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.

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HOW TO BOWL

by Joe Falcaro

I HAVE, through personal instruction, made thousands of good bowlers from beginners. Too, I have made hundreds of excellent bowlers, men who average around 200, from good bowlers.

Any bowling secrets I have been able to reveal to these bowlers you will find on these pages. I urge that you read this article several times, slowly and carefully, so that no point is missed. Study it as you might study a lesson in school. Memorize it, if necessary, but be sure you under-stand and apply every point in practice.

This advice goes to those of you who may have been bowling for five or ten years, as well as the beginner. It is my observation that very often the bowler who has been at the game for some time, and may be a creditable performer in tournaments, is guilty of one or two primary faults, which, if corrected, would raise his bowling average 10 to even 25 pins a game.

What’s most important? The answer: Proper equipment, if you really have ambi-tions to be a class-A bowler. Bowling shoes are not expensive. Get a pair. They will last five years or more. Get a ball, too. With your own ball you will enjoy the game more and bowl better. A ball lasts a lifetime.

If you can’t get bowling shoes be sure the shoes you bowl in have rubber heels and leather soles. Never bowl in rubber-soled shoes. The left foot must slide as you approach the foul line, on your final step, and a rubber sole will not permit this. Too, you must use your heel as a brake and the only kind that will so function are of rubber.

Whether you use a two-finger ball or three-finger ball is a decision you will have to make. You can bowl as well with either, and the three-finger ball is easier for most persons to hold. For those reasons I usually suggest a three-finger ball to a beginner, especially one whose finger grip is not strong enough to hold the two-finger ball without tiring.

Don’t get the idea a three-finger ball is for sissies. If that grip feels more comfortable to you, use it.

Now for fitting the ball. The ball must be a perfect fit if you are going to score well, and consistently. The method for determining the proper fit is the same for both the three-finger and two-finger ball. The thumb is fitted first, and should be inserted as deep as possible into the largest hole in the ball. The fit around the thumb should be just loose enough for comfort, and tight enough to maintain friction when the thumb is bent at the joint and pulled out of the hole. If there is doubt in yourmind, select a thumb-hole on the loose side.

The holes for the other fingers should fit with the same degree of looseness. Very important in fitting a ball is the span—the distance between the thumb-hole and the hole for the second finger. This distance should be such that the second finger can be inserted up to the second joint without stretching or cramping the hand. The sure way to measure this is to insert the thumb full length and let the entire length of the second finger rest on the ball, over the hole for which that finger is intended. If the second joint of that finger projects about 1/4-inch past the inside edge of the finger hole, the ball is the right span for you. Use this same rule in fitting the third finger, if you use a three-finger ball.

A too-narrow span, or a too-wide span will make your bowling erratic, destroy your accuracy. It is wise when selecting a ball to get the advice of the bowling alley proprietor as to the proper fit.

Now that you have selected the proper ball, take care to spread your fingers not occupied in holding the ball, onto the ball’s surface. Don’t spread them so far they feel stiff and unnatural, but getspace between them, so that each finger contributes to guiding the sphere. The next most important thing in learning to bowl well is poise. In the case of many persons who have been bowling for years without attaining consistently high scores, lack of poise is probably the most important single factor in their failure. By poise I mean physical relaxation or lack of muscular tenseness, and a frame of mind that permits complete concentration on the job at hand. So complete must be this concentration that you are not aware of spectators, what is being done on the alley next to you, what your score is, or anything except proper delivery of your ball.

Bowling alleys everywhere have their fire-eaters, muscular gents who screw up their features into a grimace of desperation, whosearm and back muscles become hard as rocks when they swing the ball for delivery—but who will never be really good bowlers.

Here is a little test to show you the importance of relaxation. Stand about arm’s length from an ordinary push-button wall switch, the type that turns your ceiling electric light off and on. Now deliberately make your body, leg and arm muscles as tense as you are able. While your muscles are tense, reach out and try to turn the light off and on with your index finger by punching the switch in full arm jab, bringing your right hand back to the chest between jabs.

In ten jabs you are sure to miss the switch several times. Now repeat your efforts to punch the switch, but with body and arm muscles relaxed.

The results should be much better, usually ten perfect contacts with the button out of ten tries. The lesson you learn from this is obvious: If, with muscles tense, you can’t punch a light switch at thirty inches, what chance have you to hit a head pin sixty feet away with muscles tense?

Relax, that’s the answer, but concentrate mentally on the job at hand.

The next thing to determine is the number of steps you want to use in approaching the foul line to deliver the ball. Four steps are most commonly used, once you have learned to handle the ball. This is the most satisfactory number from the standpoint of maintaining the body balance and imparting sufficient forward motion to the ball. Very fat persons or beginners usually find three forward steps more satisfactory. The five-step approach is to be avoided by all except expert bowlers.

To determine the proper distance for starting your approach for the four-step delivery simply pace off four steps, back from the foul line, then add about six inches so your toe won’t touch the foul line when you deliver, and mark the distance on the floor with your heel, or even a piece of chalk.

Now take your position, heels on the mark you have made, about six inches in from the right-hand edge of the alley. Stand erect, and let your eyes travel from a spot about six inches in from the right edge of the alley atthe foul line in an imaginary line along the alley surface to the head pin. Somewhere along this imaginary line, from ten to twenty feet from the foul line, find a spot on the alley bed, and focus your eyes on that spot.

This spot may be a darker board in the alley bed, or a lighter one. It may be a corner of a board, where it joins another of lighter or darker color.

It is at this spot you are going to throw the ball. After the spot is selected you are not to look at the pins until after the ball is delivered. If you are near-sighted, select a spot closer to the foul line, but no closer than four feet from this line.

The reason for picking a spot and bowling at it, rather than aiming and throwing at the head pin sixty feet away, is that it is easier for anyone to hit an object the closer it is to them. For instance, throw a sofa pillow at a door five feet away and you can hit it every time, back off thirty feet and you will miss now and then. By the same logic, it is easier to roll your ball over the spot ten feet away and depend on a projection of its path to place the ball in the pocket between the No. 1 and No. 3 pin, than it is to aim and throw at the target 60 feet away.

You have taken your position, ball in hand, heels on the mark about twelve feet back of the foul line, six inches in from the edge of the alley. When the proper time comes you are going to lay the ball about six inches in from the right edge of the alley, at the foul line.

Remember you are relaxed, legs straight, elbows bent at right angles, ball at about beltother pins for a strike. Thus, ten perfect hits with a very fast ball will not result in as many strikes as ten identical hits with a somewhat slower ball.

