

From this preliminary selection of new mail order products suited to this particular market, they make actual tests to see which items will sell and produce the greatest profit for their franchised dealers. Having finally selected the best products they begin layout and artwork on a new mail order catalog for their dealers. The final catalog may consist of a small 6×9 brochure, a large 8V2 x 11 illustrated booklet or even a small one page self-mailer, depending upon the market and selection of products. Sales letters are prepared by experienced copy writers, and the complete job—layout, copy and printing is done by experts to produce professional results.

By purchasing merchandise in large quantities and running catalogs on large presses, they are able to offer their dealers complete backing at a fraction of the cost the individual would have to pay for the same job.

The final step is to supply the franchised dealers with names of prospective customers! In this particular example, they would make available the names and addresses of over 7000 new mothers every day!

Although many mail order firms use magazines and newspapers to advertise single items, the larger established firms have proven that direct mailings to prospective customers and previous mail order buyers is far more profitable.

A notice is then sent to all franchise holders explaining in detail the complete sales program for the particular market covered. The dealers then have the option to accept the offer or wait for a complete new sales program set up for a new market. At least four complete new sales programs are prepared by Mail Order Associates each year.

If the dealer decides to go ahead he may begin ordering catalogs (his personal name or business name is printed on all sales literature), and mailing them to his lists of prospective customers. As he receives orders for merchandise he simply forwards the orders together with addressed shipping labels to M.O.A. and they fill the orders and mail direct to his customers with the dealer’s shipping label attached to each parcel. In some cases M.O.A. prepares a catalog of merchandise which manufacturers have agreed to drop-ship for the dealer. Mail Order Associates simply turns over this list of firms to the dealer and he works directly with the manufacturer. The customer pays the dealer the retail price of each item in the catalog. The dealer in turn pays M.O.A. or the manufacturer only the wholesale price of each item and pockets the difference—which really adds up when you mail a few hundred catalogs a week.

The operation of Mail Order Associates is based on a small margin or profit, but tremendous volume, which spells BIG PROFITS FOR ITS FRANCHISED DEALERS.

According to the U. S. Dept. of Commerce, ‘There is hardly another occupation that requires so little capital as does a small specialized Mail Order business. A number of Mail Order successes which piled up fortunes for the owners were started with very little capital. In each case, the proprietor began on a small scale and grew with the business.” This same Government Report also states, “There are a large number of one-man mail order enterprises in this country which are paying their owners far more than a comfortable living. A number of the most successful obtain an income as high as $40,000 to $50,000.” That’s what the U. S. Government says about the mail order business!

view additional pages

There’s money in Simple Inventions

by CLARENCE A. O’BRIEN
Registered Patent Attorney Washington, D. C.

The greatest profit does not always come to the inventor of a complicated machine—often the inventor of some simple, much-used article stands a more favorable chance of making a fortune.

WHILE such complicated inventions as the radio, the airplane, the telephone and the electric light are among the major blessings of this modern age, yet we often lose sight of the fact that there are a greater number of simple devices which are contributing greatly to our everyday comfort, convenience, and enjoyment of life. And it is for this reason that the invention of these humble devices, when they were properly patented and marketed, have been the source of great fortunes for their inventors.

Among these simple contrivances which have piled up wealth for many inventors may be listed the metal cap which seals bottles airtight, the paper match, the tip for shoe laces, the safety pin, and the umbrella which folds up into its handle, all of which are illustrated in accompanying drawings. These are ideal examples of simple discoveries, because they illustrate the great truth that to go out of the beaten path and make an invention pay, you must have an article of merit which can be of great service to the greatest number of people.

Now, while the above mentioned inventions are noted for their success, the question naturally arises in the embryo Edison, “Why do some inventions succeed and others fail?

Unsuccessful patents, and there have been thousands of them, fail for various reasons. The invention would not work. The cost of manufacture was too great. The idea was not new. But the chief reason for failure in a great many cases can be traced to the fact that there was no demand for the invention, or to failure to create a demand where none existed before.

The best type of invention, therefore, whether simple or complicated, is that which eliminates the most factors of uncertainty in establishing a market for it. As far as the marketability or salability of inventions is concerned, they may be classified as follows: 1. Inventions which save labor; 2. Inventions which save time; 3. Inventions which save trouble; 4. Inventions which save money; 5. Inventions which save annoyance.

Inventions may also be graded as to their commercial or sales-pushing value. Make a survey of the number of probable users of the invention. For example, the possible sales of a $5000 automobile in a city of thirty thousand people in which only a few earn $3000 per year or over—as in certain mill towns—would not be nearly as numerous as in a town of thirty thousand people of a purely residential character, where three thousand men may earn average salaries in excess of $3000.

But substitute overalls for the $5000 automobiles, and the market possibilities are at once reversed—for think of the large number of factory workers. From this it is plain that the inventor should always consider the territories in which his device is offered for sale, as well as the character of the invention itself.

The reader should always know, too, that only when the patent well and truly covers all the patentable novelty will the full value of an invention be secured to the patentee and be represented by the patent.

view additional pages

Suggest Your Way To Success

Turn your pet gripes and daydreams into cash for you and your boss.

By Irv Leiberman

NOT SO LONG ago Charles Zamiska collected $7,162 from the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company, making a total of $12,137 the firm had paid him over a brief six-month period. Zamiska is senior furnace operator in the company’s foundry and the $12,137 is considerably in excess of his wages. What’s the story? The $12,137 equals 25 per cent of savings realized by his firm during the six months his plan for handling cores in Cleveland Graphite’s shell casting department has been in effect. Charlie had submitted the plan through the company’s employee suggestion system.

Last year more than $2,330,000 was distributed among employees of only 312 companies, according to the most recent survey of the National Association of Suggestion Systems. Management goes on to show that 520,452 suggestions were submitted to these 312 companies with an average acceptance of 26 per cent, or $17.50 per person. Of course, the 312 companies covered by the N. A. S. S. survey represent only a drop in the industrial bucket. Thousands of or- ganizations maintain suggestion systems.

The Eastman Kodak Company, which awarded $336,962 for suggestions last year, sent one employee a whopping $11,386 check for a suggestion on how to revise a stacking assembly fixture. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company paid $4,000 for an idea on how to improve the quality of Foamex cushions.

Are you cashing in on the suggestion bonanza? If not, there’s a systematic way to do it. Some companies, like General Motors, try to help their employees get ideas by distributing booklets containing “thought-starters.” You may find it helpful to ask yourself these pertinent questions about your job:

1. Can a less expensive material be used? One Westinghouse employee suggested using extruded aluminum instead of machined aluminum bar stock for rotor wedges and earned $4,008.

2. Can the material used be cut or trimmed differently for greater economy or efficiency? An employee in a national firm’s transportation and generator division got $5,085 for suggesting a new way to make mica insulation sheets.

3. Can the operation be made safer? A plant layout engineer was awarded $2,400 for a safety suggestion.

4. Can any improvement be made in a particular operation? A new method for aligning generator blower blades won $1,990.

5. Can packing and shipping methods be improved? An Eastman Kodak worker received an award of $1,500 for suggesting different packaging for sensitized paper.

6. Can quality be improved? Douglas G. Wood, an employee of the Canadian Shredded Wheat Company, hit his company’s jackpot of $2,500 for a suggestion concerning the cooking process for Shreddies, a bite-size whole-wheat cereal.

7. Can production cost be cut? An assembly-line worker at the Whirlpool Corporation factory at St. Joseph, Mich., made a suggestion that cut the cost of an automatic washer by five cents each, and collected $4,000.

Nearly 75 years old, the employee suggestion system was devised when several corporation presidents discovered that there was no way for workers to turn in their ideas. The suggestion-box system was the first step, but in most plants it was run on haphazard lines.

During World War II, however, industry ran head-on into severe manpower shortages and ideas were needed to simplify methods. The suggestion system was revived on a scientific basis. A new type of personnel executive emerged—^the suggestion-system administrator. Several banded together and formed an information-swapping organization, the National Association of Suggestion Systems. Today the N. A. S. S. has more than 900 members in the U. S., Canada and other countries.

Some suggestion systems take into account the workers who are not adept at expressing themselves in writing. The value of this system-was shown recently at the American Steel Foundries plant in Hammond, Ind. For months the company’s engineers had been struggling to develop a forged brakehead for locomotives and railroad cars. Steve Sabo, a Hungarian immigrant who had never completed grade school, watched their activities from the forge shop where he had worked for 35 years. Then one day he laboriously scrawled a message on a suggestion form. He wrote that he knew how to make the forging but couldn’t put it on paper.

Incredulous, the engineers went to the forge shop—and sure enough, Sabo had worked out the method they had been searching for. American Steel Foundries now makes Sabo’s forged brakehead and the worker was given the company’s maximum bonus of $2,500.

Most systems today, while stressing improvement of management-labor relations, frankly acknowledge that ideas earn money for the company. Usually they pay a percentage of the savings the first year a suggestion is in effect.

Many companies impose limits, too, although the average percentage paid is between 10 and 15 per cent, according to one survey. Some firms pay 25, 50 and even 100 per cent of the first year’s savings. The largest cash award on record was for $28,006.46 paid by the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company which allows 25 per cent of the net first year’s savings and has no limit.

“But,” you may protest, “my outfit has no suggestion system.” Well, you can suggest that your company institute a suggestion program—that can be your first bright idea. Ask your employer to study closely the theory behind suggestion systems. Point out that improved industrial relations result from suggestions systems.

Your reward may not be money or promotion at the outset. Some firms pass out certificates of merit for minor suggestions while others honor workers with pins. But have patience. The certificate or the pin of today means dollar bills or advancement tomorrow. No company can long ignore the man concerned with its best interests.

One word of caution, however. Use common sense and do not flood the box with the first ideas that pop into your head. Your future with the firm will depend not on the quantity of suggestions but on the quality. But don’t be left by the wayside. Pick up that pencil. Get your share! •

view additional pages

THEIR Brains Can Make YOU Rich

You can turn that idea of yours into dollars with the aid of private research laboratories.

By Lester David

THE MAN in the chair watched the barber come away from the electric lathering machine with a fistful of creamy stuff. He had watched this process dozens of times while he was being shaved or getting a haircut. It was just a gadget which makes lather and you can see it in any barber shop in the country.

The idea hit him with sledge-hammer force!

“Why,” said the man to himself, “couldn’t this idea be adapted to the home? Why should a man have to whip up a lather on his face? Here was a simple, time-saving method. Push a lever, get a lather. It could make a fortune.”

It could and it did. The man’s name was J. George Spitzer, who later teamed up with another enterprising businessman, Marvin Small. The product is called Rise and it comes in a pressurized can which squirts instant lather into your palm when you press a valve. The two men later sold Rise to a pharmaceutical firm for a nice sum.

The most interesting part of this story is that neither Spitzer nor Small possessed the technical know-how to create the gadget itself. They went to the offices of a consulting chemist and said, in effect: “This is the idea we have. The completed product must do two things, namely: 1. enable a man to shave in less time; 2. give him a better shave.

Foster D. Snell, Inc., of New York City, an organization of consultants, including chemists, bacteriologists, engineers, physicists and medical personnel, produced a product that did just that.

There’s a meaning in the story for you that can spell money in big green letters. It’s simply this: Throughout the United States there are several thousand private research laboratories—estimates run between 2,500 and 3,000—which have brains for rent. For a fee, they will provide the technical knowledge needed to solve almost any kind of research problem. If you want a new product developed, they will develop one. If you want a new invention, they will create one. If you want a new type of cosmetic, wax, paste, hair tonic or what-have-you, they will come up with it.

Private research laboratories grew up because smaller businesses have neither the time nor the money to develop their own research divisions. Recent figures show that fewer than 3,000 of the country’s quarter-million manufacturing companies have their own research setups. But problems do turn up and when they do, the private consultants are called to set things right. And they do a crackerjack job for individuals, too.

Here’s an example of how they work: A couple went to the Testing and Research Laboratories in New York one day in search of a product with which to start a small business in their home. They discussed with Evelyn Ellenson, who runs the organization, a number of possibilities, finally narrowing their choice down to a new type of hair dressing.

The lab’s experts went to work. A short time later their product was ready. Actually, it was a fairly simple thing to create, since it consisted of standard ingredients, but it looked good, smelled nice and kept the hair neat. The couple are now in business and at last report were doing fine.

Here’s another example of what these labs can do. Alex Marelia and Paul Nelson got an idea for a new kind of dog collar, one that could be impregnated with something to repel fleas and other annoying pests which irk pooches. They wanted something non-toxic, odorless and stainless which would render Fido itchless.

Marelia and Nelson had the idea but lacked the know-how to create it. They visited a couple of laboratories, explained what they wanted and a special ointment which impregnated a dog collar against fleas was dreamed up. Carefully tested, the product worked fine. Marelia and Nelson set up Guardian In- dustries in the Bronx, N.Y. and began producing their K-9 Guardian Flea Killer Collar. In the first six months of operation, they sold 500,000 of them throughout the country. Using the same collar ingredient, the enterprising young team is now putting out a Bird Guardian —a metal container containing the ointment—designed to keep mites off cage birds.

Over and over the labs provide the technical skill which results in a moneymaker for a customer with a good idea. Alfred R. Globus, director of reasearch of United International Research, Inc., tells about the man who walked into his office with an interesting idea. Women who own fur coats, he pointed out, must send them to professional furriers for cleaning and preservation. Why not make a formula which would enable a woman to do this in her own home?

Experts wrestled with the idea for two months and came up with the answer. Mr. Globus reports that his client now has a thriving business putting out the product.

On a larger scale, take the case of the Wilkins Company of Cortland, N. Y., which makes lens-cleaning material for various kinds of safety glasses used by industrial workers. When plant employees went from one kind of temperature and humidity to another, their glasses fogged up. Ralph R. Wilkins, president of the company, handed the problem to the Evans Research Company.

Lab men went to work and came up with an anti-fogging material in the form of liquid which is sprayed onto the glasses and wiped off with tissue. The film that remained on the glass prevented the irritating fogging.

Elizabeth Adam, head of the Adam Laboratory in New York, is another well-known chemist who helps people perfect profitable ideas.

One fellow thought egg shampoos— always popular with the ladies—would be a real money-maker. When the Adam Laboratory solved his problem he ended up in a highly successful business.

One chap went to the Snell experts with an idea for a paint brush that wouldn’t have to be dipped into a paint can. The result was a brush which has a pipe going into the handle. The other end of the pipe is connected to a reservoir where the paint is kept under pressure and controlled by a trigger in the handle. Just press the trigger and you get paint when it is needed. The fellow is now showing his novel brush to a number of interested manufacturers.

Curiously, laboratories report that doctors are especially frequent customers. They come across a new chemical or develop a method of treatment which they believe can be mass produced, but need technical assistance in working it out. A good example is a novel treat- ment for athlete’s foot in the form of an ointment which was recently developed.

Businessmen look with considerable fondness on the country’s private research laboratories for by testing, retesting and long hours of conferences, labs often discover commercial uses for materials which would otherwise be thrown away.

A prime example is the case of the oat hulls. The Quaker Oats people, finding themselves with mountains of the useless hulls, took their problem to the Miner Laboratories of Chicago. The result? The development from the hulls of furfural—a solvent, fungicide and source of many commercially valuable derivatives.

Now let’s take stock. What have the nation’s private research laboratories to offer you? How can they help you develop a potential money-making idea?

Here are some answers to questions you may have at this point: Q. Where are these consultants located?

A. You’ll find them chiefly in the industrial sections of the country and chances are you’ll find them in virtually every large city.

Q. Are all consultants alike? That is, do they do the same work?

A. No. You’ll find just as many specialists as you will among doctors and lawyers. Some labs do a little, bit of everything, but a great many specialize. There are about 200 specialties performed by consultants.

Q. What about fees? How much do the labs charge to develop a product?

A. It depends upon the complexity of the job at hand. Some products can be developed for as little as $200. On the other hand, the cost may go up to $2,000 or $3,000, or even a good deal higher.

Q. Will the labs put your product on the market for you?

A. No, that’s not the research man’s job. Once the product has been created, the rest is up to you.

Q. How do you go about finding a consultant?

A. One excellent source is the Association of Consulting Chemists and Engineers, Inc., and another is the American Council of Independent Laboratories.

Both have services which function as links between the labs and those who want their know-how.

Write to either of the following and you will be put in touch with the right consultant for your special type of problem: The Association of Consulting Chemists and Engineers, Inc., 50 East 41st Street, New York 17, N.Y. The American Council of Independent Laboratories, 4302 East-West Highway, Washington 14, D.C.

So—got an idea? Been harboring a secret conviction that you could make a fortune with a gimmick or gadget if you only knew how to develop it? Well, here’s your chance. The nation’s private research labs are waiting with the know-how to perfect what’s in your mind and turn it into a fully grown, completed product, a potential money-maker ready to be promoted and marketed to help you hit that elusive jackpot. •

view additional pages

HOW To PREPARE For TOP JOBS In INDUSTRY

By WALTER B. PITKIN
AUTHOR OF “Life Begins at Forty”

YOU men with sound technical training are lucky. As the world picks up speed and pulls out of its long slump, you will be among the first to find profitable employment. Wherever I go, I hear the same story. In Austin, Texas, a year ago, a man wanted eight service men for his electric refrigeration stores—and couldn’t find one anywhere. Last month, out in California, I heard another man fuming because he couldn’t find any high-grade radio service workers. In Buffalo a manufacturer told me he needed top-grade die casters for seven big contracts and was being compelled to pay double the standard wage for the few he had found. I helped him pick up a few more in Detroit and Chicago.

So it goes everywhere. Here a man, there two, and over there half a dozen. The pickup may look small to an observer who stays on one spot; but to those of us who tour America studying this problem of opportunities and trends, the scene grows rosy. It is bright today for the skilled workers in steel, in automobiles, and in some building trades. It is still brighter for the higher types of technical men, who rank between the skilled workers and the professionals.

In the Diesel engine field there is no short- age of top professional workers; in fact, there seems to be still a bad surplus of excellent engineers. But I find two shortages below this professional level: Engineers are sorely needed to sell Diesels to people who insist on full technical descriptions and who argue fine technical points. Then there is a new shortage beginning in the service field. As yet there are altogether too few well trained men who are servicing Diesels.

A few months ago I spent an entire morning with a clever young Swede who had been thoroughly trained in one of Europe’s finest Diesel engine factories and had come over here during the depression (believe it or i not!) to offer his skill in servicing all kinds of Diesels. He had eighteen months of misery getting on his feet; for he had to learn English and he had to find customers. Today, at the end of his fourth year, he is all set to go places. He employs four men in his little shop and has established a name for himself especially among commercial fishermen who use Diesels.

At a wild guess, I’d say that five hundred Americans could match this career provided that they trained themselves in basic factory practice as did this Swede. You can’t tackle a fuel oil engine with a monkey wrench and a lot of ignorance. You must know your stuff. And you can’t pick it out of thin air.

I find a grave shortage of technical men in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning fields. There are plenty of tinsmiths who think they can service a ventilating system simply because they are adept with tin shears and soldering iron. Heaven help the house or store that draws one of these fellows when seeking to solve a ventilating problem! I would be surprised if fewer than five thousand properly trained men could not find well paid work in the ventilating field during the next year. Maybe twenty thousand can, with all the new building about to start.

Air conditioning is running a high fever. In parts of the country the volume of new business is unbelievable. Down in Houston, Texas, tens of millions of dollars’ worth of the new installations have been added to old and new buildings in the last year. It is only a matter of time before every other southern and southwestern city will remodel itself likewise. So much has been written about this opportunity that I shall say no more.

Now, I cannot list all opportunities in this brief article. I am much more interested in making certain fundamentals clear to every reader who either is or wants to become a technical worker. Thousands of technical men are still on relief rolls or on park benches. At the very same time thousands of excellent jobs remain unfilled. What’s wrong? How bring the man to the job? This is the most urgent of all problems today.

First, by understanding the kinds of careers that await properly trained men, and then by training yourself for these.

The first principle to remember is this: There are and will be for many years relatively more openings in service than in production work. In most fields not only is factory capacity ample for existing and future needs for some years to come, but machines take over steadily more work that once fell to men of brawn. Automatic and semi-automatic machinery, though, needs highly trained managers and supervisors who can manipulate delicate controls and costly equipment, and who know thoroughly how to make the needed adjustments and repairs. Today’s worker cannot start on his job before his employer has spent literally hundreds of dollars on the machines and equipment used by each worker. Hence the employer’s risks are extremely high, and his demand for responsible supervision and management greater than ever.

Now for the second principle of today’s opportunities. Thousands of technical men are too narrowly trained. They are single-track specialists. But today’s jobs call for versatility within a given field. A refrigeration service man should know not only the fundamentals of refrigeration, but enough about machines and electricity to do a good job of installation and servicing. A man who can do nothing but steam fitting or sheet metal work may have a hard time finding a good job. But suppose he adds to these skills the ability to install heating and air conditioning equipment. Few such men are hunting work today. To find a promising career, then, train yourself to be a “merger job” man. Learn to combine two or more different types of activity into a single line of work. Beware of over-specialization.

Take the printing industry. The man who knows nothing but typography will be elbowed out by the worker trained in both typography and the fundamentals of art and design. For the best printing opportunities call for merger job men. The artist-typographer wins out over the worker who knows nothing but art, or the employee skilled in typography alone.

Look next at metallurgy. Here revolution follows revolution. Wherever iron, steel, copper, or nickel are used in the making of useful objects large and small, there you find new alloys rapidly crowding out the old-fashioned pure metals. Sometimes they serve to increase the strength and sometimes to lighten things. Often they serve to reduce rust and to check the destructive effects of chemicals. In spite of the vast progress in recent years, the handling of alloys is still in its infancy. Every expert will tell you that a new field opens up here every few months. I couldn’t list the opportunities if I tried. Technicians here should know the whole chemistry of combining various metals. They must also master the wholly new art of working the alloys, whether it be in the form of castings, drop-forging, or turned work. They should be both good shop-mechanics and alloy experts.

Out in the oil fields of Texas and Oklahoma, workers are merging not only a knowledge of production and operation, but they are training themselves in the special mathematics of the job. Thus the modern operator knows how to drill, to separate gas and oil, to care for and use equipment, and also how to keep intelligent well-production records, and thus advance beyond the menial labor of the “roustabout gang.”

