Avoiding Electric Shocks
While Making Electrical Repairs
THE home mechanic is usually not so well versed as he might be on electrical matters, and frequently receives an electric shock when attempting to replace burnt-out fuses, or making repairs on a defective lamp socket. Several safety hints here given will enable anyone to make their own general electrical repairs without danger.
Frequently fuses have to be replaced in basement cellars and, if you have a pair of rubber gloves, it is a good idea to wear them. If you are careful, however, and stand on a piece of dry board, or even on a dry folded newspaper, or wear a pair of dry rubbers, you can remove “blown” fuses and insert the new ones without receiving a shock through the body, due to contact through the shoes on a damp cellar floor.
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How to Invent and Sell Money-Making Premiums
You can hit the jackpot with a giveaway gimmick if it’s simple, clever and appeals to the public.
By Bob Willett
SEVERAL months ago a salesman in Stamford, Conn., stepped up to the 15th tee of his favorite golf course and raised his driver. As he did, a business card fell from his shirt pocket and landed in a leaning position against his tee. Connecting with both ball and card, he was surprised to see the ball soar straight down the fairway—his first decent drive that day.
Experimenting later, he theorized that the card absorbed enough misdirected force to prevent hooking or ¦ slicing, then proved this conclusively with a flexible plastic tee of his own design. This answer to a divot-digger’s dream will soon be widely distributed as a giveaway gimmick and should prove to be one of the most popular products in the 104-year history of premium promotions.
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RAISE YOUR OWN SILK
Here’s an easy, profitable, spare time job for several million Americans that can make the U. S. world’s largest silk producer.
by Roger Clay
HAVE you ever considered growing your wife’s silk stockings at home? Well, it can be done. That is, the silk thread can be produced at home, in your spare time, at very little expense—and it will pay you a nice profit.
John Ousta of New York City, a naturalized citizen of Turkish birth, with a 400-year family tradition of silk producing behind him, is convinced this country can make enough silk to meet the whole world’s demands. One-third of our farming population, raising only one ounce of eggs (30,000 to 43,000 worms) regularly in their spare-time, could do it! And a silk industry on that scale would employ a quarter of a million people in reeling factories alone.
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Behind the Razor Blade
by Robert W. Gordon
TAKE a look at any group photograph of half a century ago. No matter what their station in life, the faces of the men you see there will be adorned with luxuriant crops of whiskers. Some were clipped plain, with the simple dignity of a cemetery hedge. Others were brushed and trimmed in weird and wonderful designs, like decorations on a wedding cake.
Now take a look along the street—any street in almost any country. You see a new race of men entirely. You can really see their faces, and they are bright and clean. No more of this hiding behind the bush. Their jaws are as bare of foliage as an oak tree in January.
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Sound Tricks of Mickey Mouse
Squeaks, squawks, oinks and music—it’s another animated cartoon hit set to music in a brand new way. Read how the hay baler joins a symphony.
by Earl Theisen
Illustrated by Walt Disney
MUSIC and noises in the animated cartoon interpret the action of the story. The narrative theme of the music and what is called the “sound effects” punctuates and emphasizes the story.
By playing on the aural nerves with symbolic sounds and noises the psychological reaction of the audience is controlled and varied according to the dramatic and emotional needs of the cartoon story.
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“Gypping” the Public
Millions of dollars are annually lost to the “short weight” merchants and to those dispensing foodstuffs in “phony” boxes and packages.
WHEN Mr. and Mrs. Buying Public purchase tickets to a show to observe the magician pull rabbits out of a hat, they fully expect to be fooled; they enjoy the trickery even if they are made parties to it; but when this same couple goes to the market to purchase meat at so much a pound, they object strenuously if the man behind the counter slips an 8-ounce sinker into the fowl before he weighs it.
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Popular Magic by Dunninger
Joseph Dunninger, celebrated “mentalist” and magician, whose articles appear exclusively in this publication, is the world’s foremost society entertainer, and has appeared before more celebrities than any of his contemporaries. Among those he has mystified are President Franklin D. Roosevelt, ex-Presidents William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt, H. R. H. Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIM), Thomas A. Edison, etc.
THE weird and astounding effect created by the mystery here described is truly remarkable. Representing a “psychic” manifestation, the trick is far more impressive than many of the better conjuring problems.
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Glories of Mankind Told in Art-Glass Windows
OF all conveniences met with in everyday life, glass is one of most ancient in origin. Authorities differ regarding its- beginning, but it is said to have been made by the Egyptians almost 8,000 years ago. And the coloring of it can be traced as far back as the remote eras of Chinese civilization.
Colored glass was first employed to make imitations of the brightly hued gems, such as rubies, sapphires, and emeralds with which the ancient nobles decked themselves and their horses in barbaric splendor. It was not until demand for the material to be used in flat subjects was born that it was rolled into sheets.
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What, Popular Mechanics shill for the NRA? Never!
Teen-Agers Learn to Hunt SAFELY
By George Laycock
IN AN EASTERN state last year a youthful hunter aimed carefully at what he thought was the head of a deer. He made his kill, but it was not a deer. It was another hunter.
Such hunting accidents break into the news every fall as legions of hunters take to the fields. In the more crowded sections of the country the danger has become so great that even seasoned hunters often stay home on opening day.
But now officials think they’ve found a way to cut down the number of hunting tragedies. Their answer lies in education. All across the country boys and girls are enrolling in hunter-safety courses. The training is producing results. Several states have cut down hunting accidents among young hunters.
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Things I Learned from TEN THOUSAND CATS
By A. J. Adamson
ONLY by dealing patiently and kindly with a cat, particularly during its early life, may you develop the sort of animal everyone wants as a companion and pet. Unlike dogs, cats will respond only to kindness. Punish them and they grow surly and spiteful. I speak from rich experience, having bred fully 10,000 cats during the last quarter of a century.
The old idea was that every animal should be punished when caught in a wrongful act, but cats do not understand the meaning of a whipping. They are weak-willed and easily tempted and must, therefore, be guided in paths of righteousness.
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