All bowlers should strive to perfect a uniform delivery, throwing the ball with the same speed for every shot. You can accomplish this with least trouble if you throw a straight ball. A person throwing a hook ball will find his ball curving less sharply on a slippery or “fast” alley. His temptation will be to slow down his delivery, throw a slower ball and give the slower moving sphere an opportunity to create the necessary friction between alley surface and ball to produce his familiar hook. This change of pace should be avoided, unless proper results can not be obtained in any other way. First the bowler should select a spot a bit closer to the center of the alley than is his custom to bowl over, and see if he can get the usual results from this new spot. In the case of a slow alley, one which has a rougher surface than average, the hook will be wider than the bowler expects because of increased friction between the alley and the spinning ball. In that case a spot somewhat to the right of the ball’s usual path should be selected. By selecting a spot slightly to the right or left of the usual path, for a fast or slow alley, you do not have to change your point of delivery at the foul line. While some teachers recommend moving the delivery point closer to the center of the alley on a slow surface, and closer to the right-hand gutter on fast surface, I can not subscribe. To do this you must disrupt all the habits you have developed in laying the ball down at the precise same spot on the foul line. To my way of thinking, it is much better to select a new spot to bowl over, but retain your usual delivery spot.

The average bowler builds up his score more onspares, cleaning the alley of all the remaining pins on his second shot, than he does on strikes. Of course you must concentrate on strikes, and you will not be a high score bowler until you can get six or seven strikes in every game; but neither will you be a high or even average bowler, unless you can pick up spares regularly.

Simply stated, my rule for throwing for spares is this: Every spare leave you may have, with one exception, should be made from your original position with the ball placed on the same spot at the foul line as you place it for a strike. The exception is when you have one, two or three pins standing in the right-hand corner of the alley, that is, the six, nine, or ten pin, one of them, two of them or all three.

In this case you move to the extreme left side of the alley, delivering the ball six or eight inches in from the left side of the alley.

In every instance, select a spot when bowling for spares as you do when bowling for strikes, and bowl for that spot, not the pins. Remember, throw the same ball, straight or hook, for your spares that you throw for a strike.

When you have selected a ball that fits, have mastered your footwork and armswing, and have learned to throw a uniform, accurate ball, you will have everything necessary for a finished bowler except a bowling disposition. To be a really good bowler, you must have this, a combination of coolness, courage, ability to concentrate and smile under adverse circumstances.

When the game gets tight, take your time, keep relaxed and concentrate on doing your best. Be sure you are set before delivery, have clearly in mind what you intend to do and accept the results cheerfully. Nothing upsets your opponent more than to see that nothing upsets you.

Moto Polo – Mayhem on Wheels

Combine football, soccer and polo with a dash of Sunday driving and you’ve got the West Coast’s newest sport fad.

By Louis Hochman

“PLAY Ball!” yells the ump and six peculiar cars tear into each other trying to bounce a giant six-foot rubber ball into a goal. They collide, turn over, bounce high into the air, roll end over end, spin on their noses, land on top of other cars, fall to the ground and then get right back into the game and start all over again!

It’s mayhem on wheels—polo played with cars. Dreamed up in a feverish moment by the Goodman brothers, B. J. and Bill, of Bakersfield, Calif., Moto Polo cars cost $2,500 each to build and are basically ‘35 and ‘36 stock Ford chassis powered by 85-hp Ford V-8 engines. They’re fitted with welded, tubular steel frameworks.

Within the very near future, the Goodman brothers plan to build a whole string of cars and start Moto Polo games in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

So, whether you like it or not, it looks like mayhem on wheels really will be going to town.

BARREL STAVE SKIS

IF ONE of your bunch can scare up a barrel, that barrel will furnish staves for a dozen skis. You will see by the diagram that a piece of board is fastened several inches forward of the center of the stave, and that a house slipper is nailed to this board. If you lack a slipper, cut down an old shoe or overshoe. For a more efficient ski, smooth the sole with sandpaper, then rub in linseed oil and polish with floor wax.

If the skis do not rack straight, cut a groove in the bottom of the skis with a routing chisel. Do not rout out too much. A groove about 1/4-inch wide and 1/4-inch deep will do nicely to pack the snow under the ski and hold the user on his course.

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Build This Monorail Bathing Chute for Thrills

As a thrill producer, it will be hard to beat this monorail bathing chute. Erected on a hill sloping down to a beach, it will send you flying out into the water at a breathtaking speed. Construction is very simple.

BATHING weather prompts many novel means of sport in the water such as diving slides, swings, etc., but here is a regular “shoot the chute” in simplified form with which loads of sport can be obtained and all at a minimum cost.

In laying out plans for the chute try and find a spot of land with a long gradual dip towards the bathing beach or swimming hole. Several hundred feet will furnish the greatest amount of fun, but it should have a hundred-foot stretch at least.

The track can be constructed entirely of ordinary hemlock or spruce boards six inches wide and 7/8 inches thick. The accompanying sketches show just how to put it together. Use short lengths of board laid end to end, the joints meeting over posts sunk into the ground at the proper height to give the track a nice even bearing to the slider.

The next task is to lay the rails on the track. These consist of a single line of spruce “furring” three inches wide laid down the exact middle of the track and nailed tightly to it. Rail joints should never come over any track joint, but the furring should be laid over it as shown, leaving l-1/2 inches of track exposed on each side of the rail. The final dip should be either down a steep bank or over a short trestle arranged to gain the incline. Then build the final sweep so it curves sharply upward to the end or “take off.”

The slider is very easy to construct. Cut off two pieces of three-inch furring 3 ft. 6 in. long and lay parallel 3-1/2 in. apart. Connect the front end by a piece of 4×4 timber 15 in. long split diagonally down its length as illustrated. Then connect the rear ends of the parallel strips by a board 12 in. square for the seat. On top of this fasten a cushion made of heavy canvas and stuffed with ground cork taken from a grape keg. Two handles are arranged as shown.

Turn the slider over and then attach four hard wood blocks to the under side of the parallel strips as shown, two at the front and two near the rear end. Set them back slightly from the inside edges and fasten with long screws driven in from the top. Then shoe each block with smooth iron, countersinking all screw heads. When completed, give all but the cushion and iron runners several coats of good paint. Then attach a piece of sheet steel under the footrest and curve it slightly to act as a guard to ride over any protruding joints of the track.

Now go over the track thoroughly, driving down any projecting nailheads and smoothing off knots, slivers, or any projections that might cause interference. Give the entire structure two or three coats of linseed oil, and after it is dry wipe the entire surface of track and rail with candle stubs. This lubricates the wood and increases the sliding qualities. Shine off the runners of the slider with fine emery paper to make them smooth and then treat the under surfaces with paraffine.

Putting Greens Protected From Milady’s High Heels

A GOLF course, unadorned by a sprinkling of the fair sex, would be a dreary place indeed; the ladies to whom appearance means everything, would not be quite so chic without those dainty shoes equipped with dagger-like high heels; but a putting green free from those cute little heel prints just the right size to hold a golf ball snugly would be a golfer’s paradise.

So that the putter’s temper might not be utterly ruined, while still permitting the ladies to appear smartly shod in the club house after a round of the ancient and honorable game, J. H. Binks, miniature golfing impresario of Chicago and Florida has perfected an abbreviated ski affair which laces over Milady’s foot and protects the greens from even the sharpest heels.