Radio experts emphasize the value of training not only in broadcasting, but in electrical communication in general. Thus the broadcast engineer finds opportunities not only in broadcasting alone, but in other forms of electrical communication and branches of the radio industry, including the foundations of television—if and when.

Now turn to the merger job of technical salesmanship.

Not long ago a large company arranged to sell and install 300,000 oil burners yearly—three times the normal installation of domestic heating burners. But it was stumped by the single problem of finding enough well trained technical men to sell the burners. The market was there. The price was right. But the merger-job men were as scarce as Dakota waterholes.

Industry wants both buyers and sellers who are trained technicians. The manager of a large middle-western nursery, for instance, wrote me last month that the nursery business offers permanent employment to any salesman who can qualify. To be a top-notcher, he should know his stock as well as a general line of material which can be obtained elsewhere for his clients. He should be able to cover a good deal of ground, to meet many people, to ’sell himself to his prospective customers. He should also have a good working knowledge of landscape principles, although many nursery firms employ landscape experts for the most complex problems.

Technical salesmanship offers fine opportunities for people who like to sell and can get results.

Now a word about training. Are you in your ‘teens or your twenties? Then finish high school if you possibly can. Employers are insisting more and more on this minimum education. Whether or not you should complete your technical training in college depends on your purse and your ambitions. Key jobs go mostly to college men today. There are, of course, notable exceptions. But the keener the competition, the more exacting the requirements for long, thorough training. A chemical engineer, for example, ought to spend at least as much time preparing for his career as does the doctor or the lawyer. I am told that one large electrical supply company today employs only college men in all jobs of any consequences.

If you can afford the training, then, and want to reach the top, spend as much time as you can possibly afford in college and graduate technical study.

There are, however, thousands of opportunities for high school graduates with additional technical training from good night schools, reliable correspondence schools, and extension courses at colleges and universities.

How about men in their thirties and forties, reasonably well established, but graduated from neither high school nor college?

Unless you have some special reason for following another plan, I advise you to spend your leisure time studying the important new developments related to your job and the opportunities it offers. If you find yourself in dead-end work, then work out some program of retraining for promising openings as closely allied to your experience as possible. This may or may not call for high school training. If you must write reports, for instance, and are handicapped by lack of education in composition and the use of language in general, equip yourself for the work wherever seems feasible. If you would advance faster by a knowledge of accounting, then enroll in any good accountancy course offered by any of dozens of fine schools.

Talk over with your employer or some competent adviser your plans and ambitions. Establish yourself as a man on the make. Follow whatever program of reading, study and practical work in training yourselves for new skills and techniques seems advisable. I have lately studied the records of many technicians earning up to $250 (and in a few cases more) monthly who credit correspondence school training for their advancement and good salaries. Some were only grammar school graduates. Many were high school people. And I recall one notable case of a man who had never gone beyond the third grade in formal schooling, but who had persistently trained himself in his leisure time for a responsible, well-paying job. (He earns about four times as much as the average young lawyer in New York City.) Tomorrow will see fiercer competition than ever before. The man who serves best will win. The half-baked fellow, the lazy man, the irresponsible chap, and the slick cheater will go into the garbage can. The successful man will know all there is to know about his technical field. He will be able to do anything in it. He will be tactful in handling customers, cautious in buying and in delivering goods, and zealous to please.

If you don’t care to do your utmost, get out of technical work at once. But if you mean to make good 100%, rest assured that, within a reasonable time, you will have a career that will bring bread and butter to your stomach and a grin to your face.

view additional pages

Mail Yourself a Fortune

The mail-order business is a fabulous one. Pick a product or service the public wants and the world is your oyster.

By Lester David

YOU’VE heard about the salesman who was such a slick operator that he made a fortune selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Well, Hugh Clay Paulk made his pile peddling parachutes to old ladies.

No, Paulk is not an ace confidence man, hasn’t sold municipal structures to visit- ing firemen. And neither did nice old ladies go around parachuting from airplanes after he got through with them. He simply became a shrewd operator in a fantastic game —the mail-order business. He bought up 50,000 surplus service chutes little by little and advertised them for $13.95 each. Thrifty housewives immediately spotted the bargain and flooded the mails with $800,000 worth of orders! They cut up the chutes and made dresses, shirts and assorted wearables for the family from the fine quality nylon. Paulk is by no means the only one to cash in heavily in the mail-order business. You’d be amazed at the number of small operators who are making large money.

Thousands of ex-clerks, school teachers and mechanics are packing items from morning until night in their kitchens, attics, garages and cellars, lugging them to post offices and depositing in the bank the fist-fuls of checks dumped on their doorsteps by the mailmen each day. Mail-order experts estimate that the little guys who advertise and sell just a few products do a gross business running close to a billion dollars each year. And that figure does not include the astronomical sales racked up by the mail-order giants like Sears, Roebuck; Montgomery Ward, and others.

Those little guys, who sell exclusively through advertisements, are outposts of free enterprise wherever they operate. The ads take the place of store counters and sales clerks; the post office takes the place of delivery trucks. Criss-crossing the country are their products—a bewildering variety of anything and everything that can be mailed, from baby crocodiles to rose bushes, from ant houses to antique jewelry.

And the amazing fact is that the little guys, who started just a few years ago with nothing more than one item, a tiny stake and a prayer, are fast becoming big guys. Look at young Hal Zimmerman of Montgomery, Ala., who spent his off-duty hours while he was in the Air Force organizing a business selling inexpensive watches by mail. Today, at 31, he runs the American Merchandising Company, one of the fastest growing mail-order houses in the country. Says Hal: “As proof that you don’t have to have a lot of money to start, I began my business with a little money saved as a buck private and believe me, that was no fortune!” His first expense for advertising? A flat $16.80!

Then, there’s the case of Charles C. Gilbert of San Diego, Calif., who began five years ago and now calls himself the world’s largest supplier of hydroponic information, equipment and materials. Hydroponics, a soilless method of growing plants, was generally misunderstood, Gilbert discovered. It was clouded by all sorts of technical gibberish. Gilbert thereupon set out to make the field so simple that any schoolboy could enjoy it as a hobby. He began selling seeds and a book called Success Without Soil. The business caught on so rapidly that today, during peak months, he does a $350 daily volume of business.

Look at the firm of Harry and David on the West Coast. They began advertising and selling just one product, the luscious pears that abound in the orchards of Oregon. The country took a few bites, then began bombarding Harry and David with orders for more. Today they employ more than 1,000 persons in a mammoth Fruit-of-the-Month-Club enterprise which sells more than a million dollars worth of fruit products annually.

Let’s take just one more look, this time at a couple of little guys who began a while back. One of them was named Richard, a station agent and telegrapher in the tiny Minnesota town of North Redwood. Way back in 1876, Richard began peddling inexpensive timepieces to some of his friends and co-workers and kept at it for a decade. Expansion came next; Richard moved to Minneapolis and established a watch and jewelry business. In 1887, the second little guy, a watch-repair man by trade, joined the business and in 1893, the two men sold out and established another firm with the basic idea of supplying various items for customers living far removed from large trading centers. The rest of the story is history—real, living history of American enterprise. The names of the two little guys? Mr. Sears and Mr. Roebuck! Today, the company they founded issues about seven million catalogues twice a year, bulky as telephone books, with total merchandise sales topping a billion and a half dollars each year.

One of the most unique—and most successful—mail-order houses in the country is the one run by the fabulous L. L. Bean, whose place of business is conveniently located over the post office in Freeport, Me. Generations of explorers, big game hunters and just everyday sportsmen have helped build Bean’s business into a $1,500,000 a year enterprise. Here’s how he did it: About 40 years ago Bean found his own feet got tired and sore on hunting expeditions. He decided the h^vy lumberman’s boots he wore needed some changes so he tried wearing ordinary rubbers over three layers of stockings. It worked fine—they kept his feet warm, dry and comfortable. Later, he had leather tops sewn on for ankle supports and began selling them. They were the basis for the business and still rank as his leading seller.

Since then he has added sportsmen’s equipment ranging from fish hooks to tents and doesn’t consider an item saleable unless he finds by actual test that he would select it for his own use. Thus he can advertise a pocket fish knife: “The hook disgorger which locks open is the best I have ever tried.” Personal testimonials accompany all his items and they have made Freeport, Me., a familiar address to sportsmen everywhere.

Now, what’s the straight dope on this mail-order business for the little guy with an itch to get started? Here it is, right from the most official source you can get, the U. S. Government. The Department of Commerce makes this statement: “The mail-order business is unique in that it can be started with a minimum of capital and without any specified set of experiences. In mail-order work, anyone with imagination, determination and a willingness to study and experiment may have very little difficulty in getting started.”

The Department says that many small operators earn up to several hundred dollars monthly just in their spare time, while a large number of one-man enterprises are paying their owners far more than a comfortable living. “A number of the most successful,” it tells you, “obtain an income as high as $40,000 to $50,000.”

There are three WATCHwords to bear in mind if you want to get going in this fabulous business: 1. WATCH your product. Hal Zimmerman, the young mail order genius, has some tips for you: “Sell only articles that are in mass demand. Make it something the public needs. It must have appeal and it must be priced so that the average person can afford it.”

Figure it this way—your customers are going to buy your item because they can’t get it locally and because they will save money. There’s no sense in offering something that they can get simply by walking into a store on Main St. Tom Gardner of Milwaukee, Wis., sells fluffy wool dusters— but a very special kind. They come right off the backs of Australian sheep. Gardner saw them there when he was a Navy lieutenant during the war. He imported batches and they sell at the rate of 1,000 a month.

If you have a real specialty of your own —an unusual trinket that you can hammer out in your workshop, a unique taste sensation from a family recipe, a little invention you’ve been harboring in the back of your mind—you can get going. Bob Mc-Farren of Corona del Mar, Calif., buys up wholesale lots of plain, unadorned china cups for a few pennies each, then paints designs and characters on the surface with a mixture of ceramic paint and an oil base of his own concoction. He then glazes and rebakes the cups in an electric kiln and sells them for $1.50 each.

One college student utilizes his jigsaw to make small cabinets of unusual design. A North Carolina family carves old-fashioned salt shakers and pepper mills. An unusual type of make-it-yourself kit is always in demand—things like sew-its for the kids, jewelry crafts and modeling assemblies. C. B. Shuman of Kent, Ohio, devised a kit which enables anglers to. make their own fishing lures by pouring liquid rubber into a mold, allowing it to dry and putting it on a hook.

Merchandise is by no means the only product. You can sell information—anything from tips on how to make money to technical tomes. Witness the enormous success of how-to books and the correspondence schools. In the latter category, there’s the story of Thomas J. Foster who edited a little mining sheet in Shenandoah, Pa. He was struck by the immense popularity of a question-and-answer column he was running on mining. Why not start a school by mail, he asked himself, to supply vital knowledge to miners all over? He began with less than $100 capital and by the end of a year had 1,000 pupils who were paying $25 each for his mining course. Today this institution, International Correspondence School, has become world famous, has a larger enrollment than any university in the world and a total of 3,000 employes here and abroad.

You can also sell your services, whether they are clerical, technical or professional.

2. WATCH your promotion. No matter how attractive your product may be, it’s of no value unless you bring it properly to the attention of your potential customers. In order to do this, you must become intimately acquainted with your product. You can also get much free, valuable information from the appropriate governmental agencies, experimental stations and technical institutions.

Then, in advertising, you will be able to stress authoritatively such points as value, use, durability, appearance, economy, etc. You’ll know what you are talking about. Heed the advice of Henry Hoke, Jr., advertising manager of the Reporter of Direct Mail Advertising, trade publication of the direct-mail industry of which mail order is a part: “Whether you advertise in magazines, newspapers or mail your literature directly to prospects, make absolutely certain that what you say is honest and sound. Mail-order buyers aren’t yokels who will swallow anything. Cunning may sell your article but it will destroy your reputation over the long pull. Promotion must be bold, aggressive, exuding confidence, but it must not deliberately mislead.”

Bone up on advertising techniques. Learn how to pick a significant point to play up, how to dramatize your selling features, how to pique the emotions, how to appeal to the basic needs and desires for health, wealth, security, knowledge, power, love, self-preservation. Pore over the mail-order ads in the magazines and newspapers and see how others do it.

3. WATCH your mailing list. Many mailorder beginners, feeling they can’t afford magazine ads, buy ready-made mailing lists. For a few dollars, brokerage houses will either sell or rent lists of names grouped according to specific classifications. A listing of name suppliers can be obtained from the Direct Mail Advertising Association, 17 East 42 St, New York 17, N. Y. Lists cost from $10 to $35 per thousand names and they come in all groups—business men and women, fruit packers, barbers, butchers, bakers, florists, beauty shops, college professors, clergymen, teachers or other mail-order buyers. There certainly will be a list of persons specially interested in your product.

There are many other vital things to know and study before launching a mail-order business—the prices to pay for your items, figuring your mark-up, how to maintain files and records, what to say in your literature, the laws of the Post Office Department, Federal Trade Commission and other Federal departments. All of these tremendously important details are fully covered in the Department of Commerce booklet, Establishing and Operating a Mail Order Business, which can be obtained by sending 30 cents to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.

One final caution: don’t expect to start a business, then loll in the shade of the old apple tree waiting for the postman to drop sackfuls of dollar bills. There have been— and will continue to be—hundreds of rags-to-riches heroes but not one hit the jackpot without thorough study and hard work. Start on a shoestring? Yes! Make big money? Definitely! But, a lazy man’s game? No!

Somehow, people love to send money by mail. L. D. Paulson, a sales promotion man of Louisville, Ky., recently tested this by sending out a batch of form letters all over the country. They quite simply begged for money. He got 400 replies, each containing cash! Paulson, who was experimenting on a new sales promotion idea, returned the money. But he had proven that people just love to send dough in the mail.

Now, if Paulson could get cash just for the asking, think of how much there is to be gotten if you really offer the public something solid. So, think it over. And next time the mailman comes up your walk, ask yourself why he shouldn’t be delivering hundreds of checks instead of just your monthly bills. •

view additional pages

The Story of the Match ~ a Great World Industry

Modern methods and modern machinery have trans formed the making of matches from a dangerous, disease-producing business into one of the world’s great industries. Here we have the story of how science has made the present-day match possible.

by BEVERLY BARNES

HOW many matches have you used today? You should, according to America’s premier match making company, have struck seven, if you got the daily share allotted to every man, woman and child in the United States. In other words it takes 840,000,000 matches a day to supply the fire making needs of a nation of 120,000,000 people. That’s at the rate of 306 billion, 600 million for normal years of 365 days.

If your seven came out of the paper books that are given away at cigar stores you were helping American match makers enjoy a monopoly, for a prohibitive tariff keeps foreign book matches out of this country. Or if your seven came from a big box of “parlor matches” they too were made in America.

But if you used a penny box of wooden stick matches you helped one of the world’s greatest international trusts pay dividends, for the penny match box business of the world is practically all controlled from Stockholm.

There, in a beautiful office overlooking a courtyard in which fountains play among lovely statues, sits Ivar Kreuger, one-time youthful engineer in America, former soldier in the Boer war, and today the head of the Swedish match trust and one of the world’s greatest mystery men. Through 225 subsidiaries scattered all over the world, except in the United States, he makes* seventy-five per cent of the world’s matches, and out of the profits he buys match monopolies in many lands, and stabilizes national currencies by huge loans to governments. He goes and comes unannounced in the press, travels in private airplanes, maintains year around apartments in Paris, Berlin, London, New York and other cities, directs a world-wide organization that is rivaled in scope and size, among American companies, only by Standard Oil, and through it all remains one of the least known big business men in the world. In his middle forties, he is a bachelor, though his engagement to a Swedish countess has recently been reported.

And all this achievement has been built on an article that sells for a penny, a success story that makes the five and dime background of the Woolworth building seem tame in comparison. If a nation needs fifty or a hundred million dollars to tide it over an emergency Ivar Kreuger stands ready to lend the money—in exchange for a monopoly on that nation’s match business. Even the state-owned match factories of France have been unable to compete, and have been turned over to the Swedish Trust, in exchange for a loan.

The Swedish penny matches, made of cheap northern aspen, can be laid down in this country, after paying the duty, for less than half what it would cost to make similar matches over here out of fine white pine. Rather than compete in such an unprofitable market the Diamond Match company, America’s biggest manufacturer in the field, acts as agent and distributor for the Swedish matches, and thus shares in the profits, confining its own manufacture of small size matches to a slightly larger and superior size.

The fact that the bulk of the world’s fire-making business should center in Sweden is not an accident, for the Swedes have been active in match making almost from the beginning.

The first friction match was invented in 1827 by an Englishman, John Walker, who thought so little of his invention he decided it was too trivial to warrant patenting. He used sulphite of antimony, chlorate of potash, gum and starch for the match head, and to light one of his matches you had to draw it between the folds of a sheet of coarse sandpaper.

The next match was the phosphorus type, which continued with some modifications as late as 1911, when it was finally put out of existence by the development, by William Armstrong Fairburn, now president of the Diamond Match Company, of the modern match, which, unlike its predecessor, is not injurious to its makers nor a constant source fire risk.

Swedish ingenuity contributed the first development to match making in 1844 when G. E. Pasch excluded phosphorus from the match head and included it among the striking ingredients on the box—and that was the basis of the modern safety match, the kind that strikes only on the box. Two brothers, Johan Edward and Carl Franz Lundstrom, perfected the Pasch invention and started a small factory- that same year at Jonkoping—and those two names, Lundstrom and Jonkoping, have been associated with match making ever since. The brothers made an ideal combination, one a business executive and the other an inventor, chemist and engineer.

They were followed by Alexander Langerman, also of Jonkoping, who invented the first match making machine in 1872, and that original machine, by the way, is still in service.

A modern match making machine looks very much like a huge newspaper printing press. Blocks of wood, cut as thick as a match is long, are fed in at one end, and out of the other comes matches packed in boxes. Dies stamp the match splints out of the blocks and stick the splints in holes in iron plates, which are attached to a moving, endless belt. One machine will produce 900,000 splints an hour. As the belt moves along the splints are dipped in a chemical bath that prevents afterglow when the match goes out, in paraffin to insure that they will burn freely, in the “bulb” compound, and finally in the chemical which produces the friction tip.

Before the day of the modern machine and the modern non- poisonous match, hundreds of workers died from a terrible disease in which phosphorus ate away the bones of the jaw. In those days splints were cut twice as long as a match, then rolled into a huge cart wheel by feeding them between two strips of belting which were being wound around an axle. When the roll reached a diameter of two feet or more it was removed, each side dipped by hand in the chemical baths, and then unrolled, after which the double-ended, double-length match was cut in half in the center and .boxed by hand.

The romance of fire making dates back to the dawn of earliest recorded history. Six thousand years ago the Egyptians were using both flints and the fire bow, in which the vertical friction rod was rotated by a bow, with the bow string wound once around the rod.

The most interesting of all primitive fire making apparatus, however, is the piston and cylinder developed in the East Indies and India. No one knows how many centuries old it is, but it is the lineal forefather of the modern Diesel engine, employing the heat of compression to provide ignition. A bamboo cylinder a couple of inches long was fitted with a piston rod, wrapped with silk thread for a piston ring. A bit of dried fungus is placed in the end of the piston, which is then inserted a short distance in the cylinder. Holding the cylinder in one hand, the native strikes the outer end of the piston a tremendous blow with the palm of the other hand, forcing it down the tube so fast that the heat of compression fires the tinder. The piston is instantly withdrawn, the smoldering fire blown to a flame, and transferred to the hearth.

view additional pages

view additional pages

Here’s How to Ski

Skiing is a healthy, outdoor sport which can add to your life’s pleasures—-and it’s easy.

BY BILL FALVEY

SO YOU want to ski? Well, go to it. It’s a lusty, fine exercise and just what the doctor ordered but it, too, has its pitfalls. Better take a few words of advice from one who knows.

Don’t go in for skiing foolhardily. Don’t swell your chest and tell yourself that, because you are pretty fair at tennis or golf, you’ll find skiing a cinch right off. In other words, don’t rush in. If you do, you’ll find yourself piled up with doctor bills, perhaps, or laid up with sore spots for days.

Like all other phases of physical endeavor, skiing requires body condition, but—and this should ease your mind at once—skiing will condition you IF you take it easy at the start. You can begin skiing at once. That is, you can begin if you will take the time to absorb a few basic principles of action. Then, as you grow in confidence and skill you can expand your activities. In a comparatively short time you can be skimming down medium hills, feeling the tangy bite of cold wind against your cheeks and enjoying an exhilaration of mind and body beyond comparison.

Once you have decided to take up skiing, go to a reliable store and purchase the necessary equipment.

Ski boots are recognizable by their distinctive design. They are of extremely sturdy construction, built for the single purpose of skiing. You will find them in a price range to suit your pocketbook. Be certain they grip your ankles well, and buy them large enough so that you will be able to get into them with heavy socks. In extremely cold weather you may want to wear a light pair of socks under the heavier ones, so be certain of the fit.

Skis, as you undoubtedly know, are made of wood. Various woods are used, with enthusiasts for all, but your principal concern at first should be stoutness and price. By this we don’t mean you can go out and buy a set of barrel staves; get a good solid pair of skis at a medium price, for a beginning. Most sporting goods stores have expert consultants; take their advice and you’ll not go wrong. The length of your ski is important. Usually the proper length is the height to which you can reach with your fingertips. In the case of the average man, this will be about 7 feet, 6 inches.

Next, watch the foot binding. Modern skis have mechanical grips. Be certain your foot fits snugly, then check the grip. It should hold your boot firmly so that you cannot shake it loose, but at the same time the action should be free and easy. There may be a time when you will want to shuck your ski in a hurry. If the action is stiff or does not operate smoothly, injury might result.

Now for clothing. Here you can let your tastes run rampant. If you like vivid colors go on out and buy them. You can bedeck yourself like the assembled flags of the United Nations if you choose, for manufacturers of ski clothes have turned out riots of colors for your tastes. But make sure you select them for warmth. Get thin material, where possible—that is, thin but warm and weather resistant. For underclothing we would suggest lightweight woolens of a tight weave. They’ll absorb perspiration and prevent you from catching chills and cold.

Those poles you see dangling from a skier’s wrists are vitally important. They help provide balance, assist in getting over obstacles and are invaluable in turns. So select them as carefully as you select your skis and your shoes. You need a flexible pole, the shafts should not be stiff as iron. Remember you will be putting your weight on them at crucial moments in skiing. If they do not bend with your weight on a hard, crusty surface they will snap in two.

