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.

Wow, if I hadn’t read the headline I would never have known it was there!

CAMOUFLAGE CONCEALS UNSIGHTLY WATER TANK
Members of the famous art colony at Provincetown on Cape Cod, Mass., recently redecorated a local water standpipe so that it no longer constituted an eyesore to the community. Following a carefully planned camouflage scheme, the black water tank was repainted a light blue and then skillfully covered with a patchwork of other colors.

EXERCISE EARS TO RESTORE HEARING

An ear gymnasium, devised by a Michigan inventor, is said to aid those of defective hearing by exercising the nerve centers of the ear. Special earphones are slipped over the patient’s head and at the tone frequencies at which hearing is defective, a series of tone exercises is given at a volume great enough to be heard by the patient. Over a period of time, this is said to improve the hearing.

MOVING “SIDEWALK” OF SEATS FOR NEW YORKERS

Fitted with seats, a moving “sidewalk” similar to that demonstrated at the Chicago World’s Fair, was recently offered the city of New York as a means of taking the place of subway trains that now connect the east and west-side lines. Three parallel platforms, running at 3, 6, and 9 miles an hour, respectively, would be arranged in an endless chain if the suggestion of the inventors was followed. A continuous walk inside the low-speed carrier would permit passengers to board or leave at any designated point along the route. At present, persons wishing to change from one to the other of the subway lines, must at certain stations walk several blocks. The sidewalk is also offered to do away with this inconvenience.

Whew! It’s a good thing he took this secret to his grave, otherwise he could have given it to the terrorists and none of our rabbits would be safe!

Inventor Hides Secret of “Death Ray”

Pigeons on the wing instantly killed by death rays from a machine four miles away—that is the feat reputedly accomplished by a deadly apparatus developed by Dr. Antonio Longoria, of Cleveland, Ohio, who recently announced that he had deliberately destroyed the lethal machine for the good of humanity. The Cleveland inventor declared that he had stumbled on the deadly rays while experimenting in the treatment of cancer with high-frequency radiations. The action of the fatal rays, he declared, is painless and they work by changing the blood into a useless substance, much as light transforms silver salts in photographic processes. Before a group of scientists, it is reported, he once demonstrated that the radiations would kill rats, mice, and rabbits, even when the animals were incased in a thick-walled metal chamber. The rays, Dr. Longoria believes, could kill human beings just as easily.

There are a lot of jokes to be made here about the cycles he left out, but I think I’ll leave those to the comments.

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Do Cycles Rule Your Life?

If science manages to chart the rhythms of the universe, the world may be able to predict its own wars, depressions and epidemics.

By Lester David

THE stock market will hit the crest of a rising wave in the mid-1950s.

There will be extra good salmon fishing in eastern Canada in 1953.

Diphtheria and influenza will strike hard in the U. S. in 1953.

These predictions, and many others, are based on an amazing yet little known science—cycle research. A group of some 3,000 scientists, delving deep into history, is charting the occurrence of wars, business activities, disease, weather, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions—even your own emotions. Read the rest of this entry »

Amphibian Bicycle Can Travel on Land or Water

A hybrid among vehicles, an amphibian bicycle that can travel on land or water, was demonstrated by its French inventor at a recent Paris exposition. Its wheels are hollow, bulbous floats that, with the aid of four smaller globes on outriggers, sustain it in the water. All of the floats revolve freely like wheels, resulting in a minimum of drag. When the rider pedals across the water, fins on the rear wheel serve as paddles to drive the machine forward. For a ride on dry land, the outriggers supporting the outer floats may be folded up clear of the ground. Proof that the floats would be sufficiently buoyant to support the rider was given when the inventor navigated his device, without difficulty, across a large swimming pool.

How exactly does one turn with this thing?

Squirrel Cage for jeeps is this new device for travel over swamps, bogs, soft beaches and heavy underbrush. It’s a continuous road matting on rollers which runs around the body and under the wheels. The Marine Corps is testing it at the Quantico, Virginia, base.

While this works well for sushi, I’m not so sure about groceries.

SHELVES MOVE IN NEW STORE
Comfortably seated in a self-service grocery store just opened in Los Angeles, Calif., a housewife selects her purchases from moving shelves of price-tagged merchandise that pass before her. The endless, motor-driven chain of shelves, makes a complete circuit in eight minutes— leisurely enough for the customer to make her choices and lift the articles from their shelves. When her basket is full, she pays the cashier.

DIVING HELMETS WORN AS SWIMMERS LEARN STROKES

Diving helmets are worn by pupils taking swimming lessons from a San Francisco, Calif., instructor who employs a radical new method of instruction. Wearing these helmets, the beginners frequently remain under water for long periods during which they study the swimming movements of the instructor and later attempt to imitate them. The helmets are made from thin metal containers and cost little. The bottom is removed and the sides hollowed out to fit over the shoulders. The helmet is held in place by straps that pass under the arms of the wearer. Good vision is insured by a large rectangular window in the front of the helmet and air is supplied by a hose that leads to an air-pump at the surface.

REVOLVING HAT NEW ADVERTISING STUNT
A spinning hat bearing advertising messages is the latest wrinkle for sandwich men in Paris, France. A concealed switch
enables the wearer to start the hat revolving or stop it at will. Lest even this strange apparition fail to arrest the eyes of passers-by, the hat is also equipped with lights that flash on and off at the wearer’s control by means of a concealed switch.