Scale in Soda-Fountain Seat Warns Overweight Patrons
Soda-fountain patrons may watch their weight as they enjoy their drinks and sundaes, with the invention of a counter seat that also serves as a scale. Through levers beneath the pedestal of the seat, the customer’s weight actuates an indicator built into the counter. By consulting the dial, customers can decide whether to order fattening foods.
Human Truck Load of Baskets
What a load of baskets for this young man as he carries them on his person from a basket factory in the small town of Lichtenfels, the center of basket making in Germany.
TESTS NOW SHOW IF CHILD IS TONE DEAF OR MUSICAL
Has Junior a natural ear for music? Or are his piano lessons wasted effort? It’s easy to find out at once, according to Prof. Harold M. Williams, of the University of Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. Tests he has devised show whether a child has a real sense of rhythm and whether he can keep a tune in singing.
Remember, the dapper man always wears a suit when burninating his vines.
WEEDS DESTROYED BY BURNER IN PORTABLE UNIT
Easy to carry from place to place, a weed burner solves the problem of clearing land. It throws a fan-shaped flame that mushrooms against the ground, stone wall or rock pile to “melt” every growing plant within its range. One model of the burner is self-contained for one-man operation. It has a tank that holds oil for one and one-half hours” work. The handle is constructed for attachment of a shoulder strap or webbing to facilitate carrying. Thetorch also can be used for sterilizing poultry houses, dog kennels and stables.
CAMERA PROVES LOCH NESS SEA SERPENT IS JUST A WHALE
By identifying the sea serpent of Loch Ness, Scotland, as a familiar species of whale, naturalists have just shown how easily the human eye may be fooled into thinking it sees an unfamiliar monster. Worldwide interest was drawn to Loch Ness, within recent months, by repeated eyewitness reports of a long-necked, aquatic apparition of huge size, resembling no known marine animal.
I would say no to the first and maybe to the second. However there is some dispute about Willetta Huggins’ abilities. Her claims were tested and at least partially validated by reputable scientists, of the day. However, Willetta fully recovered her hearing and vision a few years later and attributed the miraculous recovery to the healing power of Christian Science which lends a lot of credence to the idea that she never was blind or deaf.
At least that’s what it says in The Unseen Minority: A Social History of Blindness in the United States
Can We See with Our Noses And Hear with Our Fingers?
Amazing Feats of 17-Year-Old Blind and Deaf Girl, Who Smells Colors and Feels Sound, Convince Scientists that Unused Powers Lie Asleep in Our Senses
CAN we learn to see with our noses? Can we learn to hear with our finger tips? Can we develop eyes in the backs of our heads or wherever else we happen to need them?
The amazing case of Willetta Huggins, the 17-year-old blind and deaf girl of Janesville, Wis., makes these questions much less fantastic than they would have seemed a year ago. For Willetta can do some of these things.
This is a weirdly disjointed tale of William Beebe’s Dr. S. H. Williams attempt to find a “lost world” full of dinosaurs in what is now Guyana. Beebe makes constant reference to his guide/pack mule as “my black” or “my faithful black” yet never mentions the man’s name. He also gets quite upset with his Indian guides because they were only willing to travel with him a certain distance from their homes. Obviously this meant that he was really close to finding his “lost world” and they, being the cowardly savages that they were, refused to get any closer for fear of dinosaur attack. After all, how could they abandon him after he’d so generously provided them with colored beads and calico?
Then there is this:
“Well, the little boat was chug-chugging merrily along when all of a sudden a chicken which we were keeping on board for future reference seemed to experience an unguarded moment. For with a tremendous swishing of feathers it flew overboard.”
Keeping a chicken for “future reference”? Is that a euphemism for “future consumption”? Or did he periodically examine it just to affirm that yup, it’s still a chicken?
Update: I read the intro to this completely wrong. The explorer was Dr. S. H. Williams not William Beebe. Sorry for the mix-up.
Braving Jungle Perils to Seek the Lost World
By JAMES NEVIN MILLER
In the heart of the British Guiana jungle there rises a huge plateau upon which, legend has it, there exists today scores of prehistoric reptilian monsters. The story here presented is that of a scientist’s thrilling search for the lost plateau.
A STRANGE story about yellow Indians; mice that look like kangaroos; eels able to give a man a substantial electric shock; armies of ants that number millions and march in regular formation for over six hours continuously while driving all animal life before them; rivers chock-full of weird-looking parasites; and waterfalls at least five times higher than our own spectacular Niagara, is told by Dr. S. H. Williams, naturalist of the University of Pittsburgh.
Swimming Taught by Telephone
BY MEANS of a special headset and transmitter, a San Francisco coach is teaching swimming via telephone. The instructor stands on the edge of the pool and relays advice to his pupil in the water.
Specially prepared, waterproof transmitters and receivers, plus a length of telephone wire, comprise the set which operates on a charge of three volts. The advantage of the device is that faults are corrected while the swimmer is in action.
I can’t imagine how this would help teach the piano. I think Dr. Johnen just got his kicks by strapping women into weird equipment.
This Instrument Will Register Body Reactions of Student Piano Player
A NEW device has been patented by Dr. Kurt Johnen, Berlin piano pedagogue, which records the motions and bodily reactions of a piano player to determine if the selection is being properly interpreted. A lady is pictured being examined by the device. A pneumatic belt records the change of the circumference of the chest, pneumatic cuffs about the upper arms control the changes of muscle tension, through a hose is recorded the rhythms of respiration and another hose transfers the strength of touch. Dr. Johnen expects this device will aid him in instructing his pupils in interpretation.
Winning a Hazardous Bet Driving Car on Shaky Cables
DRIVING his automobile, stripped of its tires, over cables 100 feet high and ],000 feet long, a man in Germany recently won a sizable bet from a group of friends who dared him to attempt the feat. He sped across the yawning gulch, over which the wires were stretched, at a speed of 15 m.p.h. The top photo above shows him waving as he neared the end of his perilous “journey.” “It was great fun,” he announced when he descended. The car was hoisted to the cables by a huge derrick used in a nearby limestone quarry. The pneumatic tires were first removed so that the rims would afford a means of keeping the wheels of the car on the heavy steel wires.
AIRPLANE IN CHURCH PAINTING HAS SAINT AS PATRON
Adapting the airplane, locomotive, and automobile to motifs for religious frescoes, a French artist has achieved unique results in the decorations on the walls of the new church of St. Christopher, the patron saint of those engaged in hazardous occupations, recently completed in Paris. The figure of the saint is seen protecting a falling aviator, an engineer, and a speeding auto-ist. The machines, shown in detail, form the chief note in the designs and the imminence of danger is effectively suggested. The building has become known as the “sportsmen’s church,” and the novel decorations have caused wide comment.
What are they practicing for? An attack by 10ft snowmen?
Bayonets Thrust into Snow Man by Soldiers at Practice
Encountering a snow man on the grounds of Fort Dix, N. J., two zealous soldiers attached to company L, 174th infantry, took an opportunity to demonstrate an attack with bayonets. National guardsmen and draftees are receiving army training at the fort.
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