At the outset, of course, your interest will be in staying on your feet. This is not difficult. Set your skis firmly on the ground, just far enough apart to be comfortable. Balance your weight evenly between the balls of your feet and the heels. Now, convinced that you won’t flop, lean forward and thrust your arms out, digging your two poles in the snow ahead of you. This will start you in motion. As you slide forward, advance one foot slightly in front of the other, bend your knees a trifle and let your body lean forward. This is the correct skiing position. Once you master it you’ll have no trouble. Practice it at home when no one is looking.

Remember, at all times when you are moving ahead, either on the flat or downhill, to keep your knees flexed and your body inclined forward in a slight crouch. DON’T, at any time, dump your weight rearward. You’ll wind up with a broken ankle if you do. If you feel yourself off balance and likely to fall, thrust your two feet to the right or left and, at the same time dig your poles in on the opposite side to the thrust of your skis. NEVER try to fall forward or backwards. ALWAYS drop sideways and you’ll minimize the danger of broken or sprained ankles.

Wherever possible, get instruction. You can join small groups at a low fee if you please, or you can take the more expensive individual instruction. This is not necessary but it is a wise practice. Many of the outstanding skiers of the country are self-taught.

Never begin to use skis on a hill or slope, no matter how slight. Get out on the flat first. You’ll find it rugged going at first as your muscles react to unaccustomed exercise, but you’ll gain confidence soon and have a good sense of balance in a short time. Then you can try the slopes. Good running!

view additional pages

He’s a Plastic Baker

Somebody forgot to tell Spencer Smilie that it couldn’t be done. So he went on cooking plastics and developed a recipe for fortune.

By Louis Hochman

IF Spencer Smilie of Beverly Hills, Calif., had studied chemistry and physics, he . might still be plodding along at his job in a plastics factory. But, unhampered by sound scientific know-how and not realizing how impossible it was supposed to be to fuse incompatible combinations of plastics, Smilie solved an unsolvable problem. Today his plastics art business—the only one of its kind in the world—is worth a small fortune.

It all started about three years ago when Smilie was working in a plastics plant where a dazzling variety of colorful plastics fired his imagination with ideas for original buttons and pins. To other workers in the plant the last trickle of plastic that fell from the extrusion machines when they were shut off at the end of the day was just so much waste. To the artistic eye of Spencer Smilie, however, these bits of waste which oozed and hardened into an infinite variety of twisting swirls and curves, were things of beauty and unusual modern design.

One night he took one of these drippings home, trimmed off some rough edges and stray ends, cemented a pin to its back and presented it to his wife as a brooch. Before he knew it he found himself in a small sideline business, selling these remodeled waste products to others.

Soon, Smilie’s daily practice of taking home a suitcase full of waste drippings aroused his boss’ curiosity but Smilie refused to divulge his newly-found use for the discarded plastic. The boss then tried to charge him for the waste whereupon Smilie quit.

By this time he was deep in experiments, mixing various combinations of plastics and baking them in the family oven. But it was eight months before he had anything worth keeping. By that time the oven itself wasn’t worth keeping.

As molds he used small tin-can covers and flat cups made from thin slices of brass and copper pipe and embedded all sorts of flora, fauna, insect life and odd objects in his new plastic. These he made into unique and distinctive buttons, pins and earrings and wholesaled them at from 25c to $1.25 each.

In a short time, Hollywood dress designers and manufacturers were swamping the Smilies with orders. From people all over the country came requests for buttons with such bits of personal treasure encased in them as a lock of hair, a tiny bloom from a home garden, a lucky coin or even a gold-filled tooth from the mouth of a dear-departed husband.

But “Smilite,” as Smilie dubbed his new plastic, was too good to be confined to tiny buttons and pins and soon he gave up the button business in favor of larger and more decorative items. His big break finally came in the form of an order from a Hollywood restaurant for a plastic mural measuring 18 feet wide by QV2 feet high. Could he produce it?

Smilie was sure he could, but not in his family oven. Scraping together all their assets and capital, the Smilies moved to Los Angeles, leased an entire building with overhead living quarters, bought a huge electric bakery oven, built some large 3-by-6V2-foot sheet metal molds and went to work. They had just enough raw plastic to do the job and could get no more with which to experiment. It had to be right the first time—or else. Of course, it turned out to be right.

Since then, Smilie has been turning out plastic murals and decorative items for which he is paid fabulous prices. The adaptability of his secret plastic lends itself to all forms of artistic expression. Unlike laminated plastic wherein a fabric or flat object is sealed under pressure and heat between two sheets of smooth clear plastic, Smilite is molded from the raw crystaline or powdered state, being heated and melted around objects in an open pan-type mold. The result is a plastic sheet with a soft, wavy surface filled with thousands of tiny bubbles containing the design or objects encased in it. Another advantage over the laminated plastic is the fact that after coming out of the oven, Smilite can be reheated and shaped into any desired form. With laminated plastic, the fabric or materials sealed within would tend to break or tear if the plastic were reheated and bent.

When Smilie is not making plastic murals, he’s busy turning out gift items such as salad and fruit bowls, serving trays, plates, lamp shades, screens, light shields, coffee tables with Smilite tops and Smilite masterpieces for furniture panels. His bowls retail for from $3 to $165. A 12-inch plate retails for $7.50. Screens sell for as high as $750 and for murals the sky’s the limit, depending on the size and work involved. Smilie has received as much as $2,500 for a single job.

On a typical day off, the Smilies can usually be found roaming the countryside collecting specimens of geological beauty or chasing some rare butterfly through the fields. Smilie insists that as long as nature sticks to its policy of never duplicating itself, he’ll never turn out two identical pieces of plastic art.

view additional pages

What Magicians Do When Magical Tricks Go Wrong

Mechanical ingenuity and high-speed thinking are required by magicians when something goes haywire with their tricks. Here Fred Keating, famous magic master, tells of some of his embarrassing moments.

As told to George Bailey by FRED KEATING

AT ONE time when Robert Houdin, patron saint of modern magicians, after whom the great Houdini adopted his name, was asked by the execution of what trick he judged a conjurer, he replied, “Never by the execution of any trick, but wholly by his ability to get out of a trick that fails, and covering it up.”

I am going to tell you a number of episodes in the careers of many famous magicians of my time—and I am not quite 30 yet—where something went wrong either because of human error or mechanical blunder, resulting in embarrassment to the performer.

After all, it has always been held that the magician is merely an actor playing the part of a magician. The technique and the mechanics he uses are simply his tools in an art which he has come to master, either by practice or inherent aptitude.

Magic Is Simply Dexterous Trickery I do not deny that I aspire, though secretly, to distinguish myself in my craft. There can be no limits to aspirations. And yet, I am not one who takes his magic too solemnly. I can find a wholesome element of humor in it.

Imagine the humiliation of a very dear friend of mine who used to employ a real hen in one of his tricks, for after all magic is nothing more than tricks dexterously and artistically executed.

This magician used to point out to me that an obstinate, clucking old chicken is no congenial assistant. He would make her disappear suddenly from a coop on a table which was solid and undraped, and reappear in a jiffy in a box across the stage.

Misplaced Cockerel Makes Trick Go Wrong On this particular night I had been watching his act from the wings of the stage. He went through the first part of his trick in his customary nonchalant manner and confidently exhibited the empty coop to the audience.

Then he strode across the stage and opened the other box dramatically—and out stepped a fine young cockerel, and crowed lustily!

Long before the bellowing laughter of the audience had subsided that magician’s assistant was fired. The cockerel should have appeared in a stunt later in the act.

Bird Cage Trick Baffles Audience This reminds me of a little unpleasantry which happened to me in Boston not so long ago. For those who have not seen or heard about my featured bit of magic, I will explain that the name of Keating has become synonymous in recent years with the bird-cage trick.

In this “piece de resistance” I present a bird-cage balanced between the palms of my hands. Just an ordinary bird-cage. In it there is a canary. A real, live melodious canary. I can assure you that there is nothing illusory about these two factors.

Suddenly I clap my hands together and both cage and canary are gone! Right before your very eyes. Nothing remains in my hands, nothing goes up my sleeves. Anyway, this trick has had them baffled for a long, long time. Naturally I’m not exposing it, all the fun would be gone, for all of us.

When Bird Cage Trick Went Wrong But one night in Boston something went wrong with the works. Strangely enough it happened at a time when Florenz Ziegfeld, the famous Broadway producer, and were haranguing about my bird-cage patent rights. He wanted to use the idea in his “Simple Simon” show. He was imitating my act with burlesque bird-cages which collapsed and slid up the sleeve.

That night I came out on the stage of the Boston theatre, and after apologizing as I always do in the theatre for my rude interruption, the moment came for my bird-cage scene. It was the high water mark in my performance.

I glanced suspiciously at the cage that was handed me, for I could tell from the “feel” that it was not my old friend. The bird was the same, but I could sense that the cage had been tampered with. I could feel a horrible thumping in my heart. I knew right well that neither bird nor cage was going to disappear, no matter what sort of abracadabra I used.

I could perceive the faint beads of perspiration coming to my brow. Plainly I was foiled. The big moment in my act, the trick by which I had gathered a fair measure of fame, was going to be a flop. Verily, it called for a great struggle to maintain my poise.

Trick Varied to Save Situation After I got through a lengthy explanation of the bird-cage trick, it dawned on me to announce to the audience that I was going to vary it a little that particular night. I said I was going to treat them to a trick which was the latest I had perfected, which was the gospel truth.

Instead of making the cage and the bird disappear as I brought my hands quickly together, I was successful in causing only the canary to vanish. The cage remained intact and without any means of outlet. It made a tremendous hit and left my audience pop-eyed with amazement. Someone Tampered With Cage This is the first time that I am telling anyone of that potential embarrassing situation in Boston. I discovered later that someone had actually though adroitly opened my trunk and forced the top drawer in which the cage reposed, ostensibly to examine or copy it, though my trick has yet to be imitated. I mean the trick as I do it.

At one time the great Houdini had his thumbs locked in a pair of thumb-cuffs, the thumbs fitting into the clasps just as one might fit into a pillory. After the thumbs have been fitted, the cuffs are clamped down tightly.

Much to his surprise, Houdini discovered that some jokester had played a prank on him. The lock, which he might easily have pried apart, had been stuffed with sand!

Houdini Injured by Defective Lock Houdini suffered in silent torture as he grappled with these little thumbcuffs, the smallest apparatus that he ever dealt with. As he struggled he concealed his actual feelings, keeping from his audience the fact that he was non-plussed. In the end he actually ripped the cuffs, still snapped, from his thumbs. That took him one whole hour.

As he re-appeared on the stage for his bow, his hands were swathed in handkerchiefs. But he would not betray his feelings. He bowed and smiled and withdrew. He had to be treated by an ambulance surgeon. That night he was back on the stage for his act, omitting the thumb-cuffs number.

At another time there was another eminent magician who used to execute what he called the “Phantom Dancer” number. He would waltz to the center of the stage with a pretty girl and then suddenly she would vanish like mist before the sun.

Trick Failure Ruins Magician’s Career At the very critical moment, something went haywire either with his physical maneuvers or the mechanical works. Nevertheless, she failed to disappear as he reached midstage.

He immediately became disconcerted and showed it in quite a pronounced fashion. He wrestled and tussled with his lady assistant until it seemed that he was on the verge of committing assault and battery. Boos, catcalls and what we thespians jokingly refer to as the “Bronx cheer” accompanied his vain efforts.

In the end the curtain was rung down, simultaneously marking the end of this conjurer’s career. He became so unnerved by the incident that he lost his courage. You see he was not a disciple of Robert Houdin.

Youth Uses Tricks in Church Jasper Maskelyne, the noted British magician, tells of an embarrassing time he had once when a small boy asked him to teach him a trick. He taught the lad to pake a penny disappear and reproduce it from behind his ear. The very genial Mr. Maskelyne forgot all about the lesson he gave the boy until he got a letter from the child’s parents a week later.

It seems that the youngster worked the trick with the penny given him for the basket at church. A solemn deacon held out the canister and the boy created quite a local sensation by making his penny disappear and then, after a short, frenzied search, he dramatically produced it from his ear, and put it into the basket.

“And it was all blamed on to me,” says Mr. Maskelyne.

At another time my very esteemed friend, Arthur Train, the novelist and himself a rabid lover of magic, asked me to join him at a dinner given by an austere Park Avenue society lady for a group of literary personages. Mr. Train, given the privilege of inviting a compan ion who might add a little color to this seance, had selected me.

He warned me that the hostess was a woman of extreme catholic tastes, that she had a maniacal abhorrence of the mystic or what pretended to be mystic. As for magicians, she often vowed that they ought to have been exterminated with the mastodons and their ilk.

Magician Flusters Party Hostess Mr. Train told me all this in advance. To be sure I was not in for a charming time, exactly. However, I did not feel phased. I’m going to tell this one just to show that the embarrassing moments aren’t all on the magic maker.

At this party were a number of celebrities. Privately I warned them not to partake of the chocolate-coated mints which would be passed around after dinner.

I happened to be sitting at the hostess’ right hand. I managed to take one of the mints and, unseen, slid a half dollar into it.

After dinner things grew a little informal and our hostess directed that the chocolate mints be passed. I picked one up, nibbled at it, and then grunted. I pretended to be terribly ashamed of having made a noise.

Finds Half Dollars in Candy Fully conscious that my hostess was staring at me in my predicament, I revealed that I had bitten into a half-dollar that had been inserted into the candy.

The rest of the guests were divided between glares and guffaws.

The hostess seemed very much disturbed. While she apologized, I assured her it was perfectly all right, and took another one. This one also turned out to be loaded with a half dollar.

By the time I was through I had a stack of half dollars piled up alongside

of me, which I had extracted from her candy, and she had the most purplish face I have ever seen.

Finally Mr. Train let the cat out of the bag. She was indeed quite good-natured about it all. Today I do not think there is a more enthusiastic lover of magic than my once-embarrassed hostess.

Crucial Moments at First Nights One of the most unfortunate escapades I have ever undergone so far as discomfitures go occurred on the opening night of the “9:15 Revue”.

Everyone knows that the opening night, though this happened to be out in the sticks, marks the thin gray line between fame and failure for a show on Broadway. This premiere was considered very important for a thousand and one reasons, but principally because New York theatrical brokers were on hand to look the show over with a prospect toward buying up blocks of seats when it landed in New York City.

The stage was all set for a trunk trick which’ I did with my assistant, Harry Anderson, whom I have nicknamed “The Great Alexander.” The apparatus consisted of a cabinet, six feet square. This was moved on the stage with a sliding curtain in front of it. A regular standard trunk was placed on a big rug to show that no traps were used. Then I took off my coat and asked someone in the audience to loan me his.

My hands were tied behind me and I was’ placed in a large bag which was afterwards sealed. Next I was placed in the trunk and after it was locked, chains and ropes were firmly linked around it.

In three seconds I would be loose, rip away the curtains which had been drawn around the trunk by the Great Alexander, and there I would be in my shirtsleeves. The trunk was still bound with the ropes and chains.

That is how I used to do it before that fatal night.

However, at the opening of the “9:15 Revue,” the Great Alexander and I exchanged places. We wanted to make a real big hit.

The Great Alexander was bound and bundled into the bag and then placed in the trunk, from which post he was to extricate himself. Instantly I went to the table drawer—which shows how this trick was done—to get the key which would release the trunk. It was gone!

My mind worked like fury. I couldn’t imagine what was wrong. The Great Alexander’s life was in peril. I dashed to my dressing-room while the audience suspected nothing. Fortunately, I found a duplicate key there.

In the end I got the Great Alexander out of his bondage. That trunk might easily have proved his sarcophagus with another moment’s delay. And I’m not the kind of a magician who can do much for a fellow after he gets into a coffin in a serious way.

Curious to learn what had gone awry, I asked the Great Alexander about it.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” he replied, still shaking, “you see I got so excited about doing the important part of this trick that I forgot to put the key in the drawer. I kept it in my pocket.”

Perhaps some of the most distressing embarrassment I have suffered came with the folding-up prematurely of Broadway night clubs and musical comedy shows, without getting my full salary after starring in them. The sheriff always seemed to have it in for any show I was in. Getting out of these embarrassing situations has given me the greatest thrills of my life.

view additional pages

What YOU should know about PATENTS

By Harry Kursh

WHAT is a patent? It is a “legal monopoly” authorized by the Constitution and granted to inventors by the U. S. Patent Office. It gives inventors the right to exclude others from making or selling their inventions.

How long does a patent last; can it be renewed?

A patent is good for 17 years. It can be renewed only by a special Act of Congress but no patent has ever been renewed in modern times.

What does it cost to get a patent?

You pay the Patent Office $30 when filing your application for a patent and another $30 when and if the patent is granted. An additional $1 is charged for each claim in excess of 20 claims. If you engage a patent attorney, the initial patent search may cost about $25. If your invention is patentable, and the attorney files the necessary papers, takes care of the drawings and follows through on your application until the patent is granted, average legal fees for a relatively uncomplicated patent will total $300-$500.

Can you patent an idea alone?

No. But many people try. For ex- ample, one man recently demanded a patent for an idea on solving the “coming shortage of graveyards.” His idea was to place future corpses in rockets, fire them into space and let them orbit forever. The law says a patentable invention may be “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof.”

Do you need to submit a model with your application for a patent?

Requests for models are rare. But almost anyone who claims a patent for a perpetual motion machine is asked to submit a model. No such patent has ever been issued.

Is it true that you can patent a plant?

Yes. People who can reproduce a new plant—anything from a flower to a tree—can obtain a patent for their efforts. Some plant patents, like the Better Times Rose, have reaped a fortune. You can get plant patent information by writing to the U. S. Patent Office, Washington 25, D. C.

Can anyone get a patent?

Yes. A person of any nationality, citizen or non-citizen, even prisoners, may apply for a patent.

How do you apply for a patent?

You file a written application. Standard specimen applications are published in a booklet called General Information About Patents, which may be purchased for 15 cents from the U. S.

Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.

Can you file your own application?

Yes. However, it takes a great deal of skill to write a claim that will stand up in court, in the event anyone should try to infringe on your patent. That’s why the most experienced inventors use patent attorneys or patent agents.

What is the difference between a patent attorney and patent agent?

A patent attorney is a lawyer who specializes in the field of invention. A patent agent is not a lawyer but he is recognized by the Patent Office as a person who is qualified to help inventors obtain patents. In this respect, an agent is just as good as an attorney. However, the agent would be unable to defend your patent in court. Before 1938, anyone who was a recognized patent agent could also call himself a patent attorney, even though he may not have been a lawyer. Such patent attorneys are still in existence, so be sure your patent attorney is also a lawyer if you feel you may need to defend your patent in court.

What if I can’t afford a patent lawyer or agent?

The Patent Office will assist you to be sure you have correctly filled in your application and filed everything in proper order.

Can a corporation or business be granted a patent?

A patent is never issued to a business or corporation. Patents are issued to individuals only.

Can you select any lawyer or agent to handle your application?

In a limited way. You may choose the man you want—but he must be registered with the U. S. Patent Office. Any lawyer or patent agent who is not registered cannot handle your application. Write to the Patent Office in Washington and ask for a free roster of registered attorneys and agents in or near your hometown. You can also purchase the roster of all the registered practitioners in the U. S. It is called Register of Patent Attorneys and Agents, costs $1 and can be ordered from the Government Printing Office.

Can I complain to anyone if I feel a registered attorney or agent has not handled my case properly?

If you feel you have been unfairly treated by a registered patent practitioner, you can submit a written complaint to the Patent Office and an investigation will be launched.

Who will decide whether I get a patent?

The decision is up to a patent examiner. There are over 2,000 of them in the Patent Office. Each is a highly trained engineer or scientist. Many are also lawyers. When your application is received at the Patent Office it is assigned to an examiner who may be an expert in your field of invention. If he turns your application down, you have the right to appeal to a special three-man board in the Patent Office; if you lose your appeal, you can take your case into the Federal Courts.

How do I know someone in the Patent Office wont steal my invention?

In the entire history of the Patent Office, a period of more than 150 years, only one case of dishonesty has been uncovered. That was at the turn of the century when a patent examiner merely tried to help an undeserving inventor obtain a patent. The examiner went to jail. No one working for the Patent Office is allowed, directly or indirectly, to obtain or own an interest in a patent unless it is by inheritance.

Will publication of my idea in a newspaper or magazine endanger my chances of getting a patent?

Under the law an invention must be new. This means if it has been published anywhere, in any language, longer than one year prior to date of application, that patent application may be rejected. The one-year rule makes allowances for scientists and researchers who want to write about their findings in professional journals, without losing their patent rights.

Can I protect my ideas by sealing them in a registered letter mailed to myself?

Whenever there is a conflict between inventors regarding who was first, the registered letter method is rarely treated as admissable evidence in court because it is considered self-serving.

How do professionals protect ideas?

Most of them make what is known as a witnessed disclosure. They describe their ideas as completely as possible in writing, including sketches. Then they get two people to sign a dated statement saying that they have witnessed and understood the invention. In the event of conflict, the witnesses may be called to testify under oath and this is considered reliable evidence. Many professionals keep a log in which they regularly record the progress of their inventions. They then have witnesses sign the log. The best protection, however, is to file an application for a patent as soon as possible.

Can you get a patent but keep the actual working of your idea a secret?

No. Every patented invention must be based on a full and complete disclosure of your ideas. Also your application must state clearly and fully how your invention works.

What’s the best way to be sure my ideas are patentable?

The first and most important step is to conduct a search among similar inventions already patented. No matter how long ago a patent may have been issued on an idea similar to yours, chances are you won’t get a patent. Most reputable patent attorneys and agents won’t file your application until they have had the files searched in Washington, where all patents are filed in more -than 30,000 different classifications of invention. The search room is open to the public and a staff of Patent Office experts is always on hand to help newcomers go through the files.

What does “patent pending” mean?

It tells the public that you have applied for a patent. In this way, you can put your invention on the market prior to actual patenting and discourage others from stealing your ideas because if and when a patent is issued you can sue them for infringement.

If your patent application is passed, can they still refuse to issue a patent?

Yes. If the Patent Office deems that any part of your invention is useful to the Armed Forces, it may be classified Secret and you may never get a patent until it is declassified. For example, a scientist was recently awarded $340,000 for an invention he proposed in 1941. It is still in use but the government refused him a patent because of security reasons.

