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The Drive-In is Thrivin’

America’s newest major industry was regarded as a newfangled novelty a decade or so ago. Now it’s become strictly big business.

By I. B. Neer

WITHOUT leaving the wheel of your car you can spend the most amazing vacation of your life this summer. For the drive-in is really thrivin’!

Without sliding from behind the steering wheel, you’ll be able, to deposit money in a bank, do all your shopping in supermarkets, buy a bouquet of flowers, mail a letter, go to church, pay your gas and electric bills, have prescriptions filled, get your laundry and dry cleaning done, take out insurance, check into a hotel, visit a zoo, have your shoes repaired and buy a bottle of Scotch for the long cool nights.
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Vest-Pocket Life Preserver

DURING many an over-ocean, wartime flight as service inspector of B-24s in the China-Burma-India theater, Engineer Bill Baker’s thoughts of home kept reverting to a time when he. and his sister were lake sailing and their boat capsized, pinning the girl under the sail. Both escaped—but from then on his sister’s love for sail-boating was spoiled by her fear of the water.
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Divers Explore New Depths in 1-Man Sub

DEEP sea explorers are now enabled to fathom the ocean’s secrets to a depth of more than 815 feet, thanks to the invention of a (living suit which has been dubbed the “one-man sub.”

Until recently divers could only descend to a depth of about 200 feet, while submarines could only go a little deeper, about 300 ft. In submarines it was not possible to work around in wrecked ships or examine the ocean floor. Read the rest of this entry »

WHEELCHAIR CAR

HAROLD YOUNG of Downey, Calif., has a car designed expressly for wheelchair users. The driver gets in and out without help. Controls, including a push-stop, pull-go lever, are designed for the handicapped. The three-wheeler has directional signals as well as standard lights. Transmission uses a Togaloc clutch, chain drive to jackshaft, V-belt drive to rear wheels. The car has had years of all-weather use. •

Butyl ‘n Beautyon display at left herald a new style automobile inner tube designed to prevent the rapid deflation of air in the event of a puncture. Waffle-like construction causes a squeezing action around nail holes. Butyl is a synthetic rubber which retains air better than the natural product. The beauty—not synthetic—is Rae Caldwell.
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As opposed to the walking kind?

Also, henceforth I am going to use the spelling “computor”.

By the way, if you’re at all interested, this army training video detailing how an mechanical fire control computer works is amazing.

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Flying Missiles CAN Be Stopped!

Here is a sure-fire plan to down supersonic rockets like ducks—and wipe out the terror of sneak attacks.

By Frank Tinsley

HITLER was right when he ranted about the fearful havoc a “secret weapon” would wreak on his enemies. His V-2 rockets unleashed such terror on battered Britain that they nearly won the war—for the Nazis. For there was absolutely no defense against these mighty 3500-mph missiles—and no way to tell when—or where—they would strike next.
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IT’S NEW!

EMERGENCY FLOATS being tried here by Sikorsky S-55 helicopter can be inflated by pilot for any unscheduled landings on water.

TV COMBAT CAMERA developed by Army enables scout to send up-to-the-minute battle pictures to command post.

VACUUM CLEANER built by U. S. Hoffman Machinery Corp. weighs 15 tons, cleans runways of rubble to protect jet intakes.

SHOPPER’S MAILBOX, newly designed for people carrying a week’s provisions from the supermarket, was tried out recently in Washington, D. C. Foot pedal should be useful during Christmas rush.
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MI Tests the Crosley ‘Hotshot’

By Tom McCahill

A “warm missile” is one way our English cousins might sum up the new Crosley “Hotshot.” Whatever you call it, though, this brand-new, miniature American sport car should prove a fiery shot in the arm to its big, somber American contemporaries. This new car is something to have fun with and enjoy—definitely not a vehicle to carry crepe at your grandmother’s funeral.
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Looks like this train, plus two others are still going strong at the Portland Zoo.

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Portland’s Zoo Railway

HAPPY tots and smiling adults ride around the new $3,859,000 Portland, Ore., zoo on America’s latest railway—the Portland Zoo Railroad Co. The rocket-styled, Diesel-powered Zooliner hauls three gleaming Skydome coaches and a luxurious club car which tote 99 adults or 132 kids. The pike is headed by famed Pacific Northwest author and historian, Stewart H. Holbrook, Chairman of the Board, and John H. Jones, President. All aboard!

Plane Drops Motor in Case of Fire, Then Lands as Glider

Danger of fire breaking out in an airplane engine in flight gives promise of being eliminated by the perfection of a new method of mounting motor and gas tanks which permits them to be dropped from the fuselage of the plane in case of fire. Joaquin Abreu of San Francisco is the inventor of the new motor-mounting device. The photo below shows how the mechanism is attached to a frame underneath the plane, from which it can be dropped at an instant’s notice by simply moving the release lever. After the motor has been dropped, the plane lands easily as a glider.

Ok, now I’m starting to think that Tom McCahill just had a fetish about imagining Chinese men in uncomfortable situations.

By the way, if you want to see just how much safer modern cars are than cars of this era, check out this video put out by the insurance institute on its 50th birthday. It’s a collision between a 1959 Chevy Bel Air and a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Guess who wins.

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McCahill Sounds Off On Safety

Uncle Tom blasts so-called “safety features” and suggests ten ways makers can cut traffic deaths.

By Tom McCahill

IN THE automobile business right now the topic of safety is as hot as a naked Chinaman in a barrel of tabasco. With various professors fronting for them and spouting statistics by the yard, carmakers in newly-tailored angel suits have set out almost en masse to halt highway slaughter.

Now this is a noble undertaking, the good Lord knows, and I am all in favor of anything that will save even one life on the road. But the trouble is, the safety campaign so far has not shown much evidence of being overloaded with realistic thinking. Read the rest of this entry »

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NEW in SCIENCE

Sharpnel-Proof Vest is displayed by Pfc. Ralph Barlow of Redondo Beach, California. While in front line action in Korea, Barlow was hit by shrapnel and knocked to ground, but received no serious injury. Vest stopped the metal fragment.

Bell X-5 is undergoing tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It is our first plane able to change the sweep of its wings in flight from the most forward position, top, to a fully sweptback position, bottom, in 30 seconds. It is jet propelled.
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