Air-Inflated Gloves Make Boxing a “Gentleman’s Game”
AIR-inflated boxing gloves having many distinct advantages over the old style padded mitt have recently been introduced into the field of amateur pugilism. With the customary padding eliminated, they are much lighter in weight, and thus help to prevent the fighter from tiring easily. As these new gloves are not easily broken, the knuckles cannot be pushed through the leather for practicing any “dirty work.” A blow is distributed over greater area, and hence less shiners and busted noses.

Wrestler Spars With Dummy
A WRESTLER in Detroit, Mich., prepares for bouts by practicing his holds on a wooden sparring partner. “Sandowstein,” as the wooden dummy is called, is equipped with springs and braces that furnish resistant tension for the strong arms and legs of the wrestler, Everett Marshall.

SKI on STRAW in First INDOOR Meet

STRAW replaced snow in the first indoor ski jump ever attempted in this country. The ski meet was held during the Northwest Sportsmen’s Show in the Auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Novel methods were used to protect the ski jumpers from injuries. The ski slide was built over the balcony in the large exposition building. The top of the slide was 120 feet high, while the jump takeoff was 35 feet above the floor. The full length of the slide was covered with straw matting over which reeds were placed. In jumping the skiers bridged a gap of 40 feet, but the length of the jumps averaged between 75 and 90 feet. The skiers landed on an inclined runway, also covered with straw, that sloped to the floor. The end of the runway was covered with canvas to slow down the skis. Two men holding a rope between them stopped the ski jumper.

Both the slide and runway were protected by guard rails and sloping sides. Ropes were stretched across the gap from the slide to the runway. These were covered with canvas to prevent the jumper from falling to the cement floor if he stumbled. Anders Haugen, International ski champion eight times, was one of the stars.

Golf Widows will be able to check up on their husbands now with this new application of the portable radio receiving set. The one being used here is a forerunner of the set to be manufactured.

Lamp Shade in Football Motif
SOMETHING distinctly unique in the way of desk lamps was introduced at a University of Southern California sorority house. The shade was cut from parchment and made to resemble a football helmet, while the upright, cast in metal, forms a football. The lamp attracted wide attention and gave a sportive air to the room which it decorated.

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Here’s How to Ski

Skiing is a healthy, outdoor sport which can add to your life’s pleasures—-and it’s easy.

BY BILL FALVEY

SO YOU want to ski? Well, go to it. It’s a lusty, fine exercise and just what the doctor ordered but it, too, has its pitfalls. Better take a few words of advice from one who knows.

Don’t go in for skiing foolhardily. Don’t swell your chest and tell yourself that, because you are pretty fair at tennis or golf, you’ll find skiing a cinch right off. In other words, don’t rush in. If you do, you’ll find yourself piled up with doctor bills, perhaps, or laid up with sore spots for days.

Like all other phases of physical endeavor, skiing requires body condition, but—and this should ease your mind at once—skiing will condition you IF you take it easy at the start. You can begin skiing at once. That is, you can begin if you will take the time to absorb a few basic principles of action. Then, as you grow in confidence and skill you can expand your activities. In a comparatively short time you can be skimming down medium hills, feeling the tangy bite of cold wind against your cheeks and enjoying an exhilaration of mind and body beyond comparison.

Once you have decided to take up skiing, go to a reliable store and purchase the necessary equipment.

Ski boots are recognizable by their distinctive design. They are of extremely sturdy construction, built for the single purpose of skiing. You will find them in a price range to suit your pocketbook. Be certain they grip your ankles well, and buy them large enough so that you will be able to get into them with heavy socks. In extremely cold weather you may want to wear a light pair of socks under the heavier ones, so be certain of the fit.

Skis, as you undoubtedly know, are made of wood. Various woods are used, with enthusiasts for all, but your principal concern at first should be stoutness and price. By this we don’t mean you can go out and buy a set of barrel staves; get a good solid pair of skis at a medium price, for a beginning. Most sporting goods stores have expert consultants; take their advice and you’ll not go wrong. The length of your ski is important. Usually the proper length is the height to which you can reach with your fingertips. In the case of the average man, this will be about 7 feet, 6 inches.

Next, watch the foot binding. Modern skis have mechanical grips. Be certain your foot fits snugly, then check the grip. It should hold your boot firmly so that you cannot shake it loose, but at the same time the action should be free and easy. There may be a time when you will want to shuck your ski in a hurry. If the action is stiff or does not operate smoothly, injury might result.

Now for clothing. Here you can let your tastes run rampant. If you like vivid colors go on out and buy them. You can bedeck yourself like the assembled flags of the United Nations if you choose, for manufacturers of ski clothes have turned out riots of colors for your tastes. But make sure you select them for warmth. Get thin material, where possible—that is, thin but warm and weather resistant. For underclothing we would suggest lightweight woolens of a tight weave. They’ll absorb perspiration and prevent you from catching chills and cold.

Those poles you see dangling from a skier’s wrists are vitally important. They help provide balance, assist in getting over obstacles and are invaluable in turns. So select them as carefully as you select your skis and your shoes. You need a flexible pole, the shafts should not be stiff as iron. Remember you will be putting your weight on them at crucial moments in skiing. If they do not bend with your weight on a hard, crusty surface they will snap in two.

At the outset, of course, your interest will be in staying on your feet. This is not difficult. Set your skis firmly on the ground, just far enough apart to be comfortable. Balance your weight evenly between the balls of your feet and the heels. Now, convinced that you won’t flop, lean forward and thrust your arms out, digging your two poles in the snow ahead of you. This will start you in motion. As you slide forward, advance one foot slightly in front of the other, bend your knees a trifle and let your body lean forward. This is the correct skiing position. Once you master it you’ll have no trouble. Practice it at home when no one is looking.

Remember, at all times when you are moving ahead, either on the flat or downhill, to keep your knees flexed and your body inclined forward in a slight crouch. DON’T, at any time, dump your weight rearward. You’ll wind up with a broken ankle if you do. If you feel yourself off balance and likely to fall, thrust your two feet to the right or left and, at the same time dig your poles in on the opposite side to the thrust of your skis. NEVER try to fall forward or backwards. ALWAYS drop sideways and you’ll minimize the danger of broken or sprained ankles.

Wherever possible, get instruction. You can join small groups at a low fee if you please, or you can take the more expensive individual instruction. This is not necessary but it is a wise practice. Many of the outstanding skiers of the country are self-taught.

Never begin to use skis on a hill or slope, no matter how slight. Get out on the flat first. You’ll find it rugged going at first as your muscles react to unaccustomed exercise, but you’ll gain confidence soon and have a good sense of balance in a short time. Then you can try the slopes. Good running!

Skiing Like Flying With Bat-Like Cape
LOOKING more like a bat than a man, this skier is demonstrating the sail-cape. It serves alternately as a sail and as a brake, and in the former capacity is said to give the user the same sensation as a flight through space. To protect the skier from windburn, a hood envelops his entire head, leaving free only the mouth and nose.