Will the Patent Office help you protect your patent?

No. Whenever you feel someone is making illegal use of your patented invention, your only recourse is to sue in the Federal courts. But if you lose your case, you can lose your patent.

Do you have to go to Washington to apply for or obtain your patent?

No. All dealings with the Patent Office must be in writing. The patent is mailed to you after you have paid the final fee.

Is it absolutely necessary to have a patent before you begin manufacturing?

You can manufacture your invention any time you please. But if you do so without a patent, you run the risk of losing all your ideas to competitors. Another good reason for patenting is that not all inventors do their own manufacturing. Many simply sell their inventions outright, or they sell manufacturing licenses for a percentage of profits, called royalties. Without a patent you have nothing to sell. In fact, most businessmen won’t even consider your ideas these days unless you can show that you have applied for a patent.

Remember, there is no better way to protect your ideas than to apply for a U. S. patent as soon as possible. •

view additional pages

CREATING The SPECTACULARS

by Donald G. Cooley

SOME day New Yorkers are likely to be startled by the discovery that the dome of the Empire State Building has turned into a gigantic cigarette glowing more than 1,000 feet in the air.

Not an actual cigarette, of course, but an advertising colossus made up of a million white electric bulbs, a few thousand red ones to paint a burning tip against the night sky, and the name of the manufacturer blazoned in neon on all four sides of the world’s tallest building.

It will be what the trade calls a “spectacular”—an electric advertising sign which is everything the name implies. When and if it becomes an actuality, it will be the achievement of Douglas Leigh, a young man only twenty-seven years old, who already has to his credit a dozen of New York’s costliest signs. A sketch of his daring Empire State idea adorns the wall of his office, and in his desk are figures proving that the job can be done for $30,000.

This sum is by no means unusual as costs go in this unique industry. One of Mr. Leigh’s spectaculars brings in a monthly rental of $2,400. In New York alone the investment in spectaculars runs into millions annually, and every city in the country makes generous contribution to a husky young giant of an industry which is as modern as today’s newspaper. Time was when an electric sign was regarded as breath-taking if it presented a few hundred bulbs which flashed on and off periodically, spelling out some trade name. Today the spectacular sign has borrowed a realistic technique from the motion picture, and the invention of the neon light has revolutionized an industry which is just coming into full maturity.

It is a strange and exciting business, that of erecting Broadway’s “spectaculars.” It is an art calling for the talents of the steelworker, the electrician, the artist, the mechanic and the financier. Miracles are wrought in neon tubing and electric bulbs. Light has become a medium for painting pictures which move, and tell a story.

Amazingly realistic bits of action are drawn by flashing lights which flow with the ripple of water, or leap and dart with the dash of sword-thrusts.

The mechanism which gives the breath of life to a spectacular sign is a complex mechanical miracle. In one of Mr. Leigh’s huge signs the penguin trademark of a cigarette manufacturer winks its eye off and on 100,000 times a day. Each single bulb in a sign, though it may be but one of 50,000, must flash off and on with split-second accuracy, contributing its brief spot of color to a sign which may be five or six stories high and half a block in length.

The biggest spectacular sign in the world, which Mr. Leigh regrets is not his, occupies an entire block on Broadway between Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Streets, on the east side of Times Square. Soaring ten stories above the street, it represents multi-colored tropical fish slowly swimming in a sea-green sea. Higher than the Statue of Liberty, the green sign uses sufficient electricity each night to serve a city of 10,000. Seven and a half tons of electrical equipment are housed in a control room under the sign. The wiring alone totals 70 miles, sufficient to run two lines between Washington and Baltimore, and the neon tubing extends 1,084 feet. Total weight of the sign is 110 tons. The building on which the sign rests was especially built to bear the tremendous weight. The cost of the sign alone was $1,000,000.

How does a “spectacular” come into being? It begins with an idea, like the sketch of the Empire State cigarette already mentioned.

“The animation of a sign should tie up intimately with the product advertised,” Mr. Leigh said. “That is, it shouldn’t be motion for the sake of motion, but should tell a story relating to the product.”

His theories have proved themselves in actual practice. The success story of Douglas Leigh is the heartening tale of a young man who went out and created a job for himself. Not long ago he was working for a New York sign company, resigning when the depression cut his salary to $30 a week. * Today, at 26, he heads his own organization, Douglas Leigh, Inc., which has erected more than half a million dollars worth of signs in the Times Square district alone. He is an amazingly young, pleasant-spoken, mild-mannered man whose daring imagination has stamped its imprint on Father Knickerbocker’s theatrical district.

It is quite probable that a stream of real smoke will drift away realistically from the tip of that Empire State cigarette. It is a touch which can reasonably be expected of Mr. Leigh’s ingenuity. A similar bit of realism can be seen in the coffee sign he has erected on Broadway. In it a gigantic cup of coffee gives forth a cloud of appetizing steam! The steam is furnished by the New York Steam Corporation, and 50,000 pounds a month is used at a cost of $60. When first erected, the steam condensed and rained on Broadway pedestrians, but improved pipe insulation soon corrected that.

Mr. Leigh’s newest sign, recently erected for a beverage manufacturer, illustrates the new trend in spectaculars. The manufacturer’s trade mark is three interlocking circles. The problem was to devise some natural bit of action to fix the trade mark on the mind of the spectator. Douglas Leigh accomplished it by setting a neon clown to pitching quoits. The quoits are hurled over the face of the sign, dip down and loop neatly over a stake in the lower corner. The three quoits thus form the interlocking circles.

“A spectacular is good for three years,” Mr. Leigh said. “The sign is leased for that period and rented on a monthly basis. A sort of installment plan purchase. It’s not difficult to sell a sign. The real headache is the problem of financing.”

The rental fee includes everything—building and erection of the sign, inspection, repairs, rental of the site, electricity, etc. A crew of thirty is required to erect a new sign. Another corps of inspectors makes hourly rounds from sign to sign, replacing burnt-out bulbs and making sure the complicated electrical switches function perfectly. When a bulb burns out, as it does once a year on the average, it is replaced within a few minutes while, the sign is in operation.

The more elaborate “animations” of a spectacular are achieved with ordinary electric bulbs, while neon lighting is used more largely for borders, trade names, streaks of color, and the like. Bulbs are more flexible in painting action pictures and produce scenes of every graduation of color by use of glass stained to the desired shade. An animation is any individual bit of action—stars flickering, candles burning, words flashing on and off, etc. One of Mr. Leigh’s signs in Columbus Circle has fourteen animations, more than any other sign in the world.

When a sketch for a sign has been approved, the animations and color combinations are carefully indicated on the drawings. Blueprints must be made for the electricians to devise the wiring hook-up which will activate the units of the sign in proper sequence. The sign itself is built in a workshop with plenty of floor space where its gigantic sections can be laid out. One small portion of a spectacular may be large enough to fill a five-ton truck.

Each new sign is a custom-built job into which mass production methods cannot enter. Sheet steel is used for many sections of the sign and there is a special machine for punching light-socket holes through the metal.

A steel framework, constructed just like the riveted skeleton of a skyscraper, is the base on which the sign is mounted as the various sections come from the shop. Often the steel girders are several stories high, mounted on the roof of a building. Sites for displays are at a premium in congested districts like Times Square and property owners are well aware of the value of their property for such purposes. Therefore the sign manufacturer leases choice locations on his own initiative, erects his steel framework, and then sets out to sell a sign for that particular location. The steelwork is of course permanent, and when one sign has lived its life it is taken down, a few parts salvaged, and a new spectacular goes up in its place.

The electric brain of a spectacular sign is a marvelously intricate mechanism. It is housed in a small structure at the base of the steel framework. Switches, fuses, and contact devices abound in the complex profusion one would expect to find in a telephone exchange. Cables lead out to various portions of the sign and over them, at split-second intervals, flash the accurately timed signals which co-ordinate the thousands of bulbs into a perfect moving picture. Contacts are made by cams on a long revolving rod, which depress levers at the proper intervals and send current flowing through the sign.

Not satisfied with the effects produced by a single arrangement of bulbs, the sign designer makes wide use of “overlays.’* An overlay consists of bulbs which flash out two or more messages in the same space. Viewed in daylight, they appear very much as if a printer had stamped two sets of words one over the other. By night, of course, when only one sentence is illuminated at a time, the separate messages are spelled out distinctly.

A spectacular is regarded as a sign with more than 200 feet of neon tubing or electric bulbs. Other large signs which don’t quite meet these specifications are spoken of as “semi-spectaculars.” You will never discover a spectacular in which more than 35 per cent of the framework is occupied by the sign itself. Building regulations forbid it. The reason is obvious, since some of . the high winds which howl down Gotham’s canyons, striking a flat surface as large as an office building, could hurl the stoutest steel frame- work hundreds of feet to the street below with frightful damage.

“Red is the only type of neon that is any good for daylight signs,” Mr. Leigh explained. “Daytime signs call for an entirely different design technique from those intended for night-time use.”

The vastness of a spectacular sign staggers the imagination. A single letter in a word is often twice the height of a man. Elevated to positions often more than a hundred feet above the street, the spectator rarely realizes the immensity of the display.

Nowhere in the world can be found a more brilliant exhibition of spectacular signs than in New York’s Times square district. Every moviegoer is familiar with the blazing signs on Broadway above Forty-second street which directors insert in their dramas whenever New York atmosphere is called for.

For years Broadway has been famous as the Gay White Way, but it is blushingly changing its complexion from white to rosy red as young Mr. Leigh and others of his unique profession work their miracles in electric bulbs and neon tubing.

view additional pages

Making Trick PICTURES with a Home Movie Camera

by Walter E. Burton

Half the fun in making home movies lies in getting unusual shots that will mystify friends viewing your production. Taking such trick pictures is quite simple and easy, as told here.

IF YOU purchase, borrow, or receive as a present a motion picture camera, you will find the mere process of photographing everything in sight thrilling enough for the first half-dozen reels. Then you will look about for new fields to conquer. Perhaps you will undertake the making of your own dramas or comedies—movies with a plot or at least a basic theme.

Whether you set out to tell a story in pictures, or merely are trying to make short scenes that will cause your friends to say “How in the world did he do that?” you will find the production of “trick” movies an absorbing pastime, and not necessarily a costly one.

Fantastic Scenes Easy to Fake You are, for example, making a picture in which a tired business man relaxes a bit and sees the vision of a fairy—or maybe a certain chorus girl—dancing lightly on the desk before him. The photographing of the man sitting before his desk and of a girl of miniature proportions dancing on the desk top at the same time may seem an extremely difficult task. In reality it is extremely simple, once you know the trick. This is how it can be done: Miniature Chorus Girl Dances on Desk Arrange the man and his desk in front of a photographically black background, as illustrated in Fig. 3. A piece of dead black cloth or other material will do, if it does not exhibit highlights. Plush, for example, is unsuitable because its glossy texture reflects some light.

One of the easiest arrangements is to place the man and desk at some distance in front of a large open doorway leading into a dark room.

Now place the fairy or chorus-girl dancer on a black platform the same height as the desk, and several feet behind it. Set the camera with its lens at the desk and platform level, and focus so that both the near-by desk and man and the distant dancer are sharply defined.

Now according to the laws of perspective the dancer will be rendered in small size, compared to the man; and she will appear to be dancing on the desk top. Few spectators will notice that most of the background is black.

Producing Sand and Rainstorm Scenes The producing of rain and sandstorm pictures may appear difficult enough to be beyond the amateur cameraman’s resources. But this is not necessarily the case.

Consider the rainstorm first. If you place your camera at a fairly high elevation so that the area being photographed is not great, and squirt water with a hose so that it falls in drops just ahead of the camera lens, and directly on at least part of the scene as shown in Fig. 4, you will obtain a^* realistic storm effect. Of course, you must wet the players and surrounding objects beforehand. An electric fan or two will produce enough wind to give the effect of rain being driven before a gale.

Don’t make the fatal mistake of photographing a rain scene in bright sunlight. Choose a cloudy day.

Electric Fan Blows Sandstorm The production of a sandstorm is similar in method, except that sand is used instead of water, and is driven by an electric fan placed near the camera, and out of the lens field (see Fig. 10). You can throw dry sand in front of the fan with a small shovel, or let it run through a large funnel into the blast.

The terrain being photographed must be sandy, and the actors sand-spattered. In producing both rain and sandstorm pictures, you may not be entirely successful the first time, but practice will make for perfection.

How to “Shoot” Moving Subjects In the theatre you have probably observed time and again the effect of following actors who are driving a car, riding a bicycle, flying a plane, walking or moving by some other means. How were these pictures obtained?

The shooting of such scenes is easy with simple equipment. For instance, if you desire to photograph Junior while he is sailing back and forth in his swing, you need only arrange a strong outrigger to support the camera in front of the swing, and a similar projection at the rear for a counterbalancing weight, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fasten the camera securely, lock the button at the “on” position, and start the swing. The resulting film will show Junior at all times in focus, but obviously swinging because the background is in apparent motion.

Auto Shots Made From Platform This method can be extended to include an endless number of applications. With a camera platform attached to the front of an automobile as shown in Fig. 9, good motoring shots can be made. It is advisable to remove or let down the wind shield when possible.

For following or preceding walking actors, a small truck, called a “dolly” in studios, is necessary. A child’s coaster wagon, preferably one with rubber tires, is elaborate enough for amateur purposes. Fig. 2 illustrates how this stunt is worked.

Anyone who has attempted to develop a glass negative in warm weather, and seen his hopes slip away with the overheated emulsion, will know instinctively how to make a “dissolving” picture.

Making Dissolving Pictures On the screen the spectators see a face or other object that gradually melts into a confusing mass. The effect is highly amusing, and is obtained by arranging a positive transparency of the picture so that it will melt and slide off its support while it is being copied with a movie camera.

Glass photographic plates are superior to film for the positive, because the emulsion on them is easily affected by heat.

Arrange the glass-plate positive so that it is suspended in a glass-sided vessel into which warm water can be introduced steadily, or which can be heated over a flame. (See Fig. 11.) Focus the camera on this positive, and arrange back illumination so that the light is evenly distributed. Device for Making Moving Titles Take a few feet of the picture before it starts to melt. Then increase the temperature of the water until the effect is complete. A little experimenting with old negatives will teach you the trick.

There are dozens of ways to make moving titles—those which are too long to be included in a single frame on the film. To devise a moving title board that is mechanically simple, first have a tinsmith make a sheet metal holder for the printed title, and a frame in which it can be moved lengthwise, as illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8. Supports of heavy wire projecting beyond each end of the frame have pulleys through which a strong linen cord runs. This cord is looped several times around a heavy wire crank set into the frame, and the ends are attached to the opposite ends of the title-card holder.

Thus, by turning the crank, the operator moves the card past the camera lens as rapidly as desired. A good way to judge the speed is to read the title as you operate the crank.

Whenever possible, use a tripod for supporting your camera while making moving pictures. You will be rewarded by scenes that do not make spectators seasick to view them. But you cannot always carry a tripod with you. The best substitute is a good supply of ingenuity.

Tripods Easily Improvised A 3-in. piece of threaded rod that will screw into the tripod socket, and a washer and wing nut to fit, will be found useful for attaching the camera to various objects. Some of the clamping devices on the market can be used, but care should be exercised because of the considerable weight of the average movie camera.

If you make pictures from an automobile frequently, you will be repaid by installing a permanent mounting somewhere. A small iron bracket on the dash, where the camera can be aimed through the windshield or door, is one possibility.

Keyhole pictures sometimes lend a bit of humor to a reel. All you need to make such a scene—one that looks as if it had been photographed through a keyhole—is a piece of black paper and a means of fastening a small disc of it in front of the camera lens.

Unique Pictures With Keyhole Mask Cut out an opening the shape of a keyhole, in the center of the paper disc. Then place the disc, with the keyhole in normal position, in front of the lens. The larger the hole, the farther from the lens you must place it. Another method is illustrated in Fig. 6.

In making the exposure, give a little more time than the lens stop indicates. In photographing keyhole scenes, as well as other types where “freak” effects are desired, be logical. That is, do not shoot a landscape scene through a keyhole mask. Make it a burglar at work, someone stealing up the porch steps, or something similar. How to Make Objects Disappear The ability of the motion picture camera to stop while some detail of the scene or action is changed opens the way for performing all kinds of magic tricks on the screen. A man sits at the table, reads his menu and speaks to the waiter. Instantly the grapefruit appears before him, followed by the other dishes in rapid succession.

This effect is obtained by having the diner and the waiter hold their poses rigidly while the camera is stopped and the grapefruit set down. Then a foot or two is taken, and the actors are free to move. Again, the camera is stopped and another object placed on the table, and so on to the end.

Conversely, objects can be removed from a picture by the stop-motion method. You see a child walk behind a large cardboard box, or perhaps crawl into it. Then a truck comes along and flattens out the box, leaving no sign of the child. It’s easy if you stop the camera long enough for the child to move out of the picture.

Double-exposure effects, such as photographing a person inside a glass tumbler or flask, are obtained in a manner similar to that employed for the fairy dancing scene. Make the exposure when the main objects are placed in front of a black background. Of course, it is necessary to run the film through the camera two or more times.

Multiple-exposure work requires an accurate film footage meter. Walter Baer, a Pittsburgh photographer, has found that an old alarm clock makes a good meter. He removes all of the works with the exception of the hands and their connecting gearing. To the minute hand shaft he fastens an extension shaft that fits into the key socket of his camera.

By measurement he has found that, for the type of camera he uses (Filmo), a revolution of the hour hand indicates 36 feet of film, one revolution of the minute hand, three feet, and one-half minute equals a single frame on the film.

Action which normally is only moderately interesting on the screen becomes highly absorbing if it is reversed. A cat walking down the porch steps in regular order is not nearly as startling as one that proceeds up or down the steps backwards.

All you have to do to make such pictures is turn your camera upside down! Then, after the film is finished, cut out the section showing the scene, turn it end for end, and cement it in place.

Fancy diving, a man plowing a field, a motor car—in fact, any action that normally proceeds in one direction makes good material for this kind of trick.

If you want something really novel, use two cameras, one mounted upside down, and film the same scene with both of them. Then mount the two versions of the scene in series. On the screen the action will be seen to proceed normally, then suddenly reverse and repeat the same steps backwards.

An attempt has been made to suggest rather than describe how the amateur motion picture camera can be employed for photography other than the uninteresting run-of-mine variety. By exercising your imagination, and studying the unusual photographic effects, you see in motion picture theatres, you can add an endless number of other ideas.

view additional pages

Meet Hans Krause

His pocket-size sculptures are soothing to handle, sweet-scented and habit-forming.

ONE PATH to serenity, say the Buddhists, is through contemplating certain objects: the sky, a tree, a design. Not relying on sight alone, the Chinese have long used hand stones—small objects combining form and smoothness in a way that makes them delicious to handle.

Hans Krause, a German sculptor living in the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, has revived the hand stone. Playing with his dactylforms (Greek daktylos means finger) not only replaces habits like smoking but can produce calmness even in extremely disturbed mental patients. While admitting their value as medicine, sculptor Krause insists that his pocket sculptures are primarily works of art. Each is an individual form in polished Savina wood, a rare Mediterranean material that takes a thousand years to grow and yields an aromatic scent when warmed in the hand.

view additional pages

He Popped Corn Into a Fortune

From buying furs to selling popcorn was quite a jump for Clyde Gould. But he made it— and sales are really popping.

By Bruce Morgan

CLYDE “Blackie” Gould, a 30-year-old Minneapolis man, had always been nuts about popcorn. Like millions of others, he ate the stuff in theaters, at fairs and sports events and he saw so much corn popping wherever he went that he felt it might be an easy way to make money. As a result he came up with a brand new idea for selling popcorn and in the first year his cash register played such a pleasing tune to the accompaniment of popping corn that his idea is destined to turn into a nationwide bonanza.

It all started in 1951. Gould, a former Navy flier, was earning a nice living as a fur buyer. From his wages he had managed to put aside a nest egg of several thousand dollars. His main ambition, though, was to own his own business. He thought about operating a newsstand or a cigar store but that meant long hours and short profits and he began to look around for something that moved fast— something that could be sold anytime, anyplace.

When he learned that the nation’s movie theaters virtually were kept in business as a result of their terrific popcorn sales, Gould exclaimed: “Boy, that’s for me!”

A care-free, fun-loving individual, Gould told friends about his desire to sell popcorn. That posed a problem. They thought that he was wacky to even consider such an idea. Others said that he must be off his rocker because he wasn’t the kind of character to tie himself up with popcorn. But he was serious. Despite the ribbing from his friends, he went ahead with his “crazy” plan.

Gould figured that if you could sell average, unbuttered popcorn for a dime (due to the high price of butter most vendors were not using it) you could sell top-grade, hull-less corn doused with delicious, pure creamery butter for 15 cents or 25 cents for a giant box.

His problem, however, was how to get the stuff to the public. He could set up a store or a stand for some big event but in a few days or hours the event was over and so were the crowds.

“Why not take my product directly to the public?” he reasoned. The big question remaining then was “how?” Finally he came up with the idea of taking the legendary figure of Robin Hood as his trademark. He named the product “Robin Hood Popcorn” and designed a small, maneuverable trailer dispensing unit in the shape of Robin Hood’s feathered cap. This could be shifted and set up easily wherever there were crowds—at fairs, community functions and other events—by towing it behind a jeep panel truck. He tried to get a unit built by several different manufacturers but finally had to build one himself. He did a good job, too.

Next, he made an agreement with Land-O-Lakes Creamery whose extensive operation and heavy advertising of Land-O-Lakes Creamery Butter is known throughout the country. Thus he removed any suspicion on the part of the customers that anything but pure creamery butter was being used in the product.

In the beginning Gould was beset by a number of problems, some of them rather humorous. Like the time he was testing popcorn brands. He found that, strangely enough, the corn he popped didn’t have the same taste as the stuff he purchased at other stands. Then one day he discovered the reason. He smoked cigars almost continually and in the confined area of the wagon the smoke was making the corn taste odd.

Then his butter posed an awkward situation. He had to buy it in large quantities to get it at a reasonable price and had no place to store it except in his home. This he did but the stumbling block was—he was allergic to butter!

Finally Gould made a test run with his unit at a neighboring town. When people got a look at the wagon they began to rib him but when he anchored his rig on location, he was swamped with customers. He had to break up the crowd. Kids bought popcorn for blocks while he was still moving. That convinced him.

