Scientists Invent Machine To Discover How Brain Works

THE brain, perhaps the most mystifying organ of the human body, can now be scientifically studied by a new apparatus which photographs amplified “action currents.” Invented by Dr. H. H. Jasper and Dr. L. Carmichael of Brown University, the new machine will permit physicians to study the action of the brain just as the electrocardiograph permits a revealing study of heart action.
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Bullets from Same Gun Linked By Camera

PHOTOGRAPHIC evidence as to whether or not two bullets were fired from same gun is irrefutably supplied by a new comparison camera invented by Dr. J. H. Mathews, University of Wisconsin professor and criminologist.

The camera marks a sensational advance of science in the war against crime. By taking pictures of opposite sections of the two bullets being checked, the camera reconstructs a composite bullet of the two sections. The resulting photographic reproduction is enlarged between 64 and 256 times the size of the bullets, permitting positive identification before a courtroom jury.

The camera is really two cameras merging into one at the single plate holder. The bottom camera takes a photo of the base of one bullet while the upper camera registers the top section of the second bullet, the two halves appearing on the print as one.

It’ll never catch on.

Bike Pedal Light Warns Motorists

COLORED reflectors designed for mounting on bicycle pedals were recently introduced in England as part of a “safety first for cyclists” movement.

The colored glass crystals, being continually in motion as the cyclist pedals along, glow brilliantly when in headlight beams of approaching cars.

Berlin Installs First Stamp Vending Machine

BERLIN postal authorities have adopted a new invention that promises to be of real help to all. The automatic stamp vending machine which can be attached to trolley wire posts will relieve a long felt need. The photograph shows a customer operating the crank that produces the stamps. How many times have letters been written, only to be carried in the pocket because there was no stamp with which to post it! The Berlin idea is very simple. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW EYE TESTER

THIS remarkable instrument, which is in reality a battery of lenses no bigger than a cigar box, enables the optician to secure over one million combinations of lenses almost instantaneously. The London Refraction Hospital which has recently been rebuilt at a cost of $50,000, contains this machine among many others of the same type. Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, I think this car marks the point when the “trunk” of a car ceased to be literally a trunk attached to the rear.

NEW TRUNK RACK FOR SEDAN

AMONG the models seen in the great automobile show at Olympia, England, was a Jowett fabric sedan. This car, as seen in the photo below, is completely covered with Jowett fabric.

Instead of equipping the car with a trunk rack and trunk, the luggage space was built within the body. The panel, in the back of the body, lifts out and upward on hinges. The opening thus exposed is large enough to hold a man and not unnecessarily crowd him.

The English motor car indicates the trend of European design.

First Consumer Electronics Show

Plans for new week-long exhibit of home-entertainment equipment

THE WEEK OF JUNE 25 THROUGH 29 will be a busy one for the electronics industry. A week earlier, the annual NEW (National Electronics Week) show in Chicago will keep manufacturers of small electronic parts and components occupied showing their wares to distributors from all over the country.

Fresh (or not so fresh) from that mammoth task, the industry will move to New York into the Americana and New York Hilton hotels for the Consumer Electronics Show—the first national exhibition especially for home-entertainment electronics.
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A Breadbox-Size Navigating System

By R.F.Gallagher

WE’RE all navigators to some degree. Navigating is simply rinding your way from one place to another and knowing where you are along the way. Usually, though, we think of navigating in terms of ships and planes.

Navigating systems have come a long way since Capt. Bligh’s famous 3,600-mi. journey on the South Seas. All he needed was a sextant because all he really wanted to do was get within sight of land. He even might have considered sailing to within miles of a pile of rocks pinpoint navigation.
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This bridge wasn’t started until 1959 and was completed in 1964.

Proposed $60,000,000 Bridge Over Narrows to be Longest in World

A BRIDGE, which is to be the longest in the world, with a central span that will be 1000 feet longer than the Hudson river bridge, and towers that will be higher than the Woolworth building, is soon to be built over the Narrows between Staten Island and Long Island. The complete structure, shown in the architect’s drawing below, will have observation galleries, beacon lights, and a carillon of bells.

James Liddy’s Bedsprings

By Alfred Lief

ONE day in 1853 James E. Liddy, a carriage maker’s blacksmith, drove his wife into Watertown, N. Y., in their buggy. They were newlyweds. Young Liddy was rather irked, waiting in the seat so long. He fidgeted and bounced on the coil-spring cushion seat—then suddenly his expression changed. Read the rest of this entry »

I guess the kamikazes weren’t such a surprise then.

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Jap Pilots Ride to DEATH on Flying Bombs

By Ray Holt

The current conflict between Japan and China has brought out an amazing revelation of the methods by which Japanese pilots assure air bombs reaching their target by putting a man inside to steer them. Why? Read the reasons in this article, and you’ll have a better understanding of Japanese psychology toward the machines of war.

IMAGINE yourself strapped within a hollow chamber inside a huge air bomb, surrounded on all sides by high explosives. In front of you is an airplane type rudder which steers the tail unit of the bomb. Windows in the nose enable you to see ahead. You’re loaded into the bomb, which is placed in its nest under the fuselage of a bombing plane. The bomber takes off, soars above a target—say, an ammunition dump of the enemy. Up above you, the pilot of the plane pulls a lever. Read the rest of this entry »

No Noise From Electric Rifle

NEW Army recruits suffer badly from nerves after their first session or two on the rifle range; headaches also result from noise and powder fumes. So a rifle instructor has invented an electric rifle, noiseless, powderless, harmless, since it shoots a spot of light instead of a bullet. A luminous target is first projected on the target board. When the electric gun trigger is pressed, a black spot appears on the target at the point where the gun is aimed. An ingenious system of lenses within the barrel, with an electric light bulb as projector, constitutes the mechanism of the rifle.