No Arms yet he enjoys the sport of bowling and even hung up a score of 96 at duckpins on his very first try in a Washington, D. C, bowling alley. The ingenious device is the invention of Harold A. Carlson, 45, who lost both arms as a youth in a railroad accident. He is shown above all set to swing a duck ball down the lane for a strike. A rubber suction cup, attached to his arm prothesis, holds the ball. At the proper part of the swing, a trip device lets the ball go. Carlson says that all parts for the invention were bought at variety and bicycle stores.

Swimming Strokes Taught From Outboard Powered Raft

AN OUTBOARD powered swimming raft was the unique means employed by Johnny Weismuller at Miami Beach, Florida, during the past season to teach beginners the theory and practice of the new swimming strokes. The pupil is swung between the U-shaped opening of the raft in a canvas belt, and as the craft moves about under power of the motor the novice goes through the proper strokes as demonstrated to him by Weismuller.

Two outstanding advantages of the scheme are that the swimmer is always held at the right level in the water and that he easily learns the forward motion—the hardest of all to learn in swimming. The raft is also used as a marker or turning buoy in swimming races.

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PLAYGROUNDS IN THE SKY

Here is MI’s hold plan to fight juvenile delinquency and get kids off the street.

THE scene is your city on a sticky, sweltering twilight in midsummer. Lights are beginning to wink on and kids are starting to gather in the streets after the evening meal.

A few years ago this was the danger hour in your city. You remember it well—the nightly muggings would begin about now and young girls would be afraid to venture out alone. Beatings were commonplace and gang wars, fiercely fought with knives and zip-guns, were a frequent occurrence. But things are different now.

Look at the kids emerging from their homes. Instead of congregating at the candy store and pool parlor hatching * up new forms of violence out of boredom, they are now heading for the center of the block. They funnel into a large entrance and are swallowed up inside.

Follow them. They tile into elevators and are whisked upstairs. The doors open and they step into a fantasy land.

There, a few yards from the tenements where they live, on their very roofs, in fact, is a regulation-size baseball diamond with real springy turf! But the kids aren’t interested just now—they played ball all afternoon. Instead, they enter the locker room and in a few minutes are cavorting noisily in a big, broad and very cool swimming pool. Afterwards, they troop onto the ball field, where chairs have been set up, and watch a movie under the stars.

What’s it all about? “This magic land for kids doesn’t exist in my city,” you say. No, it doesn’t—yet!

But it darn well could! It could exist in your town and in hundreds of other communities throughout the nation. Every city could construct huge, all-encompassing playgrounds and recreation centers, using the enormous, readily available space now going completely to waste on the rooftops of their congested areas!

The erection of these play centers on the nation’s rooftops is Mi’s plan to counterattack juvenile delinquency. Granted, it’s a bold, dramatic proposition. It might also, at first glance, border on the impossible. Immense and breath-taking, yes—but impossible? We don’t think so at all.

Does the idea intrigue you? It should because teen-age terrorism is costing you many hundreds of additional tax dollars every year, not to mention the hours of worry for the safety of self, family and property.

Already a million youngsters get into trouble with the police every year. The Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee has just made the startling prediction in a report that by 1960 the figure will skyrocket to 2,250,000!

Listen again to the authorities: “If communities throughout the nation provided more wholesome recreational facilities for their young people, delinquency could be curtailed.” This comes from FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and his conviction that recreation is a big answer is echoed by judges, child guidance experts and police officials from coast to coast.

MI believes the obvious solution is in rooftop playgrounds. No miracles of engineering are needed. Technically, with the know-how we possess right now, no insurmountable problem exists. Declares Henry Kohler, a prominent New York architect who is editor of the Bulletin of the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects: “Certainly it can be done. Even though roofs are of different heights, even though some buildings are narrower than others, there is no limit to the size of the playground which can be built. You can build a gym up there or you can construct a center big enough for a baseball field, grandstand included!”

Mr. Kohler, who spent four years with the Seabees designing athletic areas of all types for military personnel in the South Pacific, points out that a 200×250-foot center would be ample to contain all the necessary facilities.

The floor would be a reinforced concrete slab built up from the highest level. Let’s explain: Suppose the site selected consists of five apartment houses—three of them five stories high, two only four stories high. From the top height of five stories, steel supports could be spanned horizontally, meeting similar supports which come up vertically from the lower height of four stories. The reinforced concrete floor is then constructed upon these supports.

The concrete slab would contain radiant heating units for two major reasons: this is the best way of heating a large area and no other plumbing for heating purposes would be necessary. And there is a third reason which the teen-agers would say leads all the rest: In the winter a refrigerant such as freon could be put into the tubing. This would freeze water and the kids would have themselves a fine skating rink.

Now suppose the roof area of the five apartment houses is too small—suppose the entire area just doesn’t add up to a 200×250 playground. Have we met an impasse? Not at all, says Mr. Kohler. The answer: Cantilever out. This means that horizontal supports are extended outward from the edge of the roof and cantilever supports are introduced from the sides of the building.

When the dust of construction work clears away, what will the finished product be like?

There would be a baseball field for the playing area. Wooden flooring could be applied in sections over the turf and in a short time the baseball diamond could be transformed into a basketball court, a floor for a track meet or a dance floor. Along the sides removable stands could accommodate hundreds of spectators for neighborhood tournament games.

There would be a swimming pool, showers, locker rooms and even a solarium. There could easily be an ice skating rink in winter, as previously explained, tennis and handball courts, a raised stage for amateur theatricals, ping-pong, shuffleboard and gymnasium equipment.

Off to the sides, behind huge folding doors, there could be separate, smaller rooms. These would be studios for arts and crafts, painting, sculpture, photography, music and rehearsals. There could be a wood and metal working shop, a library and study rooms.

The total cost for a playground like this? An estimated $1,000,000, and a bargain at the price.

There would be some problems to surmount, of course. Legal questions, such as liability in case of accidental injury, would have to be straightened out in advance. Zoning problems would have to be handled. Code requirements of the local departments of housing and buildings would have to be met. Money must be raised.

Recently, four reform school teeners appeared before a youth forum in New York and, sitting behind a screen to protect their identities, advised their elders on how to deal with kids. Their unanimous conclusion: More young people would stay out of trouble if they were loved by their parents and “had decent l and interesting places to play after school.”

Anyone who has ever had a taste of the misery, degradation and boredom of an alley adolescence can testify that this is a realistic suggestion. The clincher came when the New York State Attorney General told the youths that their suggestion was the same as that offered by a panel of social workers and public officials not long before at a hearing on the problems of juvenile delinquency.

How about it? Had a bellyful of terror in your city’s streets? Then why not give rooftop playgrounds some long and serious thought? •

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The Mechanics of Baseball

By Babe Ruth

The Sultan of Swat! The Bustin’ Babe! The most colorful player the game has ever seen! In these terms we habitually think of Babe Ruth. In this article he reveals many of the secrets that have made him the game’s most valuable player.

