Fifty Chances a Day to save a life!
By LEON SHLOSS
EVERY day in July and August an average of 50 persons will drown in the United States. Between May 1 and September 1, no other type of accident will take a greater toll of life, except possibly automobile mishaps, which caused more than 28,000 deaths in 1945 (See PSM, Apr. ‘46). The grim race between the two destroyers will be close.
Drownings rank fourth in the annual accident rate, being outstripped by automobiles, falls, and burns, but between May Day and Labor Day they are the prime contender for Public Accident Enemy Number One. This year, a tremendous pilgrimage from the cities to water resorts is expected. Approximately 100,000,000 people will go swimming. Nearly 200,000 will be rescued from drowning. About 10,000 will drown!
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RESTOCKING The OCEAN
Federal Bureau of Fisheries takes unusual measures to bal-ance inroads made by commercial fishers.
C. S. van Dresser
WHAT is probably the largest undertaking of its kind in the entire history of man has recently been completed, for, fantastic as it may sound, the ocean has been restocked by human efforts!
This gigantic task was accomplished by the Federal Bureau of Fisheries which states, in part: “If all of the fish planted by the Bureau in the past fiscal year in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes and rivers were to grow to maturity and be caught, almost every man, woman and child in the United States could have approximately six pounds of fish every week for a solid year from this source alone.”
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New Rotor Ship Sails in Lightest Wind
LOOKING like whirling surfboards, strange new rotors will furnish the power on a boat now nearing completion at Chicago. Laurence J. Lesh, pioneer aeronautical engineer, is designer of the craft.
Unlike the Flettner rotor ship, which attracted wide attention a few years ago, his boat will depend entirely upon the wind for propulsion. No engines will be required to keep the rotors turning, as was the case with the high “chimneys” of the German craft. Once the pointed, vertical wings of the Lesh boat begin spinning, they keep on until the wind dies down or the brakes are applied. The lightest of breezes, tests have shown, will start them whirling and move the ship.
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Kayak Near Disaster in Bout with Whale
TO PROVE that his unsinkable kayak will be a satisfactory lifeboat for trans-ocean flights, Kai Pless-Schmidt recently made a nine-day ocean trip from Faroe Islands to Bergen, Norway. The trip almost ended in disaster only a few miles from its destination when it encountered a school of eight-ton whales.
The object of the trip was accomplished, however, for the mariner proved that an airman, after a crash at sea, might reach safety in this boat. The craft carries three persons and inside there is room for folding rubber boats which it could tow, and thus 32 persons could be accommodated in an emergency.
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Inventor Gets Thrill in Homemade Submarine
His own invention, a one-man submarine, provides thrills for twenty-four-year-old James Bolar, Jr., of Oakland, Calif. He built the ten-foot craft in the basement of his home at a total cost of fifteen dollars for materials, and demonstrated it recently to astonished spectators in San Francisco Bay. Bolar enters a hinged conning tower, which is then sealed watertight by a rubber flap, and lies flat on the floor. A speedboat takes him in tow.
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SPIRAL ROLLERS DRIVE ODD SPEED BOAT
CLEAVING the water at express-train speed, a propellerless power boat of new design may shatter existing speed marks if it fulfills the hopes of its West Easton, Pa., inventor. Its slim hull rides upon three buoyant, barrel-shaped rollers, of which the forward two are connected to the power plant and revolve at high speed.
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