The FREAK of the MONTH~No. 1
The oddest contraption which has been brought to our attention this month is the Outboard Ski-Plane now being constructed by C. T. Elle, of Chicago. The idea is that when the boat gets up speed the front of the skis will be raised, causing the boat to come to the surface. When wind gets under the wing it is supposed to furnish enough lift to permit the boat to skip over the waves.

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The QUEEN of the SEVEN SEAS

THE 79,280-ton “Normandie,” a ship that dares comparison, is about ready for the supreme test of a transatlantic crossing.

Described as the largest moving unit ever built by man, the vessel sets a standard difficult to equal. Her plan and decoration reach a high-water mark in maritime history. No such ultra-modern interiors have ever been seen on an ocean vessel. The outside strikes a complete harmony with the inside. Her low rakish hull rides gracefully on the water, while her clipper bow and streamline funnels give her all the earmarks of the greyhound.
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High Speed With Low Power Boat Has Pontoons for Hull

A NEW JERSEY inventor has introduced a novel type boat with which he expects to attain highest speed with smallest output of power. Five double cone-shaped welded steel drums which may be seen in the photo above support the craft on the water. It is pushed along by a 65 horsepower airplane engine mounted on the steel framework above the after floats.
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MODERN ARK IS BUILT TO ESCAPE TIDAL WAVE

Fearing that the tidal wave that swept Yokohama also would destroy the city of Iloilo in the Philippine. Islands, Chinese residents there hastily constructed a raft of bamboo and were prepared to flee to it if the inundation occurred. The rude craft was 84 feet long and 33 feet wide, and in three hutlike cabins were stored provisions for several days, and bolo knives with which the owners expected to fight off anyone else seeking to climb aboard. The feared inundation did not take place.

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Dogs Ride in “Normandie’s” Dummy Funnel

That dummy funnel on the “Normandie,” which is probably a concession to the old popular fancy that the more funnels, the more power, is not entirely a dummy after all. Inside it are recreation rooms, a theater and kennels for the passengers’ pets.

The dogs live comfortably aboard ship behind stainless-steel bars that surround their oval room, at the center of which is a drinking fountain. The kennels are steam-heated and ventilated, fresh beds of straw are provided daily, and the dogs are allowed daily exercise on a top deck. There are even life preservers for the pups in large, medium and small sizes, and a special menu printed in French offers choice bones, soups, biscuits and vegetables. In case the canine tourist is indisposed, a veterinarian aboard helps him win back his sea legs.

Floating tunnel

A ship-to-shore roadway or an emergency bridge—this big, flexible plastic tube can be either. Inflated and fitted with air-lock doors at each end, it floats, supporting people (faintly visible, near right) or a hovercraft (far right). Heavier tubing could float a truck.

Tin Fish Is One-Man Submarine

UNDERWATER FLIVVER DIVES THIRTY FEET, MAKES FOURTEEN-MILE RUNS

SHAPED like a fish, a one-man, homemade submarine built by Barney Connett, of Chicago, Ill., is believed to be one of the world’s smallest underwater boats. Shorter than the average canoe, the craft measures twenty-three inches at its widest point and is thirty-seven inches high. Painted gills and eyes heighten the fishy look of the ship, which has a stabilizing tail fin surrounding its propeller. Read the rest of this entry »

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Scientists Raid the Ocean Floor

Explorers now aim at the conquest of the sea floor, a great dim world of incredible riches.

A LOUD blare of confused noises breaks in upon the botanist’s thoughts, distracting his attention from the bizarre plant he has been studying intently in the dimness of the sea bottom.

He sighs, and a thicker-than-usual flock of bubbles burbles up from the artificial “gills” which enable him to breathe his oxygen directly from the water.
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Rescue Boat Travels on Sea or Ice

AN ARCTIC boat designed to run both on ice and water has been invented by Harold E. Bailey of Nashville, Term., for the purpose of rescuing polar parties marooned in the great ice fields. Difficulty in reaching the marooned members of the recent Nobile expedition was experienced because of the shifting ice floes with stretches of open water between them. A ship cannot cross the ice fields and dog sleds are helpless in navigating open water. It is its ability to travel in both mediums which makes Mr. Bailey’s rescue ship so adaptable for use in the far North.
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Watercycle
Like a strange bug, a homemade watercycle crawls across the surface of a lake or river. The weird craft was built by William Dein, an employee of the Republic Aviation Corporation. Dein purchased some surplus wing floats used on amphibious airplanes, fastened them together with a framework
and mounted part of a bicycle atop the structure. The operator pedals, and presto—the craft moves across the water.

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FLOATING AIRPORTS on LINK CONTINENTS

by BEN LINCOLN

FUNDS recently appropriated by the government have put the United States Department of Commerce, Aviation Branch, squarely behind the immediate development of a chain of five floating airports which will span the Atlantic for regular airways service.

This recently announced appropriation, amounting to $1,500,000 was negotiated by Eugene L. Vidal, Director of Aeronautics of the Department of Commerce, in behalf of Edward R. Armstrong, inventor of the seadrome, and completes a 16 year fight to gain recognition for a project which both Mr. Vidal, a competent and experienced airways operator, and Mr. Armstrong solidly believe in. As well, it will provide work for a great number of unemployed, as 80 per cent of the cost of such development projects goes to labor.
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Pontoons Support Odd Fishing Boat

PONTOONS made of welded sections of steel float a unique boat constructed by students in an Oakland, Calif., school of welding for use as a fishing craft for large parties of anglers on San Francisco Bay. Powered by two 110-horsepower gasoline engines, one installed in the stern section of each pontoon, the odd boat will have a speed of about twenty knots. Read the rest of this entry »