IT SEEMS strange to talk or write of baseball mechanics. Yet the term is a good one, for we who play baseball are as much mechanicians as the engineers who develop airplanes, the men who operate engines or the mechanic who tinkers with an automobile in a garage. The only difference is in the engine. Instead of carburetors and differentials we deal with legs and arms, instead of cylinders we have lungs, and instead of gasoline we burn nervous energy. There are two sides to baseball. One is the mental side which includes alertness, baseball knowledge, quick thinking and keen perception. The other side is mechanical—and that includes the business of throwing and hitting; the mechanical act of running bases, of making balls curve or making hits go in the direction you want. It is as much a superiority in baseball mechanics as it is a superiority in baseball mentality that distinguishes the big leaguer from the sand lotter.

Take the matter of pitching for instance. The average sand lot pitcher works entirely with his arm. His chief idea is to get the ball over and keep the hitter from hitting. And that’s just the kindergarten of pitching. The big league pitcher pitches with his head. He is not half so much interested in striking out the batter as he is in making that batter hit where he wants him to hit. The big league pitcher tries to complete his game with as few pitches as possible and naturally the best way of doing that is to make the batsman hit.

A pitcher like Herbie Pennock or Waite Hoyt for instance can, nine times out of ten, make a hitter hit the ball in the general direction he wants it to be hit. And there are general rules governing. For instance suppose there is a runner on first base, none out and the score is tied. The natural play for the hitter then is a sacrifice which will get the runner to second and put him in scoring position. The pitcher’s job is to stop that sacrifice and the green sand lotter nine times out of ten will either pitch a waste hall or try to fool the hitter with a curve. But not the big leaguer. No indeed. He pitches a fast ball high and inside knowing that such a pitch is the hardest ball in the world to bunt.

There are other rules, too.

With a right handed hitter the ordinary rule is to pitch outside if you want him to hit to the right or inside if you want him to hit to left. With a left hand hitter the process is reversed. Of course, there are exceptions. But no rule is perfect, and where there is an exception the pitcher must study the hitter.

Fans frequently asked me how a pitcher knows what to pitch to a given hitter. Until you’ve pitched to a hitter once or twice and know his style that’s a hard thing to answer. There are some general rules however even for that. If the hitter holds his bat rested on his shoulder, standing loosely at the plate, a fast ball inside is apt to be the best pitch. If he stands far back from the plate and is inclined to step away on his swing, then a curve ball on the outside is apt to be the medicine.

Here’s another tip to young pitchers. Every pitcher who ever pitched a ball game has his favorite pitch. Perhaps it’s a fast ball. Perhaps it’s an overhand curve, perhaps it’s a side arm curve. (The one we used “to call an out-shoot when we were kids.) The young inexperienced pitcher pitches that pet of his every other pitch until opposing hitters lay for it. The real pitcher uses his “pet” only when he’s in a hole*—saving it up until he really needs it. Then it’s worth something.

Take Herbie Pennock for instance. Pennock’s best pitch is an overhand curve that breaks down and out. He may go for three or four innings without showing it once. But when he gets in a hole —when he has to make sure of the hitter and wants him to hit the best he has— then he comes in there with that overhand curve.

A lot of people seem to think that because a pitcher is in the tig leagues and winning ball games he must have something wonderful in the way of “stuff.” That’s not always true. I’ve seen sandlot pitchers who were just as fast and had just as much break on their curve ball as any big leaguer. But they don’t know how to pitch. Nine-tenths of pitching success is control and the ability to “mix ‘em up.” No pitcher can get by on one thing alone, whether it be a fast one or a curve or a slow one. But a pitcher who has good control and knows how to pitch can get by with very little stuff on the ball.

In this connection I always think of the late Urban Shocker who was with St. Louis and the Yankees for so many years. As a young fellow Shocker had a lot of stuff but during his later years he got by on his head alone. His curve ball, as he used to say himself, “was just a wrinkle,” and his fast one wouldn’t sting much if you caught it with your bare hands. But he was a great pitcher just the same—because he had perfect control and could put that ball right where he wanted it.

Control, you know, consists in something more than merely getting the ball over the plate. Good control means the ability to hit a catcher’s glove, wherever he holds it, in fourteen tries out of fifteen. And there’s only one way to get it. That’s to practice and practice some more. Old timers like Pennock or Bob Shawkey or Walter Johnson or fellows like that never pitch a ball that they’re not throwing to a target. If you watch them when they warm up before a game you’ll see what I mean. Young pitchers just always around the corners, never giving the hitter a good hall to hit at. You know the toughest pitch in the world for a hitter is a ball that’s so far outside, or inside, so low or so high that you can’t quite get hold of it and yet one that you know will be called a strike if you let it go by.

Anybody can throw a curve ball. If you grip the ball firmly and let it roll out over the side of your fingers when you deliver it, the thing is bound to curve. Natural twist and gravity will take care of that. But the real curve, the sort that gets by in the big leagues, must be sharp breaking and quick and that sort of curve is obtained only by a quick snap of the wrist at the time the ball is delivered. The quick snap of the wrist gives the ball the added twist that makes it break quickly. And every pitcher knows that it’s not the width of the curve that fools the hitter so much as it is the quickness of the break. The old round house curve that breaks^ eighteen or twenty inches is a lot easier to hit than the fast breaking curve that breaks only two or three inches. i

Yet a curve ball alone, no matter how good, doesn’t make a pitcher. The best curve ball I ever looked at was possessed by Walter Beall, and he couldn’t even make the big league grade. He had all the stuff you’d want to see. His fast ball zipped down there with a great hop and his curve ball was almost unhittable. But he couldn’t get control —and as I said before, control is the biggest single item in pitching success.

Maybe you’d be interested in a word about the mechanics of hitting. The poor hitter can improve his hitting if he’ll work at it. The first secret of successful hitting is complete relaxation. That sounds funny but it’s true. You’ve got to stand up there at the plate naturally with your muscles relaxed and ready to move in any direction. Despite the fact that I get paid for hitting home runs, I think it’s a mistake for the kid player to attempt distance hitting. The minute you try to drive that ball for long distances you press, and in baseball as in golf, pressing is bad business. Nor does it pay to take too long a swing. Ever since the home run became so advertised ball players have had a tendency to grab their bat at the end and take a swing from the heels at every pitch. That’s bad. They’re thrown off balance and as a result are suckers for any sort of change of pace. The ideal batting type, according to my way of thinking, is the style used by such hitters as Ty Cobb, Joey Sewell, Eddie Collins and Earl Combs. Here are hitters who hit any type of pitching and the reason they hit so well is that they are constantly on balance. They choke their bats, take a shorter swing and stand flat footed at the plate. Being constantly on balance they can wait until the ball is almost .on them before they start their swing and the result is they are less likely to be fooled by curves or slow ones. In my own case for instance, where I have to take a long swing and consequently must start my swing with the pitch, I’m more likely to be fooled. You can look over the big league strikeout records each year and without any further evidence you can separate the long full swingers from the “poke” hitters. The swingers are the strikeout victims. The other fellows may not hit many home runs, but they’re always in there hitting that ball.

