Because the idea of making the entire area a non-smoking zone would just be unthinkable.

GUARD OIL FIELD WITH CIGARETTE LIGHTER
An electric cigarette lighter, shielded from the weather by a small roof, is an odd sight at a corner of a Beaumont, Texas, oil field. So dreaded a hazard is fire here that workmen are forbidden to carry matches. Violation of this rule is considered almost as serious an offense as it would be in a powder plant. To encourage its observance, the owners of the field installed the lighter, just outside the danger zone, for the convenience of employees who wished to smoke during the noon hour. As a result, the field boasts an enviable safety record.

Food Pops Out of Table Tops in Cafeteria

Food ordered by customers in a novel automatic restaurant recently proposed by a hotel man, pops up out of the center of each table. On entering the restaurant, the diner sits at a table having in its center what appears to be merely a tray. To order his meal, he checks off items of a special card provided for the purpose, which he then drops through a handy slot in the table. Sliding down through a chute to the restaurant kitchen below, the card is picked up, and the order filled. When ready, the meal is placed on shelves of a small elevator, which hauls the food up to the table and deposits it in front of the customer, as shown in the lower photograph at the left.

So if you have a blood fetish it means you’re gay? I would think it means you just get turned on by blood. A little unsafe and outside the norm perhaps, but certainly no stranger than being turned on by tentacle porn.

Vampires are sick, psychiatrists assert

Human vampires do exist, according to two Denver psychiatrists, Drs. Richard L. Vanden Bergh and John F. Kelly. Rather than being “the undead,” the vampires are mentally ill. In the Archives of General Psychiatry, the two psychiatrists reported rare cases in which vampirism, or sucking another person’s blood, was part of a pattern of homosexual behavior.

TELESCOPE EYEGLASSES MAKE THE BLIND SEE
Telescope eyeglasses, just perfected by a New York optometrist, will enable forty percent of persons incapacitated by blindness to return to normal work, the American Academy of Optometry was told recently. The powerful lenses enable a patient with only two per cent of normal vision, ordinarily classed as total blindness, to see clearly. Because of their high power the glasses distort objects slightly.

Newsboys Wear Neon Signs

NEWSBOYS who sell the Los Angeles Times are supplied with small neon electric signs having the word “TIMES” in capital letters. The signs, worn at night, stand out in traffic and protect the boys against possible accidents from passing autos. The signs were designed by A. A. Allen, an electrical engineer, and will burn steadily for 48 hours without changing the dry cell battery. These signs, besides protecting boys, attract pedestrians and increase sales.

Sculptress Models Novel Desert Dwellings

COMMISSIONED by a wealthy merchant of Tunis, Africa, to design an unusual house, a Czecho-Slovakian sculptress responded by incorporating giant facsimiles of the features of household members in the exterior of the dwelling.

The merchant has two daughters, a son-in-law and a grandson, all of whom are shown in mammoth relief in the lines of the unusual structure. The eyes and mouths of the huge figures serve as doors and windows”.

The unusual design was conceived by a Czecho-Slovakian artist, Mrs. Helen Zelezny.

Earrings Aid Identification
Metal earrings are now being worn by English fishermen for identification in case of accident or death at sea. The metal pendants are stamped with the names and addresses of the wearers.

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Your Shoulder Blades Tell How Old You’ll Be

DR. WILLIAM WASHINGTON GRAVES, medical scientist of the University of St. Louis, has made the unique discovery that the scapulae or shoulder-blades tell whether man is potentially healthy, longer lived and more disease resistant than his fellow-man. Dr. Graves has come to the conclusion that persons having the convex-type of shoulder blades have a better chance in life than those who have straight or concave scapulae. Read the rest of this entry »

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Would You Believe It? Oddities from Many Lands

Tree Trunk Rings Pagan Bell
THE hammer of this huge bell at Nara Park, Japan, is a rope suspended tree trunk. It is pulled back, then let go. The bell ringer pulls it back and when he releases his hold, the huge clapper swings under its own weight against the side of the gong.
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I’m not sure what’s scarier. The pumpkin head or that woman’s eyebrows.

Farmer Grows Pumpkins with Human Faces

Pumpkins with human faces have been produced by John M. Czeski, Ohio farmer, after four years of experimenting. To grow the novel fruit, Czeski fashions an aluminum mold of the head he wants to reproduce, and places it around a growing pumpkin approximately the size of a small grapefruit. After the pumpkin has expanded enough to fill the inside contours, the mold is removed. The print of the features remains as the pumpkin continues to grow, and the final result is a lifelike full-size image in the ripened fruit.

Clean Shaves With New Steam Pad

MEN who look forward with dread to the morning shave need have nothing more to fear, thanks to the recent invention of a special steam pad and holder which makes possible a clean, painless scrape. The beard is softened for the whisker removal operation by means of a pad made of thick heavy absorbent grade of turkish toweling held to the face with an adjustable metal band, as demonstrated in the photo below.

This process thoroughly steams the face, softening the hairs and relaxing the muscles, thus putting the face in the best condition. Two towels are provided with each pad support, permitting a change of pads when one starts to grow old.

Well, that’s rather disturbing.

ELEPHANTS’ FEET ARE TURNED INTO USEFUL JARS

Waste-paper baskets, tobacco jars and receptacles for various uses made out of elephants’ feet have appeared in German shops. Equipped with hinged covers, tightly lined interiors and with bands of polished metal about the top, these novelties are attractive in appearance and their stability and durability are said to appeal to the purchaser seeking “something different” in the way of a useful curio.