I’m thinking the ability to turn the drill on and off might be a little dangerous, not to mention really annoying to the dentist.

Patient In New Dental Chair Controls Drill and Gas

THE patient is king in a new painless dentistry chair now in use in a Chicago dentist’s office. When drilling becomes excessively painful the patient, by means of a button held in the left hand can turn off the drill. If the patient prefers to have the work continue, but wishes to eliminate the pain, he or she can press a bulb held in the right and administer a dose of pain killing gas.
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This seems like a poor design. Wouldn’t you want to put all the lock and bell mechanism on the inside of the door to prevent tampering? Also a combination lock with “dozens” of possible combinations does not exactly inspire confidence.

ELECTRIC DOOR LOCK REQUIRES NO KEY
No key is required to operate a novel electric door lock, recently exhibited in Chicago, Ill. The user merely has to push the right buttons selected from a circular row of eight, resembling a telephone dial, and the door will open. Pushing the wrong buttons not only fails to open the door, but sets off an alarm bell that rings for seven minutes. The owner can change the “combination” at will, and dozens of settings are possible.

Double Sails Propel Bather on Water Skis

Oval sails fastened to rods that are held at shoulder level propel the wearer of new water skis. The novel marine footgear, worn during a recent California water carnival, are made of a buoyant framework, covered with canvas to form watertight compartments. Tied at front and back, they enable the wearer to skim along the surface. Changing the angle of the sails permits traveling across the wind.

I suppose this would work if they didn’t have to talk…

Dry Ice Makes Breath Visible

MOTION picture directors can produce scenes in any climate by means of trick settings and clever mechanical devices. Critics have charged, however, that some snow scenes lacked realism because they lacked the usual phenomenon of breath becoming visible upon striking cold air.

Dr. Frank G. Nolan, Hollywood physician, has solved the problem. He has invented a device for motion picture actors that makes their breath visible in “frozen North” scenes taken in the sunshine of California. The device is similar to a dental plate and fits over the teeth of the actor.

The secret of the invention is that it enables the player to hold dry ice in the mouth without harmful results.

I’m not really sure how this is any more efficient than having an order window and a pickup counter. Though i’ll bet you’d get a lot less complaints if people had to write them out.

Tray on Trestle Serves at Drive-ln
DINE AT a new drive-in restaurant in Los Angeles and your food will come rolling out on a powered tray and stop at your car window. It’s the world’s first automatic “car-hop” and forerunner of others planned for California. The restaurant employs no car-hops, yet speeds service from 20 to 25 percent while saving 25 percent on labor costs, according to its owners. The patron drives into a stall and comes to a stop headed in toward the kitchen. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure if this is a sign of progress, or a sign that we have lower expectations for our children, but nowadays embedding a toothpick in the middle of candy is considered a big no-no. After all, how could any child resist a clove-raisin-gumdrop-walnut shell turtle?

Candy Turtle Party Favors Utilize Walnut Shells

For something unusual in the way of favors for a children’s party, make these candy turtles from gumdrops, raisins and walnut shells. Press a gumdrop into half of a walnut shell and then stick a toothpick through the exposed portion of the gum-drop along the length of the shell. Allow the point of the toothpick to project slightly so it looks like a tail and impale a raisin on the blunt end of the toothpick to serve as a head. Then press four cloves into the gum-drop to simulate the feet. A number of the turtles can be made up in just a few minutes.—William Swallow, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Ash Tray Fits Cigarette

Smokers can attach a new ash tray directly to their cigarettes. The ash tray is a tube of stainless-steel screen with a hinged cap on one end. The smoker opens the metal cap, pushes the cigarette through the tube, lights it, then pulls it back until the end is in the tube. When he closes the cap the screen catches all the ashes. As the cigarette becomes shorter it is pushed farther into the tube. The cigarette also can be placed upright on the cap without danger of marring any surface.

I think you could make your own miracle hair growing hat with a light fixture and half a dunce cap. Or perhaps a fez.

New Kind of Hat Worn 10 Minutes a Day Grows Hair in 30 days – or No Cost

No matter how thin your hair may be, this remarkable new scientific invention is absolutely guaranteed to give you a brand new growth of hair in 30 days—or it costs you nothing. Don’t send a cent. Just mail coupon below.

By ALOIS MERKE Founder of Famous Merke Institute, Fifth Ave., N, Y.

I HAVE perfected a new invention that I absolutely guarantee will give you a new head of hair in only 30 days—or the trial costs you nothing.

This new invention—the result of an experience gained in treating thousands of cases of baldness—is in the form of a new kind of hat. It is worn on the head just 10 minutes a day. No unnecessary fuss of any kind. Just put the hat on your head. Wear it 10 minutes. And that’s all there is to it.
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Well that certainly is an interesting way to cross a harbor. I can’t imagine why the Golden Gate beat out this design. Wouldn’t you feel completely safe driving through a “boat tunnel”?

“Boat Tunnel” for Harbor Crossing

PROPOSED as a substitute for the suggested Golden Gate suspension bridge at San Francisco is an ingenious boat tunnel of unique design which, it is claimed, can be built for one-third the estimated $35,000,000 cost of a suspension bridge. This and other advantages of the design have led authorities to consider seriously the erection of the boat tunnel bridge, which would be the only one of its kind in the world. It was conceived by Cleve F. Shaffer of San Francisco.
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And you thought switching to the metric system was hard…

WOULD ADD TO ALPHABET
An alphabet of forty-one letters would be an improvement over our present one of twenty-six, according to a Portland, Ore., educator. In the English language the letter “a” alone is pronounced eight different ways. He would add a new letter for each sound. With such an alphabet, he declares, a person unacquainted with the language would require only two weeks’ time to learn it.

I’m sure that a panicked drowning person is going to be A-OK with someone tying a big life preserver around their neck. I know that when I’m afraid of suffocating the first thing I want to do is constrict my airflow.

LIFE PRESERVER FITS NECK
A LIFE PRESERVER of new design, carried on the back of a life guard, aids in rough-water rescues. When tied around the neck of a swimmer in distress, it buoys him up while being towed, or keeps him afloat until additional aid arrives. The device is effective in saving a bather who handicaps his rescuer by struggling. The illustrations show the preserver in use, and the manner in which it is conveniently worn by a beach guard while on duty.

Ambitious seems to be a bit of an understatement.

Big Dam to Water Sahara
Turning the Sahara Desert into blossoming farm land, with water drained from the Mediterranean Sea, is the ambitious project for which, Hermann Sorgel, German engineer, seeks international support. He proposes to dam the Strait of Gibraltar, and then cut a canal to flood portions of the Sahara below sea level. Evaporation from the inland lake thus formed would produce rain clouds and water a vast area, he maintains. By-products of the scheme would be hydroelectric power and new land reclaimed from the Mediterranean.