One other thing about hitting. Don’t try to kill the ball. Just try to meet it squarely. A bunt, you know, if it can’t be fielded, is a lot better than a long fly ball that the outfielder gets under. The perfect hit is the line ball that zips over the heads of the infielders and lands inside the range of the outfielders. Just remember that if you get your percentage of hits like that the home runs can run for Sweeney. And don’t press Take it easy! Relax! Choke your bat! Don’t be over-anxious. And above all else don’t swing at the bad ones.

If you will only do those things you will have mastered the first steps in the mechanics of baseball. In our game as with an automobile engine coordination is the thing. You can’t expect success if the carburetor is clogged; nor can you expect success if the motor, which is the legs, aren’t working in conjunction with the spark plug which is the brain and the steering apparatus which is the eyes.

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SKIING ROBE—INDOOR SKI TRAILS

ONE of the latest innovations for skiing, exhibited at the Winter Resorts during the past season, is the robe shown here. This serves a dual purpose. With the wind behind the sports enthusiast, his progress across the snow is speeded up greatly. When it becomes necessary to negotiate jumps, the robe serves partially as a parachute. The reader should not think that this robe decreases, to any appreciable extent, the speed of “flight” through the air. The robe merely serves as a means for maintaining balance.

In Paris, indoor ski tracks have coconut matting sprinkled with hypo making an effective snow substitute.

NEWEST GAME-”SMASH”
SMASH! Into the sturdy, collapsible plywood backstop goes the tough little polyethylene ball. How it returns is anybody’s guess until you’ve learned how to play the angles against an opponent’s weaknesses. Big thing about this new paddle game is that it’s fun from the beginning, can develop great skill and condition in the player and uses a space only 9 by 12 feet in your garage, cellar, porch or driveway. Schools, Y’s and youth clubs are using it and Aussie tennis stars showed it off at Olympic Village, Melbourne.

Los Angeles Kids Build Their Own Tom Thumb Course

ADDICTION to miniature golf is not being confined to grown ups; the infection has spread to the younger generation, who, following in the footsteps of the older generation, are building miniature courses of their own.

One of the most distinctive is the “Dinky” course, as they call it, which was built by several enterprising youngsters in Los Angeles. In preparing the course, they first got permission to use a vacant lot, then cut weeds, dug, and graded, laid out hazards, and constructed traps, and when the work was finished, held a grand opening, charging ten cents per round. The course, shown at right, is a model of neatness, and attracts kids from the entire neighborhood.

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All Ready, Lift! Brains only Need for STRENGTH Feats

“FEATS of strong men all remind us—”

no, that’s wrong as far as quoting poetry is concerned! What we do want to say is that brains — not strength — is the prime need for all these stunts we see performed almost every day.

Take the case of a small 100-pound girl. She can resist the efforts of the strongest man who strives to lift her from the floor by getting him to place both his hands on her waist. Unnoticed and quite unconsciously her right hand rests on his left wrist and her left on the jugular vein region of his neck. With a slight outward pressure of the left hand and a gentle pressure downward with the right, the strong man’s strength is deflected.

One of the most popular of lifting stunts is that of lifting a person in a chair without apparent effort. The person in the chair must be instructed in three important points before the trick can be successfully accomplished; the feet must rest firmly on the floor, the chair must be grasped firmly in both hands, and the body, legs and arms kept perfectly rigid. With these points thoroughly in mind you are ready to go ahead with the trick.

Here is what happens. When you rest your hands on the back of the chair and push outward the approximate 20-pound pressure you exert is taken up by the body of the sitter and multiplied several times. The chair rises several inches from the floor. The sitter’s legs do the whole work.

A neat little stunt which shows the power of a single finger is the “five finger” lift. Two men place their index fingers under the instep of the medium, the third man puts his index fingers under the elbows while the fourth man puts his index finger under the subject’s chin. By lifting simultaneously the subject can be raised high up into the air without much effort. This can also be performed by having the subject lie on his back and placing the fingers on the back of the neck and behind the ankle.

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Get Some NEW THRILLS from WINTER SPORTS

You’ll never know the last word in winter sport thrills till you’ve tried out the ingenious stunts set forth here. Apply them to the nearest hill or lake and winter will have a new meaning to you and your gang.

by DALE R. VAN HORN

WHAT’S more fun on a nippy night than a hearty skating party, or a sojourn to the neighborhood coasting track? Speak up; what is?

There’s glamour about a winter night and there’s plenty of fun awaiting you. Steep, snow-surfaced hills call for sleds and toboggans; smooth ice on lake and pond coax and beg for skates to line their smooth expanses with hair lines and ice shavings.

Here are enough stunts for snow and ice activities to keep you entertained for quite some time. They’ve all been tried and found quite thrilling. Most of them you will revamp to your own inclinations and local limitations.

Often the locality having an abundance of snow will be short of clean, smooth ice. Perfect ice comes with intense cold, little or no wind and but little snow. Let’s go into some thrilling things to do on ice first.

If you have enjoyed a water slide at the swimming pool in summer, you can continue the thrill of rapid, uneven descent in winter by building the shoot-the-shoots thriller illustrated in Fig 1. Requiring no materials other than snow and a pail to carry some water, this slide can be erected on the edge of the pond, lake or river in a short two hours.

First comes a mound of snow which is built upon the bank with the tail end tapering out upon the ice. This mound should be packed well as the structure rises until you have a pitch on the pond side of perhaps 45 degrees. The pitch on the back side should be even steeper.

Building the Snow Slide Build this as high as you want to, with the snow angling Off on the sides. Make the top flat and at least 2 feet wide. Chop a hole through the ice nearby and soak down the snow on the sides, front and back. See that the incline is quite smooth. You can finish this track nicely with a board.

Two or more smaller mounds are also built out upon the ice and in line with the front slope, soaked and also finished oft”. Their size and contour may be varied to suit.

The thrill-seeking skater walks up the bank, ascends the steps, and, crouching low as he descends, snoots down the incline and negotiates the lower mounds upon the ice. The fun of this contrivance continues as long as you wish, but if used much, the mounds should be resoaked at night and made ready for the next episode.

Ice merry-go-rounds are great fun. Two types are shown in Fig. 3. Both comprise a post set through the ice with a wheel on top. The small wheel is provided with a rope which the skater grasps and gets up speed. The other type has a plank fastened to the top of the larger wheel. This can be used as a regular merry-go-round, or you can lay over one end and skate to your heart’s content. One skater on each end will be best, to give better balance.

If you are keen for baseball and other summer games, ice base hockey will appeal to you. You simply lay out a diamond on smooth ice and play a game of baseball with hockey sticks and pucks instead of balls, bats and gloves. To insure the permanency of your bases, home plate and the pitcher’s box, scrape a shallow depression at the proper points on the ice, lay therein a square of colored paper, soak down and then pour the cavity full of water again and let it freeze. Thus your marks will stand out plainly yet will “be free from abuse.