Quickly he built a total of seven wagons. Two jeeps were used for towing the trailers and for keeping the units supplied with * butter, corn, change and collecting proceeds.

One time during the Aquatennial Parade, Gould was selling popcorn in his colorful little rig when he received a terrific dressing-down from an exasperated official who thought the popcorn wagon was one of the floats that had strayed off parade limits. Gould soon convinced the official that he didn’t belong in the parade when he handed him a free sample box of his product. “The guy licked his chops,” said Gould, “after eating the corn. He ‘ bought a handful of boxes to take home to his family.”

Gould’s popcorn stands are a far cry from the conventional popcorn wagon which through the years has become such a familiar part of the American scene. Where earlier vintage outfits were always painted white, these have an effective and dazzling green-and-yellow color scheme, making them easy to spot. The 15-foot red “feather,” set at a rakish angle, points skyward and beckons the customers. An important advantage is that these outfits set low on the ground, almost at street level, thus expediting service and making it easy for the small fry to step up and buy.

For business after dark, the Robin Hood setups feature bright, colorful lighting arrangements. Instead of the glaring gasoline lamps, modern fixtures with bright interior and indirect exterior lighting are used. This is made possible by a small, compact, economical electric generating plant driven by an air-cooled gasoline engine. It’s an Onan Generator which produces 750 watts of AC power at a cost of but a few cents an hour. Gould chose these for his trailers because of their compact size, efficient operation and low initial cost. Each is mounted at the base of the “cap,” which is at the front end.

Many people became interested in the Robin Hood wagons and Gould decided to franchise his successful brainchild. With each franchise he will furnish a complete working unit and set up a supply system. Wagons cost $1500 but can be easily financed. An operator can realize about $100 gross a day from a single unit in the right location. Units can be worked summer and winter. Gould says that he has been operating continually in Minneapolis and in certain locations December has been his biggest month. •

view additional pages

LUCK FOR SALE

Even the best of us ore superstitious and we pay magic-charm sellers millions of dollars yearly.

By Irv Leiberman

Cleveland, Ohio Gentlemen: I notice your Life Everlasting Herb and if it is so good and luckey 1 would like to have one. Also tell me how to use it.

I remane, Mr. B. F.

THIS actual letter, typical of thousands, is the foundation stone of many a huge business fortune. It represents the average customer in a series of flourishing and highly profitable superstition transactions.

Millions of Americans are in constant and ever hopeful search for ready-made luck and herbs to solve all their problems. And hundreds of energetic salesmen sell them almost anything their heart desires for a mere pittance.

A dozen large companies stud the big cities of America and function independently or collaboratively as the fountain-heads of occultism. They print dream books and package herbs; they mold magical candles and fill small bottles with perfumed chemicals bearing such exotic names as Bat’s Blood; they stuff little square boxes with Live Lodestone and Graveyard Dust. Then specially-trained salesmen dispose of them to the eager men and women all over the country.

Even many well-known people believe in luck charms. The hairy-chested novelist, Ernest Hemingway, a man who would seem far removed from misty beliefs, is a veteran carrier of good luck charms. For years, he kept an Old Indian luck stone in one of his pockets. One night during World War II when Hemingway was in London as a correspondent and was about to leave with a bombing squadron for a raid over Germany, he discovered the stone was missing.

Unwilling to leave without his lucky charm, he turned to a cleaning woman in the hall of his hotel and said, “Quick, give me something for luck!”

She handed him an old champagne cork. That night Hemingway’s plane, caught in a hail of flak, was scarcely able to limp back to base. The writer was the only occupant unscratched. He still carries the cork. As a matter of fact, he had it with him when he was involved in the recent African incident in which he escaped from not one plane crash but two!

The theatre world is honeycombed with strange beliefs about good luck omens. Almost every well-known actor or actress has pet superstitions. For many years before Rita Hayworth became a star, she could be seen, before stepping on the set, slipping a shiny new dime under the garter on her left leg. “This is for luck,” she explained. Although few observers would attribute her luck to the presence of that dime, few will deny that she has had good luck.

When Jane Cowl began her career, Belasco gave her a doll. It brought luck and never left her dressing room. Helen Hayes has always prized the frayed rabbit’s foot with which she dabbed rouge on her face for her first appearance on the stage.

Americans are probably no more superstitious than any other people, but in putting their luck beliefs into concrete form they have put this peculiar kind of know-how into big-business brackets. Official sales figures show that in this country more than 10,000,000 rabbits’ feet and 3,333,000 plastic-covered four-leaf clovers are sold annually.

Americans’ insistent belief in Lady Luck put Charles Brand of New York City into the rabbit foot business in 1938 and has kept him there—at a profit—ever since. Known as the Rabbit Foot King, Brand has turned out about 1,000,000 of these furry charms annually for the past 15 years in his rabbit-foot factory in New York’s fur district and has cleaned up a small fortune in doing it.

Although Brand does not guarantee his product, he has a lot of faith in it. Not only have rabbits’ feet changed his own luck, he says, but he [Continued on page 218] is constantly getting enthusiastic letters from satisfied customers.

One came from a happy bride who had been a lonely middle-aged spinster until she risked a dime on a rabbit’s foot. With the bunny’s paw in her purse she set out for a Florida vacation. Within two weeks she reported she had bagged a husband on the beach.

“Ninety per cent of the people are superstitious,” Brand says. “It isn’t just the country folks, either, who like to have a luck-inducer on a chain. Actually, Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta are the biggest markets.”

Brand wears bunny paws himself and is rarely at a loss to prove their mystic power. His favorite experience recently concerned the time he was on a train and noticed a little old woman across the aisle weeping bitterly. As he got off at his station, he dropped a rabbit foot, along with a note, in her lap.

“I don’t know your trouble, but I hope this will help,” he had written.

She showed up in his shop a few weeks ago, full of smiles. “That was a wonderful day when you presented me with that rabbit foot, son,” she announced. “I’d been losing my shirt on the horses before and that was why I was weeping. But ever since, my luck has been unbelievably good.”

Four-leaf clovers are big business for Charles Donald Fox, onetime Hollywood publicity man. To date he has sold 30,000,000 to countless Americans who carry them on key chains, to big companies which use them in advertising cards, calendars and souvenirs and to men’s accessory manufacturers who put them into suspenders, cuff links and tie pins.

Back in 1938 while on a cruise through the Panama Canal, Fox ran into Chester T. Daniels, a man who doubled as chief telephone operator for the Canal Zone’s telephone system and amateur horticulturist. In his latter capacity he had been successful in cultivating a strain of clover that produced only four-leaf specimens.

“Ship them to me just as fast as you grow them,” Fox told Daniels. “I’ll take your entire output.”

Fox did. During the years that have passed, Fox has virtually enjoyed a four-leaf clover monopoly.

Of course Brand’s bunny paws an4 Fox’s clovers are honest, legitimate enterprises, but there are also many swindlers in the superstition field. Some of them sell their wares by mail through the company catalogue, an elaborately designed affair that appeals gaudily and directly to the lowliest dreams of fame and sexual power, health and wealth, and categorically promise the attainment of them all.

Here are a few excerpts from one such catalogue: Five Finger Grass—hang over bedstead to ward off evil.

Smellage Root—Rub on foot of person who has been a bad influence.

Life Everlasting Herb—said to prolong life; one teaspoonful to one cup of water.

The response to these catalogues is constant and tremendous. The file of original letters making inquiries or purchases is cross-indexed by name, product and geographical location. Known frankly as the sucker list, it is the blood and tissue of the superstition rackets and insurance of a perennial golden harvest of orders and cash. Indeed, it forms a business in itself for one distributor will rent it to another at prices ranging from $12 to $30 for each 1,000 names.

Sometimes these mail-order companies have to be on the lookout for customers who decide to pay a personal call. For example, one such man (whom we shall call Carl S.) who lived in the Bronx, trekked to a New York City mail-order firm in answer to an ad in a cultist magazine concerning the magic of a wondrous “pendulum.”

Carl asked to see the president, who immediately went straight into a lecture on how he first got interested in the pendulum in Syria when he saw a character walking along with one, stopping occasionally to dig in the ground.

“When the pendulum began to swing, he dug,” explained the president. “Always he came up with some valuable old vase or some other buried relic—worth lots of money.”

Carl said his wife was crazy about antiques and that was just the sort of instrument he needed.

The man then explained that the swinging of the pendulum could tell you the darndest things. “For example,” he said, “the pendulum can predict the sex of an unborn child. It can advise you what to do about your business, counsel you in love and marriage, find long lost relatives (if you want to find them) and tell you where to go on your vacation.”

When Carl left the talkative swindler—he also left $3.95 for the “magic pendulum.” Not only did this instrument fail to bring Carl luck, it cost him $125 to pay the man who fixed up his back yard after Carl had dug holes all over his land.

To the superstitious folks of the circus, luck charms are as necessary as food. Un fortunately, these good luck tokens don’t always do their job well.

Several years ago a lucky shoestring failed to save Rosello, billed as the Man in the Moon, on opening night of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden. He lost his grip while sliding down a rope after finishing his act of spinning on his head on a platform 70 feet above the ground and crashed heavily, breaking both wrists and suffering internal harts.

Another circus performer with Barnum and Bailey who learned that his good luck charm was not infallible was Alfred Court, the famous animal trainer. One day, Doutchka, a rare and beautiful Siberian snow leopard with a large, bushy tail, got caught in the runway at rehearsal with Indo, a savage Indian leopard. Indo promptly killed the highly trained and extremely valuable Doutchka. As if this were not enough bad luck for the trainer who always wore a charm on his shirt, a little while later, Indo, still excited, burst out of his cage and clawed the face of Alfred Court. So you see, lucky charms don’t always work.

“Superstition,” says Professor Brew ton Berry of Ohio State University (who estimates that $1,000,000 is spent annually in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for charms, magic philters, hoodoo bags and similar gimmicks), “is just a euphonious term for our ignorance.

“Surrounded by a world we do not fully understand, we lazily fall prey to escapes, to easy ways out, to laying off the responsibility for our decisions and our fate upon talismans, charms and pagan rites.”

Jimmy Dykes, while he was the hardheaded leader of the Chicago White Sox, hooted at players who professed a belief in the lucky properties of certain uniform numbers but one day his locker was found to be chock-full of horseshoes, rabbits’ feet, four-leaf clovers, wishbones, sharks’ teeth, and other equally potent talismans.

Some ball players have suffered unbelievably because of their belief in superstition. For example, a taboo on bathing led to some decidedly uncomfortable days for the New York Giants a few years ago.

After a bad losing streak the Giants finally won a ball game, and on that same day the player responsible for the victory developed a case of itch. Luck and the itch were put together like two and two, and the other players wouldn’t let him take a bath or do anything else to relieve the ailment although it was contagious.

After that the Giants kept winning day after day and soon half the team was scratching and squirming. None of them dreamed of bathing or employing other anti-itch measures, however, until an opposing pitcher finally took them to the cleaners.

Fighters, too, have been especially prone to believe in luck. The most superstitious of all was John L. Sullivan. Sullivan had a standing, ironclad rule: the other fighter had to enter the ring before him.

Only once did John L. slip up on this ritual —and once was enough. At the memorable bout in New Orleans, in 1892, the other fighter, aware of the champion’s belief, preceded him down the aisle to the edge of the ring. Then the opponent suddenly whirled and backtracked toward his dressing room. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said, as he brushed by Sullivan and his manager, “I forgot something.”

Left at the ringside and greeted by cheering crowds, Sullivan had no choice but to climb in. Twenty-one rounds later he was a has-been; the polite jinx-setter was “Gentleman Jim” Corbett.

Important people in politics believe in luck, too. Until his death George Washington, one of the most unsuperstitious of men, carried in his hip pocket the gold piece he happened to have with him the day of his inauguration. The late Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, had a favorite campaign superstition, also. Toward the close of every campaign he always put on an ancient black overcoat “for luck.” Even President Eisenhower is reported to carry with him seven old, time-worn gold coins.

There are several hundred thousand luck beliefs known today. Most of them exist in so many forms that the problem of classifying them seems nearly impossible. Research seems to make only one point clear; everybody believes in luck—even the skeptics.

Many a sage has tried to nail down just what “luck” really is, but no one has come closer than the hardy New England farmer who once remarked, “I’m always luckiest with the potatoes I hoe the most.”

view additional pages

Can You Invent a MILLION-DOLLAR FAD?

A California firm isn’t kidding when it invites you to send them your ideas for fun and games. They’ve made millions on fads— from Hula Hoops to bubbles Here’s a firm whose president may suddenly start bouncing spectacularly lively rubber balls for the chief of research and development to catch—if he can. And the executive vice-president thinks nothing of firing a blast of air from a formidable-looking plastic gun at his busy and unsuspecting secretary.

That’s the Wham-O Mfg. Co. of San Gabriel, Calif., where anybody’s idea of an amazing toy, or a novel product of almost any sort, has a chance to become a reality and be sold by the millions.

Fun is their business, and they’re as interested in your idea of fun as in their own. Mail, phone, telegraph, or carry it to their threshold on El Monte St., and you will receive a warm welcome. In fact, the welcome may eventually be followed by royalties. That has been the happy fate of quite a few inventors to date. They’ve included house painters, brickyard workers, school kids, bank presidents, aircraft engineers, retired clerks, and upholsterers—to name just a few.

Though you may never have heard of Wham-O before, you doubtless are already acquainted with Super Ball, their latest sensation. It’s about the size of a handball, and has such extraordinary bounce thai it makes every other ball seem tired. It falls just short of perpetual motion. Kids from seven to 70 can be seen dribbling it or whamming it over the rooftops almost anywhere you go these days.

Or maybe you’ve frustrated your youngsters by appropriating their Frisbee Flying Saucer and coltishly skimming it over the lawn. Or, at the very least, you used to sheepishly sashay around inside a Hula Hoop.

Those outstanding fun fads all stemmed from the Wham-O Mfg. Co., which turned them out by the tens of millions. But the ideas for all three came from outsiders.

The high-bouncer. Super Ball, for instance, was the inspiration of a chemist, Norman Stingley, who worked for another firm—and still does, though he picks up fat royalty checks regularly.

“It took us nearly two years to iron the kinks out of Super Ball before we produced it,” said Richard Knerr, 40, president of Wham-O. “It always had that marvelous springiness—a 92-percent recovery rate —far beyond that of any other ball. But it had a tendency to fly apart. We’ve licked that with a very-high-pressure technique for forming it. Now we’re selling millions.” Stingley is said to receive a royalty of around a cent on each.

The Frisbee Flying Saucer was the inspiration of a building inspector, a former Air Force pilot. It’s just a shallow plastic saucer with an airfoil edge that will boomerang or sail and hover, depending on how you skim it. The Frisbee Flying Saucer still have an idea—no matter how nutty it seems to them—to send it to us. Maybe we’ve got an application for it. We don’t just make toys, you know, even though they’re our principal line. We’re branching out in a lot of ways, even into housewares and cosmetics.”

“Who does the initial screening of this flood of suggestions?” I asked.

“Ed Headrick—he’s in charge of research and development.”

Headrick says, “We average 20 new ideas in the mail every day. If there’s any publicity about us, the number shoots up to 50 or 100 or 150. Too many people, though, think we’d be interested in reviving some toy they used to play with as kids. That’s not true. We want the new and different.”

“What’s the percentage of good ideas in a carload?” I asked.

“Well,” said Headrick, “we have to review, say, 100 just to find one that even has interest. We have to look at 1,000 before we turn up one that seems worth the cost of testing. We have to run through 50 to 100 tests of different ideas before we come up with something as good as Super Ball. And all the time, of course, we’re developing ideas of our own—the whole company is attuned to that.”

Keeping it bouncing. “Speaking of Super Ball,” I said, “I note that you say it’s ‘made of new, amazing Zectron.’ What’s that?”

“It’s a secret mixture of man-made materials,” Headrick told me, “but the name Zectron doesn’t mean a thing—it just sounds zingy, and Super Ball is certainly that.”

“Have you ever had a flop?” I asked Knerr.

“Oh, sure,” he said. “We’re not perfect. Take Instant Fish, for example. We had the idea of marketing fish eggs that would hatch before the astonished eyes of people who bought them and put them in bowls of water. We’re always seeking what we call ‘the magical degree of amazement’ in our products. We want people to exclaim, ‘What was that?’ or ‘Gee, I never saw anything like that before.’ And we want to appeal to all ages and both sexes.”

“What was wrong with Instant Fish?” I asked.

“Oh, we got a ton of orders, and then found that the fish had let us down. They just wouldn’t lay eggs fast enough to make the project profitable.”

view additional pages

Story of Paper
TAKE a look around you at home, in the office, at the store—wherever you are at any time during the day—and wherever your eye falls, yon see paper. From the cigarette you smoke to the heavy carton around bulky packages, almost everything you use has paper in it somewhere. 15 million tons is used annually in this country—over 200 pounds per person. So there is a lot to support the argument of the men and women who make paper that theirs is the most important industry in the world.

view additional pages

MODERN WONDERS of an Ancient Art Part II

By H. W. MAGEE

Part II

IMAGINE a metal house coated with glass, a home with all the delicate coloring and enduring beauty, inside and out, of age-old cloisonne.

The development of porcelain enameled iron for architectural purposes makes such a home both possible and practical. As a building material, porcelain enameled iron—actually a form of glass fused on to a metal base—offers an admirable union of utility and beauty for it possesses the strength of metal plus the hardness and permanence of glass. It can be produced in any hue or combination of hues in the mineral spectrum, it is colorfast, impervious to weather, non-porous, rustproof and can be made acid-resisting. And it is good for a lifetime of service.

In the past six or seven years, several types of buildings have been designed iii which preformed porcelain enameled panels are laid over a steel or wood frame, or its equivalent in the frameless type of construction. Architects also have applied the material successfully to interior surfaces and obtained a rare combination of permanence and lasting beauty.

One of the earliest uses of porcelain enameled metal for exterior construction work was in the form of roofing shingles. Produced in a variety of designs and colors, this permanent and fireproof roof covering indicated the possibilities of the same material for exterior wall surfaces. One of the first problems faced by builders attempting to cover walls with procelain enameled iron was how to attach the panels to the frame.

At least half a dozen independent methods of fastening the sheets to the framework have been devised, ranging from patented keylocking attachments fabricated into the framework to interlocking channel sections and metal strips of special design to accommodate and secure the panels. Most types of porcelain enameled building panels are backed with insulation and provision also is made in most cases for a layer of insulating material between the enameled panels and the wall framework. Model homes with exterior surfaces of porcelain enameled metal were exhibited at Chicago’s Century of Progress, one house having enameled panels held in place by wall beads of simple design, while another had panels backed by a cement-like base.

Porcelain enamel as a material for sheathing the exteriors of buildings has been found to supply all the permanence of glass, while at the same time offering a welcome solution to the modern demand for color. While thus far it has been used mostly as an exterior surface for small buildings, many architects see a bright future for it in great commercial structures, notably as a decorative tool. That porcelain enamel lends itself admirably to ornamentation is exemplified by the huge mural ornaments, eighteen feet in diameter, decorating the outer walls of Radio City, sixty feet above the sidewalk. Perhaps mull ions, spandrels, moldings, pillars, pilasters, sills, sash, trim and extruded shapes in door panels and walls in our office buildings of the future may be endowed with the grace and beauty of this ancient material.

The material is finding an even wider application for interior finish and decoration. The kitchen which once boasted a porcelain enameled sink or stove and a few pans now may be porcelain enamel from floor to ceiling. Multi-tone wall panels of porcelain enameled metal offer an opportunity for design and color treatment which can transform kitchens and bathrooms into cubicles of arresting beauty. Properly used, porcelain enamel with a natural wood or marble finish also finds its way into other rooms.

One of the first architectural applications of porcelain enamel, and one of the most important today, was in the construction of gasoline filling stations. It was found that the material was adaptable to ornate design, colors were permanent and could be carried out in the same material in signs and pumps, construction was simple and the entire building could be taken apart and moved to a new location, if necessary, at comparatively low cost.

Another early application of the material by builders, and one constantly gaining favor, was in the designing or remodeling of shop and store fronts. Since there is no limit to the colors or designs in which porcelain enamel can be fashioned, and since it has a high reflectance, it offers an opportunity for a pleasing alliance between architecture, lighting and advertising appeal in planning a shop to stop the shoppers.

In addition to helping get the customers into the shop, porcelain enamel is aiding in selling them after they enter. In shops where cleanliness, durability and “eye appeal” are particularly desirable, fixtures, counters, display cases and walls are often of porcelain enamel. In such places as drug stores, barber shops, meat markets and restaurants, it has been found that the material, in addition to being sanitary and easy to keep clean, adds to the attractiveness of the shops, particularly where pleasing color contrasts in enamel are employed.

Heretofore, porcelain enameled sinks and bath tubs have been made of cast iron porcelain enameled. Porcelain enameled pressed metal sinks and bath tubs are now also available. The pressed metal products claim light weight as their chief advantage.

When it is considered that only a century ago porcelain enamel was virtually unknown except as a finish for costly jewelry and ornaments, it is difficult to predict the future of this product which was ancient when Columbus discovered America. Many of its architectural applications still are in the experimental stage, but in view of what has already been accomplished it is not unreasonable to expect that its field of usefulness will be extended even farther in the next decade than in the past one.

So, since you may expect porcelain enamel to serve you in more and more ways, here are a few simple things to keep in mind in buying and using porcelain enameled products: In the first place, know you are getting porcelain enameled ware when you ask for it, and not something covered with “enamel” paint. Porcelain enamel cannot be cut or scratched by a coin or pin scraped across its surface, whereas paints and lacquers fail under such a test.

On such products as table tops and sinks, where fruit juices and other acids come in contact with the working surfaces, it is desirable to ask for “acid resisting” porcelain enamel, which is especially designed to resist the action of such acids.

One of the outstanding features of porcelain enamel is the ease with which it may be cleaned. A damp cloth or one dipped in soapy water cleans a porcelain enameled surface quickly and easily. If the dirt or grime is a bit tenacious, however, ordinary cleaning compounds can be used.

Porcelain enamel is essentially glass and any cleaners or solutions that you would ordinarily use on a plate-glass mirror can be safely used for cleaning it.

