Vision Perpetual Motion In This Rubber Band Engine

AN ENGINE run only by a single rubber band—does it have possibilities of perpetual motion?

Many who saw it on exhibit at the Hall of Science in Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition believe it has. The engine, shown on the left, obtains its energy from heat directed on the rubber band. Many persons visioned the probability of substituting solar heat for the electrical heaters used in the exhibit. However, perpetual motion is an impossibility as the machine would run only during life of band.
Read the rest of this entry »

I hope they don’t have rats at that bank, because it sounds like just about anything would set that alarm off.

New Burglar Alarm Set Off by Vibrations of Heartbeat

THERE have been numerous inventions to foil bank bandits in their hold-up attempts but the latest one is the most original. The vibrations of the human heart-heat set off an alarm bell.
Read the rest of this entry »

PILLS TO KEEP YOU WARM

A pill that may increase resistance to cold is being tested at the Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory near Fairbanks, Alaska.

The pill contains glycine, an amino-acid that causes the body to generate more heat than it can otherwise produce. It is hoped the pill might enable men to stay alive longer in icy water, and hasten the warming of a man who has been chilled to a critical point of exposure.

At the laboratory, operated by the Air Force at Ladd Air Force Base, volunteers are taking the pills with no evidence of ill effect. If the tests are successful the pills could be included in survival kits.
Read the rest of this entry »

Often when my spell checker picks a word out, it’s not that it’s spelled wrong, just that the spelling has changed over time. So, while checking this article about making machines my interest was certainly piqued when I came across Dr Sykes’ predilection for all sorts of weird “urgies”. Alas, it was just a suffix. And yes, I have a dirty mind.

view additional pages

Science Still Seeks a Rain-Making Machine

by RAYMOND HULBERT
A fortune awaits the inventor of a rain-making machine which really works. Science says there’s nothing impossible about such a machine. Last summer’s drouth emphasizes the economic value of a mechanism which would produce water for growing crops when needed.

SCIENCE does not proscribe rain-makers. It does not commit itself on the subject of artificial rain. Science does not say anything is impossible. But during the past century, science has shot dark clouds through the lives of men who professed to possess the talents and the instruments to cause rain to fall from the heavens.
Read the rest of this entry »

COSMIC RAYS MAY FORECAST WEATHER

Cosmic rays may help to prophesy the weather. This first practical use for the mysterious radiations from outer space was recently announced by Dr. R. A. Millikan, Calif. Institute of Technology physicist.

The “cosmic rays” are more penetrating than radium or X-rays, but it is not known whether they affect human beings.

Dr. Millikan, who discovered the source of the rays (P. S. M., July, ‘28, p. 13), has measured their strength with his new electroscope, and is able to determine high-altitude atmospheric conditions.

Solar Bath Apparatus Helps Cure Diseases of the Head
NO, THE peculiar looking device in the photo at left is not a camera, nor even a telescope, although partially resembling both. It is a new solar bath apparatus for the head and has made a great hit with the medical fraternity of Germany. The main purpose of the device is to cure sicknesses of the head, like catarrh of the nose and throat or of the ears. It reposes on a stationary upright and has an opening in under side for a patient’s head. Affected person sits in a chair while taking treatments. An ultra-violet ray machine within throws artificial sunlight upon all parts of the head. Eventually, when fully tested and improved, it is expected to cure many of the illnesses of the head.

The FREAK of the Month – No. 2
THE most unusual design brought to our attention this month is the air liner invented by Mr. R. Knott of Lewisham, England, who hopes to cross the Atlantic with a ship of this type carrying 600 passengers in from 12 to 15 hours.

I’m not that great at physics, but this seems to violate the conservation of momentum…

view additional pages

Strange Lifting Force Used in Novel Airship

How does this airship keep aloft with neither propellers nor lifting gas? It’s the strangest craft yet designed to cruise the skies and represents as far a departure from conventional types of aircraft as can be imagined. You’ll find this description of the ship fascinating.

WHAT is certainly the most unique airship in the world is now under construction in the form of an experimental model in the factory of its inventor in Denver, Colorado. As depicted on these pages, the extraordinary ship will use neither propellers nor gas to keep it in the air, but will depend on a mechanism which its inventor, Edgar R. Holmes, calls the “gyradoscope”.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ball-Shaped TRAIN Pulled By Magnets

THE “bullet-flash,” most radical idea in railroad design since the recent advent of streamlining, has just been conceived by a Swiss engineer. Based on electro-magnetic principles, the new ball-shaped iron horse is expected to roll on standard-size rails at a speed as high as 300 m.p.h.
Read the rest of this entry »

Man-Made Gales Help Airplanes Land

HUGE fans which can whip up a 65-mile gale that will act as a brake on landing airplanes will be the next piece of equipment installed in the modern airport, according to experimenters.

Aviators have long known that it is easier to land in a stiff breeze than in still air, and it is proposed to take advantage of this fact by arranging twelve to twenty fans on the landing field to supply an artificial gale. The fans would be arranged at the end of the field to cover a section 200 ft. wide and 90 ft. high. The air would be driven through a screen of steel bars one inch wide and two feet apart. This screen would serve to break up the eddies of the air.
Read the rest of this entry »

Low Grade Coal Deposit Makes Natural “Boiler” to Generate Electricity

VISUALIZE two million straining horses lashed to a load that would be one-eighth the weight of Mount McKinley and you will have some idea of the tremendous power that will be generated in the low-grade coal districts by the super-power stations of the near future.

In the new method devised by engineers to utilize the country’s vast deposits of low-grade coal, unsuitable for factory or home furnaces, Mother Earth is to be used as a boiler and burn this coal without ever bringing it to the surface.
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

MAIL VIA ROCKET

A missile expert predicts rocket mail by 1965. Here are MI’s ideas on how the system could function.

By Frank Tinsley

IT’S Friday noon. In the home office of a giant New York corporation the final drafts of a secret merger are being signed. If they can be signed by the party of the second part in San Francisco and be back here in the office before the stock market closes—so that “buy” orders can be rushed to dealers throughout the country—a possible Monday financial slump can be averted. The atmosphere is tense. A micro- photo machine has been moved into the president’s office and a trusted operator inserts the sheets, one by one. Two tiny prints of each emerge, one for the files and one for mailing. Read the rest of this entry »