Handicap Shinny Like Midget Golf Handicap shinny is a game invented primarily for you who live close by a winding stream where there is plenty of good ice. The more crooked the creek, the better the game.

First check off a stretch of ice 300 yards long and scratch a good line in the ice at both ends as illustrated in Fig. 6. One line becomes the start; the other the finish. In between, lay out a number of snow bunkers to suit your own fancy, extending mostly from the bank out upon the ice. The mounds of snow need not be high as but a little close-packed snow will stop a very ambitious puck.

Score is kept as in golf. You’ll find that the game is far more interesting and difficult than you might first suppose, and that skill in placing shots will figure largely in low scores.

If the temperature holds down below zero, you can use this kink to pack the track for some good coasting. A sheet of galvanized iron 5 feet wide and about 7 feet long should be procured and the edges slightly bent up. A wire for pulling is then attached to the front end. A fire of coal is built on the sheet, which is pulled along the future coasting track—slowly. Heat from the fire melts the snow surface, which is smoothed and hardened again with the subsequent freezing. If properly done you can, in a short time, get an almost ice-hard surface for the track.

A long hill, rather steep, regular in shape and covered with a thick blanket of snow, offers real coasting possibilities. Instead of leading the track straight down one side you can, with these conditions, run a circular track around it. If conditions are right, you may be able more than completely to encircle it. But banking will be necessary for part of the track at least. In fact the track should slope inward to offset the centrifigual force created with a speedy toboggan or sled.

You’ll Need This Hand Warmer An excellent accessory for either the coasting or skating party is the torch shown in Fig 1. This not only will afford a rather reliable form of illumination, but will act also as a hand warmer. To make this get a short length of pipe and turn a cap on the lower end. Get a funnel to fit the top, slit open the neck and spread it so that the spout fits snugly in the pipe. A wick made from a rope which is of a size to fit in the pipe snugly, and a wad of cotton, will complete the torch. To use, pour kerosene into the funnel until the pipe is full, then light the cotton. This flare will last for more than an hour and can be easily refueled.

A shelter, which is often necessary for either skating or coasting, can be made from either ice blocks prepared at hand, or from blocks of snow, packed in a mould and stacked. The illustration shows an open side shelter having a pole roof covered with straw and then snow, a plank seat laid on boxes within, and plenty of room just outside for a roaring fire. These shelters should always face the south, or away from the prevailing wind of your own locality.

Water Golf Is Played From Rafts
THERE are no water hazards on a certain golf course in Pasadena, California—the entire course is laid out on the water. Caddies paddle the golfers about the course on tiny rafts. The holes are floating cups, anchored in position.

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A NEW HOME FOR THE METS

By Herbert Shuldiner

CASEY STENGEL’S hapless New York Mets, holders of the worst baseball record in history, now have the newest park in the nation. The ancient manager hopes this will finally put his team in the winning column. But even if it doesn’t, towering new Shea Stadium, an $18,000,000 convertible ball park opening this month, will be one of the most convenient sports arenas in the world.

Designed to lure fans away from their TV sets, the ball park is only minutes away from midtown Manhattan by road, subway, or railroad. Acres of parking and direct ramps from train stations make getting into the stadium easy. Escalators carry fans to their seats, all of which are wider than average and have unobstructed views in the column-free stadium. There are numerous snack bars and rest rooms and a 1,200-seat glassed-in restaurant—just about every built-in feature except a winning team for Casey.

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Build this Basketball Scoreboard for your Gym

Spectators at your school or club basketball games will get a bigger kick out of the battle if they can keep an eye on this electric scoreboard, which tells at a glance how the game stands and how much time is left to play. Take the idea to your coach— he’ll welcome it.

by E. A. RERUCHA

THERE is a distinct advantage, from the spectators’ interest standpoint, In having a scoreboard controlled directly from the officials’ table, so that the official score and time left to play can instantly be flashed before the spectators as the game progresses.

The electric scoreboard described in this article is operated by means of a control box from the officials’ table and the score, and other information, is flashed on the board by means of sections of lamps, certain sections of lights in various combinations making up the required number to indicate the score, whatever it may be.

These sections of lights are shown and designated on the wiring diagram in Fig. 3, and are controlled by the toggle switches in the control box. “Minutes to play,” and “quarter” are indicated by illuminating corresponding numbers, which are painted, in white, on the back of frosted glass panels and not visible except when illuminated.

The drawing in Fig. 2 shows an installation of a complete scoreboard ready for use. The conduit containing the control wires leading from the scoreboard to the cut-out box is installed on the surface of the wall and enters the scoreboard case from the side. The method of installation, however, is optional and the conduit may enter from either side or back, and may be concealed in the wall if desired.

Two methods of connecting the flexible cable from the control box to the solid wires in the conduit may be used. If it is possible to install a storing cabinet so that the cable can be coiled up and together with the control box placed in the cabinet when not in use, the flexible cable conductors may be permanently connected to the solid conductors in the cut-out box.

This method was used in the installation shown in the photographs. If, however, it would be desirable to disconnect the control box from the scoreboard, due to lack of available convenient space for the storing cabinet, a cable connector as described in Fig. 1 must be used. This connector is described fully in the drawing. A piece of bakelite panel is supported in the cut-out box by means of two pieces of angle iron fastened to the top and bottom insides of the box by means of No. 6-32-1/2″ machine screws. Phone jacks, one for each of the forty conductors connected to a light, or light section in the scoreboard, are provided, and a binding screw with wing nut for the neutral.

Conductors Connect Through Cut-out Bar The conductors from the scoreboard are connected to the phone jacks and the binding screw on the back side of the bakelite panel and soldered. The front of each row of phone jacks is painted a different color for identification when making the connections.

Conductors 1 to 11 inclusive, are connected to the top row of jacks, beginning with No. 1 at the left end. Conductors 12 to 22 inclusive are connected to the second row, 23 to 33 are connected to the third row, 34 to 40 to the bottom row, and the neutral, No. 41, to the binding screw at lower right of panel.

The flexible conductors running from the connector to the control box are grouped and arranged to correspond to each row of jacks and bound together by means of two straps of leather riveted together between conductors. Each group is marked by painting the leather binding straps of a color to correspond to the color of the row of jacks on the panel to which the conductors in the group are to be connected.

The conductor on the left end of each group should also be marked. A phone cord tip is soldered to the end of each flexible conductor and a terminal lug, as shown in the drawing, to the neutral.

To make connections, the phone tips are simply inserted in their corresponding phone jacks and the lug on the neutral connected to the binding screw. A piece of leather strap with a harness hook is taped securely to the cable and the hook attached to the eye-bolt provided in the bottom of the cut-out box. The purpose of this strap is to support the cable and take up strain.