Related posts

• A Hundred Miles of Cookies Every Day (Jul, 1936)
• Auto Made from Beans (Jul, 1936)
• Toys Keep Pace With Children’s Tastes (Jul, 1936)
• AUTOMATION (Jul, 1936)
• He Made Sky Mapping a Big Business (Jul, 1936)
• Behind the SIGNS (Jul, 1936)

view additional pages

Electrons at Work

How the busy family of vacuum tubes serves industry as valves, triggers and throttles of electric power.

By WILLIAM P. VOGEL, JR.

WHEN you snap your radio on; when you cross the path of an electric eye and untended doors jerk open to let you pass; when you hear your train called with strident clarity above the clamor of a vast terminal, electrons have been put to work.

Electrons are controlled by vacuum tubes. And vacuum tubes in the last 15 years have gone far afield from their original uses in communications to become the valves, triggers, and throttles of modern industry.

All vacuum tubes, from the tiny nutlike affairs in hearing-aid devices to the six-foot water-cooled giants used to handle hundreds of kilowatts in radio broadcasting and power conversion, depend upon the same principle. This principle is that electrons— those ultimate bits of electrical energy— can be rapidly and automatically controlled when they are freed from a metal conductor and jump across the empty space inside the tube. Their behavior during those microseconds can be changed in almost any way that human intelligence wants it to be changed.

Attempts to classify vacuum tubes began almost immediately after Dr. Lee DeForest invented the basic three-element tube in 1906, which he termed the “audion.” The late Dr. Michael Pupin, of Columbia University, objected to the name, saying it was a “mongrel … a Latin word with a Greek ending.” Soon afterward, Dr. Irving Langmuir, of the General Electric Com- pany at Schenectady, began to refer to two-element tubes as “kenotrons” and three-element tubes as “pliotrons.” Dr. DeForest scoffingly termed this jargon “Graeco-Schenectady.” Yet, today the electronic scene is full of ignitrons, phanotrons, thyratrons, magnetrons and such trade-marked items as Radiotrons. But don’t let the long words scare you: what electrons-at-work do is fairly simple, even if we don’t always know how they do it.

No matter how big or how small, whether for microwave work or to control the split-second cycle in resistance welding, all vacuum tubes must have cathodes—the source of the electron stream. There are many different types of cathodes. Some are simply filaments, very much like the glowing wire in the ordinary incandescent lamp. When an electric current heats the filament to incandescence, electrons are boiled out of it much as steam is boiled out of water. Another type of hot cathode is built like a tiny electric stove, with an electric heating coil inside the cathode sleeve. Some vacuum tubes have cold cathodes, in which the electrons are literally pulled out of the cathode material by a high voltage across the tube. An important class of tubes, known as ignitrons, have pools of mercury as cathodes, from which the electronic stream is started by an auxiliary electrode called the ignitor. Phototubes, widely used to measure paper thickness, to keep color plates in register on the printing press, and to open and close doors, have yet another type of cathode—one from which the elec- trons dart out in proportion to the intensity of the light falling upon the cathode.

Another essential for vacuum-tube operation is the anode—the collector or receiver of the electrons emitted by the cathode. The anodes are always positive with respect to the cathodes—ranging from a mere 90 volts or so on the anode (familiarly known as the “plate”) in a small household radio tube to many thousands of volts on the big water-cooled anode of an industrial or transmitting tube. The anode can never emit electrons—that is the special privilege of the cathode.

Because of the unique behavior of these two electrodes, vacuum tubes acquire one of their most important characteristics: they act as valves. The current flow through the tube can be in one direction only, from cathode to anode. This makes the two-element tube—the kenotron—a natural for rectifying alternating current into direct current. And in radio applications, kenotrons, commonly called diodes, apply their valve action as well to such jobs as detection and automatic volume control.

But the kenotron has its limitations. Be- cause the negative electrons tend to pile Up around their source, the cathode, they get in the way of other electrons traveling to the anode. This is known as; the space charge. To overcome the crowding, a tiny quantity of some gas such as mercury vapor, argon or xenon is placed in the tube. The gas overcomes the crowding action of the electrons and hustles them on to the anode. The gas acts in this way because it becomes ionized—by losing electrons its molecules become positive and attract new electrons from the cathode, which in turn are knocked out by others as the rate of flow increases. Such gas-filled tubes are called phanotrons; they have the ability of handling greater quantities of current than kenotrons.

A third class of rectifiers is the ignitrons. Because their cathodes are pools of mercury they have tremendous power-handling ability. Despite the ignitor, which starts the action of the tube, they are basically two-element tubes like kenotrons and phanotrons. As the ignitor fires the cathode, vast quantities of electrons pour out of the pool toward the anode. At the same time quantities of positive mercury-vapor ions are created, which, as in the phanotron, serve as traffic cops to help the electrons on their pell-mell course to the anode. The biggest ignitrons can deliver 200 amperes of current at 20,000 volts—a power output of 4,000 kilowatts, more than enough to make a typical small town shine like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Tubes That Control and Amplify The space charge can be put to work by adding a third element, called the grid, to a vacuum tube. When a grid, deliberately made negative, is placed between cathode and anode, it will hold up current flow just the way the space charge does. But if the grid becomes more positive, it will aid the flow of electrons to the plate the way the positive ions in the gas-filled tubes do. With the introduction of the grid, vacuum tubes acquire two more characteristics: control and amplification. If two-element tubes act like one-way check valves, then three-element tubes act like triggers or throttles.

Tubes with grids belong to two families: the pliotrons and the thyratrons. The pliotrons are high-vacuum tubes, like the kenotrons. The thyratrons, like the phanotrons, contain minute quantities of easily ionized gas. Most radio-receiving tubes, except rectifiers, belong to the pliotron family, while the thyratrons find their biggest application in industry.

With the pliotrons, the vacuum tube assumes its function as a throttle. Suppose the grid is made quite negative. The electrons, crowding away from the cathode, are stopped dead in their tracks by the negative grid, very much the way a closed Venetian blind keeps out light. Now, as the signal varies and the grid becomes less negative, it permits more and yet more electrons to flow to the plate. Plate current increases. The Venetian blind is now open, admitting full sunlight.

In the thyratrons the action of the grid is more like a trigger than a throttle. Like all gas-filled tubes, thyratrons can handle larger current flows. When the grid is negative the current is halted, but once the tube has started to pass current the grid becomes ineffective, because of the ions of gas that jostle the electrons on toward the anode. The only way a thyratron, once it has been “fired,” will cease to pass current is to make the anode negative. This permits the gas inside the tube to “deionize,” and the grid once more takes command of the electron stream.

“Seesaw” Effect on Volume In both types of tubes any degree of amplification can be obtained, depending upon tube design. If the grid is placed very near the cathode, as it usually is, it becomes possible for a small change in grid potential to control a large change in plate current. Suppose that a change of one volt in the grid potential causes a change of 15 volts in the plate potential. Then the tube is said to have an amplification factor (designated by the Greek letter mu) of 15.

In certain classes of pliotrons and thyratrons voltage gain is sacrificed in favor of power-handling abilities. Again the designers space the electrodes in such a way that while the grid voltage does not produce a significant change in the plate voltage, the tube permits a large number of electrons to pour into the anode. Such tubes are called power amplifiers and their most familiar use is in the amplifiers used to drive a loudspeaker of a radio installation or a public-address system.

Because of the control and amplifying action of pliotrons and thyratrons you can obtain whatever effect you want. All you have to do is to choose your tubes properly. You can magnify the tiny impulses of electricity produced by your brain or your blood stream to power a stylus that draws an encephalogram or a cardiogram—or you can automatically drive heavy switchgear or work the loudspeakers in Madison Square Garden.

It Helps to Add a Screen Like all other vacuum tubes, tubes with grids have certain limitations. The anode and grid oppose each other—for that reason, when we want maximum power in the load, we have to make the anode least able to attract electrons by making it less positive. Likewise, when we want less power in the load, we have to make the anode more positive, just at the time when we want reduced current flow. The best way to overcome this is to insert a second grid, called the screen, between the control grid and the anode. The screen is made positive. Thus the twin functions of the anode are split between two electrodes: the screen attracts and accelerates the electrons while the anode collects them. Even the screen has its limitations. Some of the slower electrons fail to get to the cathode and tend to return to the positive screen. To prevent the return of these electrons, still another grid, known as the suppressor, is inserted in the tube between the screen and the anode. Carrying a negative charge, the suppressor repels electrons that would like to go to the screen and hustles them on to the anode.

And On Up to “Hoptoads”

Tubes with three elements are commonly called triodes, those with four are called tetrodes, and those with five are called pentodes. Special radio and industrial tubes, in which several different tube types are enclosed in the same container, have as many as six, seven and eight elements and are called hexodes, heptodes and octodes. Among vacuum-tube designers there is frequent joking about a mythical tube known as the “hoptoad”—which, if it could ever be built, would have an Infinite number of electrodes and the ability to perform any function whatsoever without loss or limitation.

In general, all of the ordinary tubes used in radio, telephony, and industry are of the types described. There are many varieties of tubes, each with different characteristics and different circuit applications. The electronic engineer simply has to pick the right tube for his purpose. For example, a radio set could be built using only diodes and triodes. But the diodes used to rectify house current would be far larger tubes than those used to detect the signal. And the triodes used for voltage amplification would be far different from the triodes used to drive and supply power to the loudspeaker system.

As the electronic industry challenged the unknown region in the higher reaches of the radio spectrum—where the frequency is 300 megacycles and more—it became evident that a totally new kind of thinking about vacuum tubes was necessary. No longer could the tube be considered merely the electronic component of a circuit composed of conventional inductances, capaci- tors and resistances. As the wave lengths in this microwave region became comparable with the size of the tube, such new factors as the transit time of electrons from cathode to anode, the radiation through the tube itself, and the losses from leads became vitally important to performance. With the tremendous research on radar during the war, such problems were faced and successfully solved. Philosophically, vacuum tubes for this microwave range began to be considered as simply a walled-off section of a complete electrical system. Such tubes as the velocity modulators, of which the klystron is the best-known example; the disk-seal tubes, of which the lighthouse tubes are the most familiar; and the magnetrons were developed. In these tubes the whole oscillating system is usually built into and around the tube. In certain cases the tube and its system can be used as a plug into the radio-frequency source, much the way a lamp cord can be plugged into a house-current receptacle.

These strides have been important—but they have by no means exhausted the possibilities of vacuum tubes. As new uses are demanded, new tubes will be forthcoming. Even as the modern radio tubes of today are a far cry from Dr. DeForest’s first audion, so are the tubes on the drawing boards far different from the most outlandish magnetrons and klystrons of the war period. Because the principles of vacuum tubes are now so well understood, there is no challenge that the tube designers feel they cannot accept.

view additional pages

What Makes the Movies Talk?

By William F. Crosby

Electrical Expert and Radio Engineer Millions of people have heard and seen the new talking movies, but the theater-going public knows little about the machinery that makes this form of entertainment possible. In this article Mr. Crosby writes authoritatively of the development of the talking movies, being an electrical engineer who has made a study of the sound devices.

SPEECH reproduction as an accompaniment of motion pictures has been perfected to such a degree that the common variety of silent movie promises to become something of a rarity. Even the 100-seat side-street theater will soon be able to cast out its old mechanical organ and give its patrons the same high quality musical accompaniment that distinguishes the presentations in the largest movie palaces.

There are several different systems coming into wide use and many motion picture theatres throughout the country are being equipped with such apparatus as quickly as possible. Within a year nearly all of the major pictures and many of the minor ones will be available with means of reproducing either musical accompaniment or the voices of the actors. The talking movie systems are all closely allied and the differences in quality seem to be largely matters of personal opinion.

There are three major systems of movie voice reproduction. Briefly, these are: the film on which the music or voice is photographed directly; the use of a record which is operated in synchronism with the motor of the projection machine; and the third system which is not operated in synchronism but is manually operated by a trained expert.

Photographing Human Speech.

The first system is probably the most interesting of them all, for it is here that sound waves are turned into light and then back to sound waves after passing through apparatus as electrical waves. The entire success of this system depends upon a little device known as the photoelectric cell, a device not much larger than the vacuum tubes used in most radio sets. This photoelectric cell is sensitive to light rather than to pulsations of electricity. The tube itself is entirely enclosed in an opaque covering except for a small window through which a beam of light is directed. When there is no light the cell has the property of conducting full electrical impulses, but as the light gains in intensity the current drops off accordingly until, at full brilliance, there is no flow at all. Its response to each graduation of light is instantaneous.

Suppose that the camera is set up and we are ready to take a picture by this method. If recordings of the actors’ voices are to be made, it will be necessary to set up supersensitive microphones about the studio, arranged in such a way that we can cut in or off instantly any group of “mikes.” If the musical accompaniment only is to be made, this work will not be done until after the picture is finished and ready to show, when the usual score will be made and the music run off at a showing of the picture.

The sound is picked up by the microphone and is amplified in a device which is almost exactly like the ones used for radio purposes, except that it is larger and incorporates much finer apparatus than is usually found in such devices. These instruments represent just about the highest degree of manufacturing skill.

If there are several microphones to be used, each will have an amplifier and a control by means of which the operators can handle the situation from outside the “set.” All of these amplifiers then feed into a “mixer” panel where there is usually another amplifier and the resultant of this device is then brought to a device which operates something like the mechanism of an ordinary dynamic loud speaker, except x a Light Turned Into Sound A ray of light reflected from this polished surface is photographed on the film along with the action of the picture. The entire musical or audible part of the film is concentrated into a strip on the edge of the film, this strip being only one-eighth of an inch wide. It is called the sound track and when the film is developed and the prints made, each one will have the music or voice printed along with it as a part of the film itself. The sound track will appear like a lot of fine horizontal lines ranging from light to dark according to the accompaniment.

In the projection machine, used to throw the picture on the screen, a strong arc light passes through the film itself and thus projects the picture as desired. The sound track is screened off from this light and another and smaller light, called the exciting lamp, casts its beam through a carefully regulated lens and thence to the sound track. It passes through here in quantities in exact accord with the number of horizontal lines, to the photoelectric cell where the light ray is again converted back to electrical impulses which are exactly like those that came from the microphone and in accordance with the theory of the photoelectric cell as already explained. This part of the equipment might be likened to the detector in the radio receiving set.

This simple fluctuating electrical current will change with each change in light and shade in the film and it is a simple matter to feed the electrical output of the photoelectric cell into a line amplifier where it is eventually sent out on a wire that runs back stage to a series of especially designed loud speakers, far larger than anything used for home radio entertainment, yet almost exactly the same in shape.

The output of the amplifier may be sent through several of these speakers at the same time, giving the effect of great depth of tone. The speakers are placed in back of the screen, which is opaque enough to permit the picture to be fully visible yet has the property of permitting the sound waves to pass throughly freely, thus giving the effect of sound actually emanating from the lips of the shadow figures on the screen.

Speed Must Be Regulated Ordinarily, film is exposed through the camera at a somewhat slower speed than the rate used in projection but, obviously, with this system it is necessary that, the film should be run at equal speeds on both occasions. Speeding it up in projection will cause distortion in both voice and music. The same thing applies to an ordinary phonograph where, if it is speeded up too far beyond the normal speed of 80 revolutions per minute the music will become shrill and high pitched, entirely unlike the original reproduction.

Another popular method of securing somewhat the same results makes use of an especially made record which operates along lines somewhat similar to those of the ordinary household phonograph. Here, too, microphones and amplifiers are used, but the sound is impressed upon a master record from which other records may be made as needed.

Ordinarily, the reproduction of sound from the record thus made, would take place with the tone arm and horn, but this would be impractical for it would mean that the apparatus, including the horn, would have to be placed in the projection booth, thus destroying much of the illusion. If the machine were assembled back-stage in the theatre, it would be next to impossible to have it run in synchronism with the projection machine.

Magnet Regulates Sound Again electrical engineering has come to the rescue with a simple little device which is really a generator of minute electrical energy. An exceedingly small horseshoe magnet forms the basis of this device, and between the poles of the magnet a small coil of wire is so fixed that the needle in travelling over the bumps and hollows of the record will cause a slight movement of this wire coil. The result is a small electrical current which is in exact accord with the original sound reproduced and a great improvement over the older types of nonelectrical sound boxes.* Best of all, the output of this little magnetic unit may be fed into two wires which may be led anywhere to an amplifier and thence to the usual array of loud speakers. Thus the tone arm is done away with and the output of the record may be brought to. any point where a wire may be run. The device is as simple as it is effective and is being widely used on modern phonographs by leading manufacturers.

This type of record runs in exact synchronization with the projection through a turntable which is geared to the same motor that runs the projector. The records are not of the standard variety, but are somewhat larger and are designed to revolve at a much lower speed than usual, thus making it possible for one record to last throughout the showing of a reel.

Records Are “Faded”

The change from reel to reel and from record to record is accomplished through the use of two projectors and, of necessity, two turntables, with a device known as a “fader” which, as the first record nears its end, permits the first one to be faded out and the second to be faded in just as the change in film is made from one projector to the other. The music at the start of one record will overlap the music at the end of the other making it possible for an experienced operator to make the change from one record to the other without the audience being aware of it. This same fading idea has been in use for a long time in shifting from one film to the next so that there shall be no break in the continuity.

Another method, and one that is closely allied to the one just outlined, is called the non-synchronous system in which the record is turned on an entirely separate turntable at speeds in accord with the requirements of the film. This is work for an expert operator, but the system has been in successful use for some time.

This record is “cued” so that the operator can tell where it should be changed if necessary, and it has the added advantage that the operator does not necessarily have to be in the projection room, but can be anywhere in the theatre so long as he can see and hear what is going on. It is also unnecessary to have special low speed records for this work, and some of the phonograph companies are already turning out such recordings to go with certain pictures.

The ordinary theatre orchestra may be played for a certain part of the film, but during the most exciting parts it may be desirable to have the voices of the actors heard instead of stopping for sub-titles. Through the non-synchronous system this is possible although it may be adapted to the other systems as well.

Talking Doubles for Actors Continuous music may also be had through this system by the use of two turntables arranged so that the operator can fade from one to the other and, through a simple speed control, be enabled to regulate the speed to conform perfectly with that of the record. Special guides are sometimes used by means of which parts of the record may be picked out at will. Of course the same amplifiers and back-stage loud speakers are used with this system as in the others and many theatres are equipped to use any of the three systems according to the film being shown.

In addition to these uses, the line amplifiers and speakers may be connected to a microphone in the manager’s office, thus permitting special announcements to be made audible to the entire audience. Should the theatre be poor acoustically, the use of a microphone on the stage will add greatly to the audibility of vaudeville acts or special presentations and since the loud speakers are usually mounted on easily portable towers, the problem resolves itself into a rather simple affair.

These various systems and their closely allied kith and kin are generally pronounced by experts to be far superior to anything heretofore available. The entire industry is rapidly taking up the work and inside of a year or so it is predicted that the better films will have musical accompaniments equal to the finest theatres of the land. Just what will happen to some of the most popular film stars when it comes to recording their voices is a matter of much speculation and it may be more than possible that there will be “doubles” employed solely to give a fine speaking voice to some otherwise handsome idol of the screen.

view additional pages

New Uses for OLD FORDS

Rescued from a grave in the junk heap, Tin Lizzie dons working clothes and makes money for the ingenious man who thinks of new ways to use her cheap and ample power.

Have you a new use for an old Ford? For all ideas published the editors of Modern Mechanics will pay five dollars—with a bonus for photos. Send in your ideas, giving full details.

SINCE the Ford Motor Company has ceased production on the universally known model T Ford car, millions of which are to be found in every corner of the world, many of these cars have drifted prematurely to vacant lots and garage junk heaps as an expectant public floods the Ford plant with a deluge of orders for the successor to the old design.

Does this mean that Tin Lizzie has served the last days of her utilitarian life? On the contrary!

New uses for the “cast iron wonder” are being found daily wherever a need for extremely cheap and husky power comes up. In motorboats, converted tractors, power sleds, saw rigs, pump and well drilling outfits the familiar bulk of the gasoline heart of old Tin Lizzie is seen more and more often these days. They are even being made into airplane engines!

The Ford model T motor can be bought for a price from $5 or $10 up to $25, depending upon condition.

No matter how worn, no matter how ready to “kick the bucket” the engine may be, repairs are to be had at the usual low prices in every garage. This will be the case for many years to come, for the parts replacement business of the Ford Motor Company is a huge industry in itself. So no matter what the condition of the engine of old model T, it can be bought with the assurance that it will provide serviceable power for years to come and can be put in running condition at a low cost.

One of the uses to which the Ford engine has been put with very satisfactory results is in the propulsion of boats. Developing 12 h. p. at 1,000 r. p. m. the engine makes a very good power plant for driving runabouts, launches and small cruisers. Placed in an eighteen foot runabout, a speed of about eighteen miles an hour is readily obtained turning a 14-inch diameter by 16-inch pitch propeller wheel of three blades. A speed of eight to ten miles has been obtained in a fairly heavy open launch of 25 feet in length using a 16-inch diameter by 16-inch pitch three blade propeller. Boats as large as thirty-five footers have been driven seven to eight miles an hour by the Ford motor hooked to a 16-inch diameter by 14-inch pitch wheel.

As it is a unit power plant, there is very little alteration needed to make a motorboat engine out of the Ford motor. One of the most effective ways of converting the mill from automobile to marine use is to install the motor together with the frame on the usual wooden engine beds such as are built into the boat. The illustration shows this method plainly.

A four-inch Lobee gear pump obtainable from any marine hardware house will fit the crank-saddle bolt to perfection, and a coupling for driving it can be made by drilling the timer housing and running the shaft through on a specially made small timer nut. This cares for the cooling water system.

Fitted with steel wheels, with tractor lugs and an extreme low gear attachment, many an old Tin Elizabeth is now grinding out the last hours of her existence in some truck gardener’s potato patch, doing light work like harrowing, drawing the cultivator, and hauling spray outfits. If the soil is not too heavy these tractors will even do a creditable job of pulling a single bottom with ease.

As a tractor, aside from the changes mentioned, the only additional equipment needed is the belt driven type of pump, needed to circulate the water faster, thus cutting down on oil consumption.

As a saw rig, very little is needed in the way of additional equipment that the local blacksmith cannot make. Many builders of the type of saw outfit shown in the drawing mount their rigs on a wagon, making the tilting table detachable, and the entire outfit is then a portable saw mill which can be taken from place to place to rapidly and profitably convert logs into cordwood.

