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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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RAILROADS IN THE SKY

Monorails promise swift and economical transportation for congested cities.

By Archie Robertson

HERE’S a brand-new way of travel for American commuters—the overhead, suspended train. In a monorail coach, light and roomy as a luxurious airliner and faster than a surface train, you will skim along above the crowded downtown streets, looking with thankfulness at your escape from a misery of crawling cars, traffic fumes, honking horns, whistling cops and squealing brakes. Whether you’re just going downtown to shop or commuting to work 50 miles from your home, a monorail will take you where you’re going two or three times as fast as conventional surface transportation. Read the rest of this entry »

Toy Air Limousine Has One Hundred Fifty Rubber Band Prop Power
A TOY produced by a western manufacturer is guaranteed to fly several hundred feet. It is equipped with 150 rubber band propeller power, and has a steering wheel, gauges, levers, in fact about everything that is found on a regular machine. The windows are of celluloid and the passenger department is luxuriously upholstered.

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THISH CAR RUNSH ON BEER

By Rudy Arnold

Liquor for this auto’s engine of distinction makes it run smoothly with that gurgling, surging power.

VERNON G. EISEL has what you might call a lush car. It will drink anything—and often does.

Pouring such barroom concoctions as beer, whisky or even soda into the fuel system of his ’53 Olds makes it purr like a kitten.

The secret, according to Eisel, who lives in Levittown, N. Y., is the “caveator” which lies beneath the hood and gives the car its gurgling, surging power. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never really thought about it, but it must be really hard to come up with new and interesting superlatives for things you like.

“…Dr. Porsche’s engineering with such cars as the SSK had the same head-spinning effect as a pipeful of poppy dust to a Chinese playboy.”

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MI Tests the German Porsche

If money is no object and you are looking for a small competition car that’s really loaded with TNT, this is it, our Uncle Tom reports.

By Tom McCahill

THE late Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was the Hopalong Cassidy of the automobile business. For 50 years he engineered mouth-watering cars for generations of big boys to dream about. What Hopalong does for the kids today, old Doe Porsche did for their old man’s old man by building cars with all the intrigue of a Left Bank dive. His fame started back in 1900 with the chassis and power plant of the Austro-Daimler and really came to a boil with his SSK Mercedes and later the famed Auto-Union. Doctor Porsche got more sex appeal on four wheels in a single day than Minsky could cram on a runway in 30 years. To the real gone automotive nut, Dr. Porsche’s engineering with such cars as the SSK had the same head-spinning effect as a pipeful of poppy dust to a Chinese playboy. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not really clear on how the paddle wheel works. Is it flexible? It seems like it would be very unhappy on ice or concrete if it’s not.

Automobile Sleigh Develops Speed of 35 Miles an Hour on Snow Roads
LESTER COBB, of Norway, Maine, has invented an automobile sleigh which will not mire in ruts or drifts of snow. It drives and operates like an automobile. A paddle arrangement gives it traction. The auto-sleigh is geared for rapid traction and 35 m.p.h, is a comfortable speed with it. It is declared that the deeper the snow the faster the speed of the sleigh.

One Way To Get There!

THE Edward Joneses and their year-old baby made the 1,591 mile trip from Chicago to Miami, Fla., in perfect comfort—so they say—in this strange vehicle. It is a dual bicycle joined by a welded frame.

I’m not really sure what the point of this photo is. Why are we comparing the size of a bus to a plane? The bus is pretty nifty looking though. The front kind of looks like a Darth Vader helmet. Or I’ve been playing way too much SWTOR lately. Probably the latter.

World’s First Motor Coach Sleeper Compared with Huge Monoplane
THE world’s first motor coach sleeper has been completed with accommodations for twenty-six sleepers. There are upper and lower berths similar to those of an elaborately fitted Pullman car. The sleeper was taken to an airfield for comparison in size with the Ford monoplane.

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Number One Rocket Man

A Silhouette of the Shy Massachusetts Physicist Who Pioneered in Rocket Research . . . Much to His Distress He Broke into the Noisier Newspapers

By G. EDWARD PENDRAY
Past President, the American Rocket Society
Editor of Astronautics

ON a flat, dry plain, 18 miles north of Roswell, New Mexico, rises a 60-foot tower of steel that has roused more curiosity, and has probably had a greater influence on the future of the world, than any other feature of all New Mexico’s arresting landscape.

From this tower, at irregular intervals, a Massachusetts physicist and his assistants send roaring into the skies certain gleaming, cigar-shaped projectiles of metal, powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen, and landed by parachutes.
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TV’s Sheet-Metal Heroes

Here’s how Grandpa’s Pierce-Arrow might end up on television, co-starring with Bob Stack

By JACK B. KEMMERER

“I’M a co-star with a bunch of old cars,” moans Bob Stack, I relaxing between takes on the studio set of The Untouch- ables. “And if you don’t believe it, take a look at the fan mail. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get more mail than the rest of us put together.”

The Untouchables, ABC-TV’s tale of gangsters and government men in the ’30s, quickly skyrocketed to high popularity in the United States soon after its first appearance on the TV screen. And cars on the program share fan appeal with the human cast.
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Do you think anyone considers a woman’s shorter reach when designing GM instrument panels?
Fisher Body does.

That’s why you see GM Stylist Joan Gatewood establishing 35 important reference points for instrument panels on the special unit pictured above. Then she tries them out on at least 25 different-sized people to make sure even the smallest drivers can reach all the essential controls from windshield wiper activators to defroster buttons. Read the rest of this entry »

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NEW PRODUCTS AND INVENTIONS

Hume workshop hobbyists who own drill presses will find the new auxiliary work table shown at right extremely useful. The top is made of heavy gauge steel permanently bonded to a plywood base. Fits any type drill press. Comes complete with anchor studs, threaded bushings, irregular shaping pin and special pivoting fence with wing nut clamp. Provides a large, flat working surface for all operations.

The new type slip-stream deflectors above are said to keep the car’s windshield clear of all foreign substances. Fastened in front of the windshield, they turn the airstream and dirt aside.
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