Construction of the Scoreboard Fig. 4 shows the construction of the scoreboard, which consists of a wooden outside case, completely lined with sheet metal, and a frosted glass window of two large panels, one for the score of each team, and two small panels, one for the time to play and the other for the quarter. The window is hinged to the case at the top so that it may be opened to replace burned lamps. The back of the window frame is also lined with sheet iron. Directly back of the frosted glass panels are the lights for forming the score numbers, and for illuminating the numbers indicating the time left to play and the quarter.

Each light section in the number panels, and also the single lights for indicating time and quarter, are shielded so that the light will not spread, and only that portion of the frosted glass directly in front of each lamp section is illuminated. These shields are fully illustrated in the drawing of Fig. 4. The shields may be riveted or soldered to the sheet metal receptacle panel. Notice also that ventilating holes are provided in the lamp section shields as shown.

The lamps, which are ten-watt sign-lighting lamps, are held in porcelain screw-ring receptacles. These receptacles are attached by making holes in the sheet metal mounting panel (See end view Fig. 4) and inserting the nipple of the receptacle from the back and screwing on the ring from the front.

The lights are connected in sections or groups as shown in the wiring diagram of Fig. 3. It is well to paint each conductor as suggested in the table on the wiring diagram so that they can be readily identified when the final connections are to he made. These colors, however, are merely suggestions, as any combinations may be used.

Lights Hook to Bakelite Terminal Panels A bakelite connection panel is provided between the score number panels and the time and quarter number panels. The conductors from the lights are connected to the back of the binding screws on the panel, which may be No. 6-32, one inch long, brass.

The conductors from the conduit leading to the control box are connected to the front of the panel. The conduit may enter the case from either side, or the back, but must enter on a level with the center of the connecting panel.

The letters of teams’ names are built up of wood strips 1″ wide and 1/4″thick and tacked to a 3/4″ background. The background and letters should be painted in contrasting colors.

The completed name plate is attached to the top of the case by means of four shelf brackets. The letters in “Minutes to Play” and “Quarter” are 2-3/4″ high and built up from strips 1/4″x 3/4″ and tacked to the window frame in the position shown in the drawing of Fig. 2.

To permit cool air to circulate through the ventilating holes provided in the shields and through parts of the case, two-inch holes are provided in the wood case as shown in the drawing of Fig. 4.

If the location of the scoreboard is such so that there is any possibility of the glass being struck by the ball, a guard must be provided. An ordinary wire window guard with an iron frame may be adapted for this purpose, as shown in the view in Fig. 5. The mesh holes of the wire should not be less than two inches.

The control box consists of a wooden box or case, entirely lined with sheet iron, which houses the control switch panel and the cable connections. The construction is fully described in the drawing of Fig. 5.

Small toggle switches, 3 ampere, 110 volts, are used for controlling the lights. From a study of the wiring diagram, it will be seen that by closing a switch, a certain light or a certain light section which it controls, will be illuminated. By closing the proper switches, any numeral may be formed by combining the proper light sections, or any of the lights illuminating the numerals in the panels “Time to Play” and “Quarter” may be switched on or off at will.

It will be noticed that the control switches are all installed on the bakelite panel so that they all turn “on” and “off” in the same direction. The operator can thus tell from the position of the switch levers whether a switch is on or off without having to glance at the scoreboard to see which light sections are illuminated. The light sections or panels are also outlined on the control box panel in white as shown in the drawing so that the light section or light operated by each particular switch is indicated. A 10-ampere tumbler switch is used for the main circuit switch.

Board Will Be Approved by Inspectors.

In the above description only the essential points of construction have been touched upon since the drawings and the notes thereon describe the other points of construction fully.

The construction of this scoreboard is such that it should meet with the approval of all electrical inspectors. The whole device is electrically “dead” when the service plug is disconnected, which should always be done when not in use. Standard electrical parts are used and the construction is rather simple, so that any handy man can make an attractive and efficient device. In operation, the device is entirely fool-proof, being as positive of action as the turning on and off of a light in one’s home.

Huge Vacuum Cleaner Sweeps Golf Links to Find Balls

SEARCH for golf balls lost in dried cut grass may no longer be a bugbear to golfers, thanks to a giant vacuum sweeper, recently invented, that picks up leaves, grass, paper, etc., from fairways.

Utilizing the principles of the ordinary household cleaner the unique machine, shown above, is capable of clearing debris from nine golf fairways in one day.

A “planer blower,” mounted on a trailer, furnishes the suction, drawing the debris with such force that it is blown through a long pipe into a cage built on a motor truck. An old automobile motor mounted on the trailer furnishes power for the blower.

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Robot Twirler – ‘Iron Man’ Pitcher
“OVERHAND JOE,” batting practice hurler for the Pittsburgh Pirates and other clubs, is shorter than Bobby Shantz, three times as heavy as Bobo New-som and can pitch a ball faster than the Yankees’ Allie Reynolds. He pitches every nine seconds—has a 90-day warranty.

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ROLLER DERBY

It is a teeth-jarring sport for skaters who race 30 miles every night

To 17 million Americans who occasionally clamp on a pair of roller skates the sport means nothing more than a casual evening at the local rink, gliding along to easy organ rhythms and perhaps taking a harmless pratfall when jounced by an exhibitionist. To the husky young men pictured here, however, it is a highly professional undertaking. They belong to a traveling show called the Roller Derby, and for 11 months a year they and 31 other men and women in the troupe make a living by racing each other around a portable Masonite track in tights and football helmets for 30 miles every night.

The Roller Derby is a teeth-jarring contest, with enough spills and body contact (pp. 114,115) to gratify even an ice hockey fan. Men’s and women’s teams (five skaters constitute a team) race for alternate 15-minute periods. Although its current promoter formerly staged dance marathons and Walk- athons, the rules of this spectacle appear to have beer cribbed from six-day bike racing (in which points are awarded for laps stolen during sudden sprints or “jams”) and professional wrestling (in which a contestant is allowed to commit almost any violence that will give him an advantage over his opponent). Audiences have already learned to hiss the sport’s more clumsy villains, but lady skaters are not ostracized when they kick one another in the face. The hair-pulling which follows provides entertainment even when it appears to have been well rehearsed.

Last week after a 31-day run in Chicago, where these stroboscopic pictures were taken by Life Photographer George Skadding, the Roller Derby moved into a Manhattan armory. New York sports fans were delighted with it: during the first five nights of racing three of the contestants wound up in the hospital.

Foot Scales Weigh Golf Strokes
WEIGHING each foot of a golfer while he is addressing and striking the ball is the unique scheme recently employed to compute the weight of the force put into a drive by such golf experts as Bobby Jones. The scales tell whether he puts more weight on the left foot than on the right. In the test, conducted as shown in the above photo, it was found that the right foot bore the greatest burden.

Air Sweeps Dust off Home Plate

Baseball umpires can throw away their whisk brooms if an automatic home-plate duster recently invented is generally adopted. When the device is placed in operation, a valve built into the plate rises and a blast of compressed air sweeps it clean of dust and dirt, as shown in the photograph below.