The bearings shown in the drawing may be ordinary pillow blocks with babbitt bearings. The saw is generally belted to run half again as fast as the engine, or about 1,800-2,100 r. p. m. and can be bought in two foot diameters from most any hardware store. This will give ample saw speed without overloading the engine.

Many men in the wooded farming sections of the northwest make comfortable winter livings with these saw outfits.

One enterprising Eastern schoolboy made a vacuum pump as shown, rigged it on a neat steel wagon, and set about building up a vacuum cleaning service for houses in which he drives up to the curb, runs a large canvas covered tube into the basement of the home, and proceeds to load his wagon with the rubbish in the basement, cleaning up ashes, paper, cans and cobwebs. He tops off the job by thoroughly cleaning the furnace and sweeping the soot from the chimney with the suction! The entire lot of dirt is delivered into an inflated canvas sack just as is seen in a vacuum cleaner. In this case the bag is on a larger scale.

He receives $7 for the service,- which takes half a day. He supervises and directs the vacuum pickup, while the heart of an old Tin Lizzie does the work!

House Washing by Machine Similar in nature is the mounting development by a Chicago man for washing houses. The ordinary house faucet or lawn hose water pressure has not enough force to separate the winter’s grime from the ordinary painted surface, with the consequent result that in the springtime Mr. Average Man tries out the hose, decides the house must be hand washed, and if he is not particularly observing, comes to the final conclusion that to appear neat and trim after a winter of smoke and grime his house must be painted. This costs money, and a man who drives up with a geared force pump, a set of ladders, and a long handled scrubbing brush has no trouble securing the job of washing the house, particularly as the cost of freshening the looks of the home with his method is but $25, whereas new paint entails much muss and fuss and at least an outlay of $75.

With soap, brush and ladders this man quickly wets down the dirt, scrubbing loose the most obstinate deposits from cornice corners, and then, cranking up Elizabeth, he stands off with a pressure hose and rinses the dissolved smudge from the entire home, taking care not to rip up shingles or blow in windows. The paint does not suffer from this treatment, but emerges bright and glossy. Profit is said to be in the neighborhood of $10, over and above the cost of a man’s time and the soap used.

At the rate of two jobs a day a profitable business is easily built up. The idea is just spreading to various cities, and there is little competition except the old fashioned strong arm method.

Other uses that have been found for Ford motors and old chassis have been discovered in profusion on the farm. As shown in the illustrations creditable drilling rigs have been made up from old parts, while the wheels, axles and entire frames have been converted into rubber-tired trailers in which the stock is hauled to market.

Even airplanes have been flown with this motor! When geared by chain to a propeller of the required efficiency, generally 5-1/2 foot pitch and six foot diameter, a static thrust of 275 lbs. can be developed which will fly several planes now being built and for which blueprints are available.

Thus, though new model Fords are appearing in increasing numbers on the highways of the country, new uses for the old reliable Model T Ford engine will continue to be found.

view additional pages

“CHANDU” REVEALS HIS MAGIC SECRETS

by HAROLD L. ZIMMER

Will L. Lindhorst, the original Chandu, tells you how to perform feats of magic which have amazed many millions.

THE original charter of the Society of American Magicians on Nov. 5, 1921 gave to Will L. Lindhorst the title of Chandu—a name which today has been made famous by his feats of magic on the stage and by radio broadcasts which have thrilled countless millions.

In this article, I will endeavor to acquaint you with several really worthwhile tricks as Chandu explained them to me. Whether or not you wish to become a magician, the tricks presented here will at least afford many happy hours of fun at home or at parties.

One of the oldest yet most baffling of magic tricks is the “Sack Escape.” A heavy canvas sack, genuine in every detail is brought forth. Large enough to contain a man, it is passed through the audience for inspection, everyone agreeing that it is a sack. A solid metal rod, with holes in either end to admit padlocks, is also passed about. A man crawls into the sack, the rod is slipped through rings at the top, and padlocks are snapped into each end. Chandu waves his cloth in front for a few seconds, and lo! the man has escaped. The sack remains locked—but empty. Keys? He didn’t have any—and even if he had, he couldn’t have worked even a finger through to use them.

Take two minutes and try to guess how it was done. Now—here’s the answer: In the first place, there are two bars. They both look alike, even upon close inspection, but the solid one is passed around the audience. When the man crawls into the sack, the fake bar is slipped through the rings, and the padlocks snapped into place.

Behind the cloth screen, the imprisoned man reaches for the two locks through the sack. Twisting them in opposite directions separates the bar, as the two halves are threaded to fit together like a nut and bolt. In a second or two, he has stepped out and replaced the bar in its original position in the eyelets. However, even this simple trick depends on the magician’s skill in palming the real bar and substituting the other before the eyes of his watchers.

Another trick which has long baffled theater audiences is the gold fish bowl illusion. A small, circular stand is displayed in the spotlight, bare except for a short, fancy velvet trimming around the edge. A single center leg supports it.

Chandu steps out, armed with only his magic cloth. No suspicious bulges are apparent about his person. He passes his cloth slowly over the table-top, whisks it away, and there before your startled eyes he is holding a large fish-bowl, filled with water and fish! How did he do it? He had nothing concealed on him. The table? Examine it. The short drape? Lift it up, look underneath it—nothing but an innocent table with a piece of velvet drape—apparently just like it was before he started.

We say apparently—for it really isn’t. If you were to measure it, you would find the table about four inches shorter than it was before. Have you guessed it yet? Well— there are two drapes, exactly alike. The one below is pulled up out of view with a string, much in the manner of an opera hat. Thus, the upper drape, hanging in a natural position, seems to be the only one. The flat top of the table, naturally, is bare. Now—Chandu sweeps his cloth over the table and pulls off the upper drape, which folds into a small parcel in his hand. Underneath, the bowl full of fish and water is resting on the real table top. He quickly picks this up, and moves away from the table. As he leaves, the lower drape clicks instantly down into place and the table looks the same as before. All this happens in a split second, while he passes his cloth over the table, seemingly all in one slow movement. The secret of this is to keep the spectators’ eyes on him and not on the table. When they glance again at the table, they fail to notice its reduced height.

This next one is an old standby—the magic cabinet trick. The frame of a shallow cabinet three feet square is produced. Through holes bored in the three-inch wide closed sides two wooden rods are thrust through, to further prove the cabinet is open. There is no room anywhere to conceal anything.

Two open frames are brought forth, and hooked over the front and rear of the cabinet. A paste brush is applied to the rear frame, and a piece of paper pasted over it, closing it. The front frame is treated likewise. The cabinet is now covered, front and back, with paper.

Chandu’s magic wand strikes the front paper, tears it, and pulls out a fair-sized canary cage with a live bird in it! The cage is about six inches square and deep—twice too large to even fit in the cabinet.

The trick is simple. A drop leaf in the top falls down when a pin is pulled (remember the last time he pulled the rods out and re- placed them?) and a collapsible cage, carefully folded about the live bird, drops down to the bottom of the cabinet. It is half open when it drops, due to concealed springs, and springs into full size as it is drawn out of the cabinet.

Try These Magic Tricks Here are a few tricks you can perform at home with easily-obtained apparatus: The Spirit Cane: An ordinary cane is brought forth and stood between a person’s legs. A few mystic passes over it, and the stick begins a weird dance, seemingly in thin air. Cut a piece of fine black silk thread, and attach bent pins to each end. The lights are dimmed, and at the first opportunity the pins are fastened to each knee. The cane is requested, and, as you make passes over it, grasp the invisible thread and make a loop over the cane. Spread your legs, and the cane will hop and dance.

The Tell-Tale Mirror: Gather a group of friends about and tell them that you have a magic mirror which will answer questions about their future. Get a piece of French chalk at the drug or art store and write, on each end of a wall mirror, the words yes and no. Now take a piece of silk and wipe the mirror clean. This operation, of course, is done secretly. Next, you ask a person to breathe on the mirror. If they breathe on the top, it will be “yes”—on the bottom, “no.”

Picking One Particular Paper From A Hat: Tell your friends you can pick out anyone’s name—or your own—from a hat. Each person writes his name on a piece of paper, then you are blind-folded. Pretending to be a medium with supernatural powers, you take the paper you wish to pick out later, roll it up just as the others have done, and toss it carelessly into the hat with the other name slips. After shaking the hat, you reach in and pull out the correct paper. How? You’ve rolled a pea or bean up in the paper.

Read Sealed Messages Spirit Reading: For this last trick you’ll need a small sponge, a long rubber band and a bottle of acetone. Fasten one end of the rubber band above your elbow, then put on a coat or jacket with full sleeves. Pull the rubber band down and tie it about the sponge.

In a side pocket, uncork the bottle of acetone and moisten the sponge. Tell your friends to write a few words on pieces of paper and place in separate envelopes.

Wave an envelope about to attract attention to it. Now—make a few passes over the envelope with your right hand, wetting it with the sponge soaked in acetone. Raise it quickly upward. You will notice that your side of the envelope is almost transparent, allowing you to read the message clearly at a glance.

Related posts

• Mental Mysteries (Sep, 1935)
• Making Magic for Magicians (Sep, 1935)
• Magic and Mystery for Party Fun (Sep, 1935)
• “SPIRIT TELEVISION” – Latest Trick of Fake Spiritualists (Sep, 1935)
• Exposing Houdini’s Tricks of Magic (Sep, 1935)
• Chinese Magic (Sep, 1935)

view additional pages

COUNTING AMERICA’S 40,000,000 VOTES

NEWS of the election of George Washington as first president of the United States was borne by stagecoach in 1789 throughout the country in about three weeks. Barring a close division of the 40,000,000 voters, the outcome of the current contest of .Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alfred M. Landon will be made known to a far vaster country in about three hours after the polls close on Nov. 3. This miracle is made possible by the inclusion unofficially in the archaic Electoral system, itself little changed since Washington’s day, of every device evolved for the counting of votes and the transmission of results. Ingenious voting machines record and count votes at the same time. Adding machines produce instant totals. Motorcycles, telegraph lines, telephones, press association wires, newspapers, and radio stations distribute the results at a speed unequalled in any other country.

Registration figures in cities where this is required indicate that at least a million, possibly four million, more citizens than the 39,816,522 who voted in 1932 will vote this fall. Chicago has a registration this fall of 1,612,173 against 1,429,774 in 1932. In Philadelphia, the figure has increased from 646,564 to 808,644. Milwaukee, Buffalo and San Francisco have record registrations. Counting machinery, however, has increased with the voters. There will be more voting machines in use this fall than ever before. Election figures are born in the east and speed westward faster than the sun. The Massachusetts village of New Ashford takes pride in being the first community in the country to report its vote. In the face of competition from Mount Washington and other neighbors, New Ashford has been first with figures for the last five Presidential elections. In 1932, two of New Bedford’s 34 voters were in the hospital but the remainder began to vote at 5:45 a. m. and at 6:28 a. m., two minutes earlier than in 1928, and while most citizens were still in bed, the count: Hoover 30, Roosevelt 8, was flashed to the country.

Figures from other small points appear on the wires in the course of the day but the first totals of great importance come from the city and state of New York. The election is decided by electoral votes, one for each Senator and Representative, and New York State has 47 of these, the most of any state. In 20 years no candidate has lost New York and won a presidential election.

All of New York City’s 2,225,000 votes are recorded by 4,300 voting machines and something like four-fifths of the 2,000,000 upstate residents vote in the same manner. In the metropolis, policemen stationed at each voting place rush the totals to precinct stations where reporters for the City News Association, the local news gathering organization of the New York newspapers, collate them and transmit them to the newspaper offices. So rapidly is this done that most of the figures are known within an hour or two after the polls close and the complete results are known before midnight. Police help on the upstate figures. In Buffalo, motorcycle officers speed from the edge to the center of the city snatching sheets of totals as they ride. With candidates numerous, and over 218,000 voting, the complete Buffalo vote has been compiled in less than 90 minutes.

The New York totals are made possible by the voting machines. Though used in the metropolis only since 1925, the state has long been the center of voting machine development and use. The first machine used, then known as the Myers Ballot machine, made its appearance in Lockport, N. Y., home of the maker in 1892. Two years later, Rochester and Cazenovia, N. Y., tried the experiment. Buffalo and three more cities followed in 1899. At present 95 per cent of the 30,000 machines in service in 3,500 communities throughout the country are products of the Jamestown, N. Y., factory of the Automatic Voting Machine Corporation.

Voting methods underwent few changes in the 25 centuries prior to the development of the voting machines. Assemblies in ancient Sparta announced their opinions by shouting and beating on shields. Athenians of 500 B. C. voted by a show of hands except on the question of exiling a citizen deemed dangerous to the state. In this case, a secret vote was recorded on a clay ballot. Excavators of the American School of Classical Studies recently uncovered 150 of these at Athens, several bearing the names of Aristides. Early Romans used wax-covered slips of wood as ballots.

Early American voting was about as public as that of Greece and Rome. Up to around 1890 most polling places were surrounded by persuasive and often belligerent persons who forced party ballots on the voter and watched him put them in the box. Employers and political bosses stood about to intimidate the voter. The Australian ballot, so-called because it was first used in South Australia in 1856, substituted a single official one for the many ballots and provided secrecy for its casting. At least five per cent of the ballots under this system, however, are almost invariably improperly marked and are supposed to be thrown out. The possibility of error or fraud, and the unavoidable delay of counting persisted.

Inventors of the voting machine undertook to eliminate these factors. First man to give the problem attention appears to have been Jan Josef Baranowski in Paris, France, in 1849. He suggested that adding machine principles be applied to voting and that a closet be provided in which the voter could make his choice by turning handles or pushing buttons opposite the names of candidates. De Brettes in that year and Werner von Siemens in 1859 in Germany constructed primitive legislative voting machines, operated mechanically to cast either white or black balls. Thomas Edison patented a crude machine in 1869. At about the same time, Vassie, Chamberlain, Sydserff and Davy produced devices in England. All involved balls which had to be counted.

Machines combining voting and counting did not appear until the last years of the 19th century. One of the first was that of Father Vito Leto, a priest at Cimmina, Sicily, with several railroad signal devices to his credit. His device was a box supported by a pedestal and divided into compartments according to the number of candidates. A fitted stylet turned the counting mechanism and a bell rang. Better machines were produced in America by Myers, Bardwell, Abbott and Dean, all using mechanical counters. One made by McTammany had a separate key for each candidate. Holes in a paper web were counted by a pneumatic machine.

These were of varying merit and a few failed so dismally that cities which tried them after 40 years refuse to use machines. The best features of the group, augmented by the notable roller interlock invented by Frank Keiper, survive today in the sturdy machine made at Jamestown. This machine contains 13,000 parts and can be manufactured only at the rate of 10 per day. When Mayor Jimmy Walker ordered 2,000 machines shipped “by airplane” to New York City in time for the 1927 city election, the factory could not supply them.

The machine is a mechanical duplicate of an Australian ballot. Candidates’ names, with a lever by each, extend across the face of the machine in a curtained booth. There is a row for each party and in many states the entire party ticket may be selected by a lever at the left. After placing the indicators in position, the voter records his choice by pulling an overhead lever. This brings the indicators back to position, records and counts the vote, and throws back the curtains. In New York, voters are allowed to spend three minutes at the machines and until they pull the voting lever they can move the indicators about as much as they please. In Connecticut, where party levers are allowed, the time limit is one minute.

Smallest machines now made, selling for $860, have space for the names of 270 candidates. The largest machines will record the votes of nine parties of 70 candidates each, at the same time, provide space for voting on 35 questions or amendments. A machine of this size contains 700 counters in addition to the protective counters showing the total vote. A horizontal paper roll is included to permit the “writing” of candidates whose names do not appear on the keyboard. It is impossible to vote for two candidates for the same office and, if party watchers are alert, the total vote counter and protective counter prevent anyone voting more than once.

Advantages of machines are: (1) a mechanically accurate count, eliminating human error; (2) immediate election returns; (3) elimination of soiled and defective ballots; (4) a permanent record which eliminates expensive recounts and contests; (5) absolute secrecy assured the voter; (6) a reduction in election expenses.

These factors have caused labor unions, whose elections in the past have been matters of great dispute, to adopt the machines. Upwards of 50 unions, principally in New York, Detroit and Cleveland, rent machines for their voting. The University of Buffalo, Pennsylvania State College and George Washington University use machines for student elections.

Where machines are not used, election work is only half done when the votes are cast. They must then be counted with some clerks calling the names and others tallying them. It is a matter of many hours work in larger precincts. Though Boston has but a fifth of the New York City vote, absence of voting machines makes a complete total for the city almost a 48-hour job. A complete Chicago count takes about 24 hours. Despite an efficient police reporting system directed by Walter Gaedke, secretary of the city election commission, 10 to 12 hours are required to gather all of Milwaukee’s 250,000 votes. The city tried and discarded machines in 1903. The Milwaukee Journal is urging their return as an economy measure. A day and a half is often required to count Detroit’s half million votes.

In most sections, the compilation of state totals, which determines to whom the important electoral votes go, are left to the press associations, the United Press, Associated Press and the International News Service. In Texas, however, all of the client and member papers of these services cooperate in the Texas Election Bureau of which A. F. Henning is manager. A former Dallas News man and professor of journalism at Southern Methodist University, he has devised a system of reporting and counting which produces totals faster than in many smaller states. The bureau’s 254 correspondents are given sets of blanks to telegraph at stages of the count to headquarters in the Dallas News. Prizes are offered for the first blank of each set received. The big test of the bureau is the Democratic primary. Last July, 53 per cent of the vast state’s million votes were compiled election night. Counting will be expepedited this fall by use for the first time of 130 voting machines in Dallas.

A notable job of California vote compiling is done by the organization of Registrar William M. Kerr of Los Angeles County where registration this year totals 1,281,590, over 43 per cent of the registration of the state. Voting machines are lacking and two days are required to get in the outlying boxes but so efficient is Kerr’s arrangement that the trend is usually established within two or three hours. This semi-official count is made by 40 central bureaus scattered among the 4,295 precincts. The bureaus telephone partial totals to Registrar Kerr’s office and he compiles the figures for the newspapers. The length of primary ballots discourages the use of machines in California, officials say.

The three press associations compile totals at state bureaus, usually in the state capital, and these, with contests of any local or state interest eliminated, are transmitted to divisional centers. The principal of these are Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco and Boston. From these centers, the figures speed to a central compiling point for the service. Until 1932, this was New York for all three systems. In that year, however, the Associated Press chose to gather the figures in Washington and will do so again this year.

The telegraph, telephone and radio all were utilized for the transmission of election news as soon as the facilities became available. Radio Station WWJ of the Detroit News broadcast the first election news in the current manner in announcing the results of the Michigan primary election Aug. 31, 1920. On Nov. 2 of the same year, the famous Westinghouse station, KDKA, broadcast news of the election of President Harding. This November virtually every broadcasting station in the country will announce election figures.

view additional pages

Behind the Scenes With Movie Sound Fakers

The baying of wolves, the clackety-clack of horses’ hoofs, the creaking of auto brakes—these sounds which you hear from the silver screen seldom come from their real sources. This story by an eminent movie sound expert takes you behind the scenes and shows you how these noises are faked.

by MURRAY SPIVAK
Famous Hollywood Sound Director

ONE afternoon recently I sat in the scoring room of the movie studio where I am sound director watching a team of horses gallop down a country road. Later in the picture trees swayed in a violent wind, and then brush broke as an actor ran through a forest. But never a sound issued from the talking screen.

At last the reel had been run. “Okey.” I said. “Now start her again and turn on the noise.”

Then, as we sat in darkness, the sound of hoof-beats, just as I had seen them on the screen, clicked off rythmically. Wind whistled through the swaying trees, and the brush crackled when the actor’s foot touched the ground.- Simple Machines Make Difficult Sounds Simple toy-like devices that any craftsman could turn out at his workbench had manufactured these artificial sounds—and had manufactured them so realistically that audiences of millions of movie-goers never become aware of the deception.

With these devices we can simulate in sound a sandstorm sweeping across an African village, earthquakes and the eruption of volcanoes, the grunts and squeals of pigs, the whine of an automobile tire, the click of a lock or bolt, footsteps on creaking stairs, rain falling in sheets on soggy ground or sweeping before the wind in a storm.

In fact we can reproduce some noises more quickly and at infinitely less cost and with more fidelity than we can catch the original at its source with a delicate microphone. Why wait on a hilltop for thunder to crash across the sky when a sheet of metal, shaken vigorously, serves the purpose better at the studio?

As we work to synchronize the correct sounds with such scenes as the aforementioned, there stands against one wall a machine consisting simply of eight wires radiating from a hub. A handcrank turns the wires, each of which has at the end a four-inch segment bent at right angles to the body of the wire.

Synchronizing Sounds With Picture On the floor rests a small machine containing four vacuum rubber plungers that beat against dirt. A sound effects technician stands near by, two small branches cut from a shrub in his hands. At his side is the shrub.

As the action unfolds the wires begin to speed through the air until the low moan of wind fills the room. The plungers are then worked up and down. A horse is trot- ting. And as the technician crushes dried sprigs in his hand, one visualizes heavy hoots tramping down the thin underbrush of the forest.

As the picture progressed, several types of wind were manufactured in the dim light of the scoring room. For whistling wind we have devised a second machine consisting of a Hat, plate-like screen. This revolves through a single plane and its noises sound like wind cutting around corners or driving through the rigging of the ship—exactly the kind you hear when walking home after dark any gusty spring evening. Its ends cut through the air, whistling as they go, and the onrush of air through the holes in the screen helps provide the sudden gusts.

Sandstorm Terrifies Even Sound Men By “mixing” these two simple devices, or turning them simultaneously, and by revolving two discs covered with sandpaper against each other, we create in a moment a sandstorm that sends shivers down the back of even the most experienced sound men.

This, however, was a simple storm. The sand merely blew away across the desert. Suppose we huddle in the lee of a building, directly in the path of the storm. Listen! The machines begin to turn, but now I bear down harder on one of the sandpapered discs.

Sand commences to blow hard against the imaginary wall. By increasing the friction on the sandpaper, 1 create the sound of the tiny particles being halted in their wild flight by the building that stood in their way.

We merely “build up” the sand part of the storm to make the storm .more violent. How much sound we would create in a sand storm for a given scene depends largely on what the eye would see.

If the scene shows sand blowing unhindered across a desert, it will carry less volume, less “beating,” than it would were it striking buildings or tents.

