“Retired” Plane Finds New Job Guarding Fruit from Frost

Long since retired from the air lanes, a cabin plane once worth $50,000 is on duty today protecting an orchard at Painesville, Ohio, from frost. The airplane was once owned by David S. Ingalls, former assistant secretary of the Navy. It has been hoisted to the top of a forty-foot steel tower, where it rotates slowly, its propeller sending blasts of air over the treetops to prevent dew from forming on the trees and freezing. On one occasion the prospective 1938 peach and apple crop was saved by building a fire at the foot of the tower when the temperature had dropped to twenty-six degrees. As the warm air rose it was blown through the orchard by the propeller. Not one bud was frozen.

She’s Carrying The Torch
LORRAIN BERTELSON is playing with fire, as she demonstrates the world’s largest welding torch, a feature of the American Welding Society’s part in the Western Metal Congress, held recently at Los Angeles, Calif. Leading scientists on defense metals discussed new alloys used in our preparedness program.

Laminated Glass Bends Like Rubber
A PLASTIC glass superior to any previously used has been made possible’ through the use of Vinyl plastic in the lamination or sandwich construction of the glass. Although shattered the glass remains in one piece and may be rolled up like a carpet. A man weighing over 200 pounds jumping on the glass had little success in severing the pane although it did sag under his weight. While developed especially for automobile use the glass is valuable for show windows and display cabinets.

Builds Tiny Bikes As Hobby
BUILDING the world’s smallest bicycles is the honor claimed by A. G. Tabb, of Kidderminster, England. He has constructed several of the miniature cycles, the latest being 17 inches long and nine inches high. Many of the novel bicycles are two-seaters.

So theoretically I should be able to get high by sticking my head in the microwave? Sweet.

Cocktails? Just Tune Them In!
“Cocktails by radio” may become a reality, one radio authority states. A high-frequency radio transmitter which induces heat in anything placed in the path of its waves will be used to stimulate circulation in the brain, providing a harmless stimulation.

Dali’s Ovocipede

Looking like something dreamed up by Salvador Dali (it was), the ovocipede is a transparent plastic sphere that is propelled by the occupant, who runs along on the inside track like a squirrel in an old-fashioned squirrel wheel. The famous painter claims that the “vehicle” can be rolled over land, water, ice, or snow—the operator stands and holds the two hand bars on the axis, or can sit on the seat to coast. Steering is managed by shifting the weight along the axis in the direction of the turn. The driver turns around to reverse.

Chariot of 1938 Ben Hur Drawn by Four Motorcycles

For the Ben Hur of the motor age, no four-horse team would do. Instead, the charioteer—stunting in a sports festival sponsored by a Potsdam regiment in Germany—rides on a rubber-tired chariot drawn by four motorcycles. “Reins” in the driver’s hands lead to the handlebars of all four “bikes,” which are harnessed together by three horizontal bars. The har-ness recalls certain farm tractors which are controlled by reins.

Pocketbook Firecracker Alarm Catches Wife

A PAPER firecracker device which goes off with the noise of a pistol every time the pocketbook containing it is opened was Exhibit No. 1 at a divorce suit instituted by C. J. O’Brien, wealthy contractor of Baltimore.

O’Brien told Judge O’Dunne how he had suspected his wife of taking loose change from his pockets each night, and how he caught her by rigging up the firecracker device.

Will Power Operates Gramaphone

YOU can take this story as seriously as you want to. It came to us as perfectly legitimate stuff and here it is:

Major Raymond Phillips, O.M.E., late member of the Inter-Allied Commission of Control, claims to have evolved apparatus which will cause a gramaphone or kettle to function entirely by will power.

Major Phillips explains that the human body acts as an earth and the constant capacity is maintained within three yards of the apparatus. A momentary pause in the flow to earth through the body—produced entirely by mind concentration—is followed by an upward surge of sufficient intensity to cause a series of relays to operate.
That’s the story. You can take it or leave it. We have a sneaking suspicion that somebody is being kidded.

STORE DROPS SEVERAL FEET, BUT BUSINESS CONTINUES
Defects in the shoring under the foundation of a concrete grocery store caused the structure to settle several feet to a steep angle while it was being moved recently. By rigging improvised steps, the proprietor was able to conduct “business as usual” until the building was righted. Because of the rigid construction and comparatively light weight of the store, it was damaged only slightly by the accident, even the large window panes withstanding the shock.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Man of Future to Have One Eye

MAN’S eyes will come closer and closer together, the bridge of the nose will further diminish, and finally the two eyes will again become one—just one large, Cyclopean eye in the center of the face—if the predictions of Dr. Thomas Shastid of Duluth, Minnesota, come true.

Dr. Shastid, eye specialist and editor of many optical magazines, bases his predictions upon his years of study of the eyes of humans, of animals, and of fish.

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Airplane House at right solved the dwelling shortage for E .H. Kantz of Dallas, Tex. He built it from an old A-10 fuselage, an ancient Cadillac chassis—which he extended 10 feet—and a Ford V-8 engine. It won’t fly, but you ,get the sensation of landing an airplane when you buzz along at 50, he says.