.GIANT CLAMS TRAP SEA DIVERS
IN GRIP OF SHELLS Shells of huge clams found off the coast of Papua often weigh more than 400 pounds. Divers who accidentally step into the open lips of the monsters are not infrequently held with such force that they cannot release themselves and are drowned. The shells close with such force that they serve as gigantic traps.
.How Navy’s New Tricks Concealed Ships
Based on established and reliable optical laws, the Navy’s World War II camouflage used black and white ! painted patterns on vessels, producing startling visual deception that was confounding even at a 50-foot range. Strongly contrasted stripes in the designs made accurate observation virtually impossible. False, shadows created most deceiving illusions of shape. Sterns were “shortened,” gear was “hidden,” and entire ships were “heeled” through the scientific use of paint. The ineffective battleship gray and Dazzle System of camouflage (left) were rendered obsolete.
Those are some pretty awesome models but that second article is a very scary idea. I’d be pretty pissed if my doctor tried to brand me..
.Young Shipbuilders Take Cruise in Their Giant Models
ALL honors for constructing real boat models go to a couple of Berlin youths who have turned out in their own workshops the two amazing creations shown in the photo above. Perfect duplicates of the training frigate “Preussen” and the cruiser “Hindenburg,” the two models are large enough to carry real sailor passengers, as you can see in the photo. The model of the “Hindenburg” has full fighting equipment, and an anchor that actually anchors.—————————-
Skin Brands to Prevent Frauds
INDELIBLE messages tattooed on the skins of patients who have had surgical operations or have suffered injuries were urged recently in England to prevent fraud. Such a course would prevent duplication of claims by persons who try to collect many times for physical deficiencies which they have had since birth. Often they deliberately undergo an accident to collect damages.
.NEW LIFE PRESERVER HAS TWO PROPELLERS
Timid of sea travel because of his inability to swim, a Japanese lawyer of Los Angeles, Calif., has invented and patented a mobile life preserver. Hand cranks at the sides of the device turn a pair of diminutive propellers, enabling the wearer to advance at fair speed while remaining erect in the water. Thus a non-swimmer may reach a nearby shore without waiting to be picked up. The photograph above shows the inventor wearing his odd life preserver. Note the propellers and the hand crank that operates them.
.Air Bubbles to Save Life at Sea
FOR more than two thousand years, sailors have known that a little oil, poured on the raging billows, will quiet them almost magically. In many rescues from a distressed ship during a storm, we read that oil has been used. A method, more efficient than simply pouring it over the ship’s side, is to put the oil into cloth bags, through which it will leak gradually, and tow them at the end of ropes, so that the oil is distributed very thinly. It is necessary only to have a thin film, to break the “surface tension” of the water; and the waves are no longer able to hold their height so readily.
.Strange PERILS of Making MOVIES Beneath the Sea
Hollywood’s most intrepid cameraman relates startling adventures he has encountered making undersea movies which chill your blood.
by HOMER SCOTT – Pioneer Underwater Cameraman
IN 14 years I probably have gazed into the cold eyes of more curious fish and looked on the bodies of more actors and actresses beneath the sea than any other man. From the shores of Southern California to the rocky coast of the Socorro islands, far south in the Pacific, and even off the shores of New Zealand I have descended many times in one of my half-bells, my legs dangling puppet-like in the cold water, to photograph dramas that sometimes thrilled me more than were the audiences that viewed the results on the screen. ] When the editors of Modern Mechanix and Inventions asked me to write of the thrills and tell you how these scenes are filmed, I said to myself, “Gosh, there’s nothing very interesting about undersea picture-taking.”
.Splicing a Cable in Mid-Atlantic
The author of this article went as a member of the crew of the cable ship in order to get this vivid, first-hand story for you.
By BURT M. McCONNELL
Photos by AuthorTORN and twisted, an ocean cable last winter lay buried under a layer of clay two miles beneath the gray-green, foam-capped waves of the Atlantic, three hundred miles east of Halifax. It was shattered by the terrific earthquake that shook the Atlantic seaboard for a distance of 1,000 miles and put out of commission about half of the underwater communications between the United States and Europe.
.English Ferry Wades Through Ocean Waves
NOT a boat, but a caterpillar-tractor car, is this public utility, located at an English seaside resort. As shown, it holds its passengers above the waves, while picking its way over the bottom. A 24-horsepower engine operates it.
.Queer Wing-Flapping Plane Ascends Vertically Into Air
A QUEER-SHAPED aircraft, seemingly a combination of everything which has ever flown through the air, has proven successful in initial tests, doing just about anything in the way of performance that could be asked of a heavier-than-air craft. Jette, designer, a young Swedish engineer of Stockholm, believes his radically-designed plane will revolutionize the aviation industry.
Stubby wings like those of the earlier autogyros give the plane stability in horizontal flight. The engine drives a propeller mounted forward as in the ordinary land plane, and through gears turns the huge overhead rotor. Three flapping wings attached to the rotor move up and down as they spin, just as in an autogyro, and vanes on the inside of the rotor provide lifting force.
.Water-Mobile
By Everett H. Clark
When the water calls you cruising… when the road beckons you go rolling… always snug inside your traveling home.
THE millions of ex-GI’s who watched wartime amphibious craft climb dripping up the beachheads will recognize the substance of dreams of their own in the “Vacationer,” an amphibious luxury cruiser proposed by industrial designer Robert Zeidman for practical peacetime use. The new civilian amphibian is a descendant of some of the Navy’s experimental vehicles, not the Army’s familiar DUCK. It promises a sustained highway speed of 55 mph and a respectable 10 to 12 knots afloat. Efficient land speed was the first consideration in specifying power; the excellent showing on water is due to improved lines and to the twin screws in tunnels, driven by the twin motors in the stern. Twin rudders give maximum maneuverability.