After the sand storm, we turn to the task of producing a rainstorm as one hears it within a closed room. Again the wind machines whistle while a sound man crushes bits of the shrub between his hands. One hears as many as five distinct noises coming from different parts of the room, but they enter the microphone together. Wind, rain, crushed shrubs and the beat of a horse’s hoofs in the distance. Stormy noise in a steam-heated room!

With the “horse’s hoof sound effects,” the only name by which I know the machine, we reproduce the rhythm of horses running 60 miles an hour, or some 20 miles faster than the world’s fastest can speed down the back stretch. Here’s how and why this works as it does: Three Machines Sound Like Dozen Horses One picture showed the heated finish of a race. The camera truck sped 35 miles an hour ahead of the horses, the lens focussed on the forelegs and feet. But the film was turning only a little more than half its usual rate. This produced on the screen the effect of a speed nearly twice that actually achieved.

Had the sounds of the hoof beats been recorded at the same time, when reproduced they would have lagged far behind the picture.

With the tiny machines, however, I know we could match any speed desired. So, into the scoring room we carried three of these “mechanical horse hoofs” and there, as the scene unfolded, three assistants turned the cranks and 12 rubber cups beat against dirt in the bottoms of the boxes to represent a dozen snorting horses tearing down a straightaway.

The operator does not need a sense of rhythm, as a series of cams is so set that the cups beat down like a galloping horse. While one machine sounds like a lone horse, the beats of three operating together become indistinct; thus, with three, the operators can “cheat” to represent as many horses as may be shown on the screen.

If the horses run on turf, the rubber cups fall on dirt; if a runaway on a city street is to be reproduced, a slab of concrete is inserted.

Better rain than that which falls from the sky can be produced indoors. For some “spots,” we ,use synthetic rain, while for others, we actually “mix” the real and the false. As a sound track of real rain is run, from the side of the scoring room comes the patter of tiny rocks and marbles and other small objects tumbling over low obstacles in a revolving drum.

One has what the other hasn’t. We use real rain for distant water particles striking the earth or trees, and the synthetic to represent a “beating” rain, the kind that smacks down on a roof. Sometimes actual rain sounds like hail and when it falls into a pool of water it gives off a metallic click which sounds too mechanical for our purposes.

The rain and wind and volcano machines look simple—and are—yet from them come some of the talkies’ most ominous sounds. Recently we made and delivered in less than a day an earthquake with a background of a cyclone and the eruption of a volcano.

Faking Terrifying Volcano Noises Bowling balls, rolled over padded wood strips in the revolving barrel, supplied the thunder rumble. The more immediate thunder claps came from thunder drums. The two wire machines supplied whistling wind, while a louder, deeper wind blew out from a blower. Several sticks of dynamite, buried deep in the earth several hundred feet from the microphone, furnished the low booms of the volcano. Recorded separately, these sounds later were “mixed” for the completed effects.

From an earth-shaking volcanic eruption to the squeals of beasts and birds of the barnyard was but a simple step when we turned, after “scoring” the volcano and earthquake, to a series of horns mounted on a music rack.

These once were organ vox humana pipes which had been tuned to a lower note. By blowing a sudden, short “burst” into one, I produced the grunts of a hog. With assistants blowing two more horns, a whole barnyard full of pigs and boars walked into the room!

Even Door Slam Is “Dubbed”

Sounds of people moving about in their homes are among the most difficult to synchronize naturally. The door in a movie set, on account of the high pitched flimsy construction, does not slam with the reverberation and boom that should come from a door slamming in the ordinary home.

So, when an actor stealthily slips a key into the back door, tip-toes up the creaking stairs and, finally, by mistake slams his bedroom door, you do not hear what you see.

These sounds came from a “door cabinet” and a small frame containing five stair steps. The box behind the door, which stands no taller than a child and is about three feet wide and three feet deep, supplies the reverberation of a room when the door is slammed.

And a resin-covered tongue of leather, inserted between the two wooden members of each step, which are held apart by a small spring, furnishes the squeak. If the door squeaks, that noise comes from a tight fitting joint rubbing against resin in a cylinder fixed alongside the cabinet.

With this device, one assistant can provide the click of a key or bolt, turning of the knob, squeak of opening and closing and the slam without moving from his position.

A vibrator, used in better days to massage an actor’s face, hums to represent an elevator, whose gate and glassless door are built into one framework. Since an elevator gate gives out a metallic click, this part is made of iron.

But the door came from the carpenter shop and in its center may be inserted a pane of glass when needed, for an elevator door with glass tingles more than does a door of wood only.

Every week we invent new devices that rival and often surpass nature in the perfection of their tones. We seek constantly new ways of bringing to the screen sounds that are imperfect in themselves or the recording of which in the natural state are too costly.

view additional pages

Timely Tips for the Inventor

Concluding a Series of Articles by JAY EARLE MILLER

The problem of what to invent is one of the first to confront the young inventor, but no less important is the problem of what not to invent. In this, the concluding article of a series on inventors and inventions, Mr, Miller points out how useless effort may be saved by sidestepping unprofitable fields of invention.

A NEWS clipping under a Toronto date line, says: “An art lost 2,700 years ago, the quest for which has since baffled the scientists of the world, is claimed to have been discovered by two London, Ont., men who display samples of copper keenly hardened and ground.”

Outside of a couple of errors the sentence is correct. The first error is that the art of hardening copper has never been lost, and the second is that scientists have never been baffled hunting for it.

The same story, with some variations, may be found in any newspaper any year. Last year it was a young man near Boston who had rediscovered the supposedly lost art of the Egyptians and exhibited a copper razor in proof of his claim. The year before it was a St. Louis mechanic who had perfected the process and was preparing to sell it for one or two millions either to a Detroit automobile magnate, or a Pittsburgh steel maker.

Of all the things in the list of what not to invent, hardened copper should come first. How the story started that the art of the Egyptians had been lost is a mystery. Hard copper went out of business simply because better materials were found, first iron and then steel. The New England chap with his copper razor probably had a lot of fun, but, as everyone knows, copper oxidizes when exposed to the air, and an ordinary cheap steel razor is better than the hardest copper one ever made.

The copper razor maker, however, probably learned enough about metals and chemistry to go on and do something really worth while, if he isn’t discouraged by his first failure. But if you want a hard copper formula consult any good work on metallurgy, or any good reference work, and take your pick.

This game of inventing has produced all kinds of quirks, from the inventor who was honestly deceived, to the one who dishonestly deceives. The sharpers range from a few unscrupulous patent attorneys who prey oh the luckless inventor, to the pseudo inventor who makes a living preying on the gullible public. Most frauds involving inventions are worked through a stock-selling scheme, but occasionally a much more ele- mentary swindle is perpetrated even before the patenting stage is reached One of the simplest was invented by a westerner who followed the patent office gazette religiously, and, when he saw a likely looking device, prepared drawings for a somewhat similar invention, changing the original just enough so that the sketches could not be recognized as a bare-faced steal. Then he would call on likely backers and sell-them-fractional interests for a few dollars “to raise money to get the idea patented and ready to be sold to a manufacturer.”

In that way he might raise several hundred dollars in lots ranging from $25 to $100 from each buyer. Out of the proceeds $10 would be sent to Washington with instructions to search the records and see whether the inventor’s “idea” conflicted with any previous patents. Back would come word that another inventor had anticipated the idea by a few weeks or months, and the sharper would “regretfully” pass the information along to the investors, and pocket the rest of the money.

Another pair, also on the Pacific coast, worked a much more elaborate scheme. One would pose as a wealthy and retired business man, meet the moneyed men of a town, be a good spender and a good talker, and then casually work a conversation around to the subject of invention, giving him an opportunity to remark that there was a good field for such and such a thing and he wouldn’t be surprised to see some clever fellow perfect it some day and make a vast fortune.

After that the ground was allowed to rest for several weeks, then the other half of the pair would appear and seek to enlist the aid of the same men in financing his invention. The chosen victims would recall the remark of the supposedly wealthy and retired business man that such a device would earn a fortune, and jump at the chance to invest. Needless to say, the invention either would not work, or had been anticipated by some one else.

If anyone tries to sell you an unpatented invention or an interest in one you can quickly determine whether the idea is new and novel by spending $10 on a search of the patent records.

Of all the things not to invent, probably more people spend more time on perpetual motion, than on any one subject. Despite the fact that science knows perpetual motion to be an impossible dream, and the U. S. patent office no longer will issue patents on such devices—through invoking the rule requiring a working model to be submitted in cases of doubt—yet hundreds, and perhaps thousands of people are constantly trying to accomplish the impossible.

All perpetual motion schemes fall into three general classifications. There is the magnetic machine, the hydraulic type, and the centrifugal. The commonest example of the first is an inclined plane, with a steel ball and a magnet at the top to draw the ball up. Just below the magnet a slot in the track is supposed to allow the ball to drop to a lower plane, and return to the starting point, when the process would be repeated. As far back as 1579 inventors were flirting with the idea, and Bishop Wilkins in his “Mathematical Magick” describes it at length, with a picture of the device as it would appear in operation. Even the good Bishop knew it wouldn’t work, and later in his book admits the fact that no magnet powerful enough to pull the ball to the top would release it to let it fall through the slot.

The hydraulic type is usually some arrangement of tubes or tanks in which the weight of a liquid in a tank of large diameter, escaping through a small outlet in the bottom, is supposed to force liquid up through a tube of small diameter, and thus perpetually renew the supply. The fact that liquid seeks its own level should convince any one that the scheme will not work, yet the idea is born again in some fertile brain 11 east once a week.

The centrifugal type is usually some variation of a wheel with pivoted arms, weighted at the outer end, the theory being that the extended arms on the descending side will, because of the greater distance from the center, lift the arms on the opposing side, which are so pivoted that they hang closer to the hub. As most everyone knows the farther a weight is from the point of leverage the greater the force exerted, and on paper most of the wheel schemes look feasible. Unfortunately a drawing doesn’t show that when the initial impulse is absorbed the wheel will find a point where the two forces are exactly balanced and come to rest. Sir Walter Raleigh is one of the most famous builders of such a wheel. Selling stock in a perpetual motion machine, or an interest in the invention, would not appear to be a profitable field of finance, yet the court records are full of just such cases. In more than one instance a company has successfully financed the impossible, and sometimes exhibited a machine that actually appeared to work, but always there was fraud concealed somewhere about it. The fraud was well concealed, but it was just as much there as it is in those machines, much frowned on by Uncle Sam, which are supposed to convert plain paper into dollar bills. And, curiously enough, I never heard of but one case where the “money making” machine was supposed to turn out anything larger than dollar bills, though it must be apparent that if it could do that it would be just as easy to make fives, tens, twenties, or anything larger.

One other curious thing about perpetual motion is that I have never heard of a woman inventor wasting time on it, though they are well represented in the practical fields of invention.

As pointed out in previous articles in this series, the only limit to one’s success in the field of invention is that set by individual aptitudes and limitations. Bearing in mind always that a simple device is more likely to return a profit to the young inventor than a complicated contrivance, the second fad or to bear in mind is that success comes to the man who works in the field he knows most about. For instance, if you are a chemist, the chances are much more probable that something you have invented of a chemical nature will return a profit than if you go far afield.

As an example of the importance of slicking to your own field, take the case of Thomas W. Hicks, Los Angeles agronomist. He has perfected a process for neutralizing the deleterious effect of salt water on plants and is now ready to convert huge quantities of sea water into a nutritious, fertilizing plant food, making use of the natural mineral elements present in the water. The basis of his process lies in treating the sea water with a high frequency current.

view additional pages

Creating Illusions for the Talkies

by MARY SHARON

You can’t believe everything you see in the talkies, and it’s a bit of luck for you that you can’t; for these illusions lower production costs and help keep the admission price within your reach.

“IF THE mountain will not come to Mohammet, Mohammet must go to the mountain.”

“But, most noble prophet, it costs too much to go to the mountain.”

“Then we’ll fake a mountain right here in the studio.”

Faking mountains, or anything else you can think of, is now easily accomplished by what is known as Dunning Process Shots. This method has done more than any other one thing towards putting talking pictures within reach of the masses. By this process, a cameraman is able to turn out films that show upon them things that the camera eye never actually saw. Production costs have been cut in half by this method, since portions of costly sets can be eliminated simply by matting in on the negative whatever is needed.

Hardly a single talkie has been released that has not made use of this process. The method is a difficult and painstaking one and numerous tests are necessary before the scenes will pass muster. Aside from cutting down expenses, there are many scenes that cannot be shot “as is.” For instance, it is impossible to shoot night scenes showing stars.

Any talkie showing stars has made use of the Dunning Process shots, which is a tedious method of covering a portion of the lens and matting in the desired background with stars overhead. This is doubly difficult with the advent of talking pictures, because it cannot be imperfect in any way. In silent pictures, if a few feet of the negative were distorted, the cutter destroyed the faulty portion and patched the negative to hide the missing part. Now, not a foot can be cut because even a misplaced or lost syllable would gum up the recording of the whole scene.

In order to make stars in a night sequence, tests are made of the scene, and the sky is blotted out by the simple method of covering the lens in that particular spot on the negative as is done in ordinary double exposures.

An artist now takes the test shot of the scene and measures exactly how much and where the film was covered while shooting. Next, a studio artist makes a black and white painting of the sky with a few clouds and in all probability the moon. With the painting completed, he then pricks holes through the canvas, which is placed in a stationary frame used for the purpose and set about three feet from a camera, which has been mounted on a concrete column to insure it against vibration and to have it always in readiness for use.

Fifteen or twenty feet behind the framed canvas is a board covered with strips of tinsel, arranged so that one end is loose. An electric fan is turned on the tinsel so that the loose strips wave back and forth and a strong light is placed between the tinseled board and the frame holding the canvas. The light coming through the pinholes photographs like twinkling stars.

By matting, location costs are cut in half. If a scene is supposed to occur in a valley,

with mountains in the background, the artist is called in to mat in the required scenery.

William H. Dietz, ace of moving picture trick cameramen, has been responsible for many spectacular process shots. He is a licensed aviator, having learned to fly in order to be able to take desired sequences from the air. He found it impossible to tell another pilot just when to tilt his plane for the shots he wanted. Since he has learned to fly, he has had a camera mounted on the wing of his plane and equipped with an automatic release. When he gets the angle he wants, he pushes the button on his instrument board and the scene is recorded. For certain sequences in “What a Widow,” Dietz spent five nights flying over the Pacific Ocean in order to get certain light effects on the water. A number of scenes are laid in the Dornier plane. Dietz secured the needed background and with the use of a small model of the Dornier he shot the sequences in the studio. The model was about two feet long. In the place of motors, it had small circles of isingglass. When the plane was moved about, the reflections op the circles looked like motors whirring, and the scenes were quite effective.

Painted mats were used for the backgrounds.

The same method was used in shooting the sequences of the Ille de France in mid-ocean. An exact model of the great liner was made which was about seven feet long. It was placed on the studio pool and waves were generated by immense paddles and by means of a small tube run up through the bottom of the model, smoke was forced out the funnels. The background of sky and waves was matted in and on the screen it looks as if the model were the great He de France in mid-ocean.

For the interior shots in the plane in this same picture, the Dunning Process was used. Two films were placed in the camera, one of them amber-colored, the other one blue. The interior of the plane was painted in different shades of amber and the back-drop outside was painted a brilliant blue. When the scene was filmed, the blue canvas outside the open windows of the plane did not register on the negative, being neutralized by the blue film in the camera. The actors wore a heavy amber make-up for these’ scenes and amber lighting was used to intensify the coloring of the set and the actors.

After such a scene is filmed and recorded, a test is made of it and this strip is given to the artist to compute the exact place on the negative where it is to be matted. Now, the film is placed in the camera and the lens is covered over the portion of the negative that was first exposed. The canvas on which was painted the background is now photographed. It usually takes about three days to achieve the desired result and dozens of tests are made before the negative is completed satisfactorily.

A number of scenes were required in this same production showing the Grand Central station in New York and also the business district and sky line of New York. Dietz flew to New York, shot the background and matted it in behind the railroad scenes shot in Los Angeles, thereby-saving the studio and Gloria Swanson the wear and tear and needless expense of taking the cast to New York and back.

With the aid of a prism lens, Dietz also introduces some spectacular scenes and titles for the Swanson production. A prism lens refracts a scene in the same way that a prism refracts light. Dietz shot a scene of a pair of hands playing on a piano and the prism lens recorded it as if there were six keyboards on which six pair of hands were playing, an unusual and striking effect.

He made the ballet scenes in “Paris Bound” with an ordinary lens in the same way that double exposures are made, by covering a portion of the lens and then exposing it later. Eighteen exposures were made. Standard size film is 32mm. wide. It can readily be seen how difficult it would be to compute exactly where the lens should be covered and where the actors should be placed on the set to prevent overlapping.

Miniature effects, which are another specialty of William Dietz, are secured through covering a portion of the lens and exposing the negative by degrees. Such scenes as those showing a man standing on the palm of a girl’s hand or a ballet girl sitting on the rim of a wine-glass are secured through double and triple exposures.

Wherever there is no motion on that part of the negative, matting can be done for a very small expenditure. It is used in practically all interior sets. Ceilings of ballrooms are almost always painted and matted in. So are chandeliers and the tops of columns and walls. The carpenters build the sets so that the walls extend several feet above the heads of the actors and the artist paints the rest. Columns are built which do not reach entirely to the ceiling and instead of wasting needless wood and finishing, the artist paints the upper portion and the ceiling. It is tedious but economical.

In theatre sets, since the faces of the audience farther back than the fifth row are always blurred, the studio does not fill its theatres with extras. Instead, the heads of people are painted in from the fifth row back. This is very simple. The artist knows where the seats in the theatre are supposed to be and puts the heads above them, row on row, and the blurred effect hides the fact that they are merely daubs of paint. In “Her Private Affair,” the immense theatre set was constructed at a nominal figure. Matting was resorted to in the matter of the boxes at the opera. The curtain was a real one, but the boxes were painted in and filled with people and the film was double and triple exposed.

view additional pages

How Auto Horns Work

What happens when you press the button? You’ll see quickly if you make these simple working models.

By Kenneth M. Swezey

THE makers of auto horns have come as far from their early baa-DOO-gah! days as have their brother engine designers. So if the horn on your new car both sounds better and carries farther, it’s no accident.

Some horn developments have been purely technical, but others have turned upon the physics of sound. Designers have found, for instance, that pitch is more important than loudness (amplitude) in achieving carrying power, and that loud sounds aren’t so unpleasant if they have a musical tone.

Next to fire-engine sirens, the most powerful horns today are the air-blown trumpets used on cross-country trucks and busses and as custom accessories for passenger cars. They work like trumpets in a band, with vibrating reeds or diaphragms taking the place of players’ lips.

Magnetically actuated, vibrating-diaphragm electric horns are standard on most passenger cars. They work like household buzzers. The vibrating part is connected by a rod to a thin metal diaphragm.

Horn makers also produce whistles that operate from the exhaust, and air and electric horns on which you can play tunes.

You can see how the various kinds of horns work by performing the experiments below and on the next two pages.

ELECTRIC HORN.

You can make a working model like the one above in a few minutes. Its magnet is a bolt wound with insulated copper wire. Mount this on an angle bracket.

The L-shaped armature is bent from a strip of tin. The diaphragm is a disk of stiff paper glued at the edge over a smaller hole cut in a piece of corrugated cardboard. Link the diaphragm and armature by a matchstick secured at each end with a drop of sealing wax. The current-breaking contact is formed by the bare tip of one end of the magnet wire that just touches the far side of the armature when the battery is off.

When you connect the free end of the magnet winding to one pole of your battery and the base of the armature to the other, current flows through the coil. The coil becomes magnetized and pulls the armature toward it. This breaks the circuit between armature and contact point, causing the armature to spring back again—only to be once more attracted. The sound of the vibrating armature is increased by the paper diaphragm attached to it. Tone and intensity can be adjusted slightly by changing the pressure on the contact wire. A cardboard cone held against the diaphragm will make the sound louder.

AIR HORN.

This variety produces a sound in much the same way that a tin horn or your vocal cords do. The old honk-honking horns depended upon a thin metal reed that vibrated strongly when you squeezed the bulb. Some present-day musical horns work on the same principle. More powerful air horns depend upon the vibration of a diaphragm against the end of a trumpet.

You can make a workable vibrating-reed horn from a soda straw. Flatten one end and cut about 1/4″ from each corner as shown in the diagram. Put about 2″ of this end into your mouth. Then blow. Shorten the straw and you will raise the pitch. Add funnels of different sizes and shapes over the end of the straw and you will change and magnify the sound just as trumpets do on a real horn.

KLAXON.

Horns of this famous type make their OOgah sound when a studded wheel rotates against a projection on the back of a diaphragm. The wheel is turned by an electric motor or by hand through a train of gears. Pitch is changed by varying the wheel speed. You can make a model by cementing a thumbtack to the center of the bottom of an empty salt box, and rubbing a file over the point.

WHISTLE.

Whistle-type horns work like an organ pipe. A blast of air passes over a sharp edge near one end of a metal pipe. The turbulent air at the edge starts the air in the pipe vibrating at its own natural frequency, determined by the length of the pipe. You can test this principle with soda straws and bottles, as below. Combination tones can be produced by blowing over several bottles of different sizes at once.

SIREN.

Now often restricted to fire engines, ambulances, police cars, and air-raid warnings, a siren produces its characteristic scream by intermittent puffs of air issuing through holes in a revolving drum or disk. A simple model will show how it works. Punch a circle of equally spaced holes near the edge of a coffee-can cover. Mount the cover on the shaft of a small grindstone or fasten it in the chuck of a hand drill. Blow through the holes with a straw, flattened at the nozzle end, as you turn the disk. The harder you blow, the louder; the faster you turn, the higher the pitch.

Commercial sirens usually consist of a metal drum with slots in the periphery. This revolves inside a slotted stationary drum. A fan attached to the rotating drum sucks in air at the axis and hurls it out the slots.

How sound waves are intensified by the use of a trumpet can be shown visually with a candle and a tin can. Remove the top from the can, hold the top a little more than the can’s length from the candle, and snap the top with your finger. The candle doesn’t flicker. Now hold the mouth of the empty can near the candle, and snap the bottom of it. This time the sound waves, aimed by the can, disturb the candle flame noticeably.