view additional pages

Home for Aged Trolley Cars

THE Seashore Electric Railway of Kennebunkport, Me., is a short stretch of track going nowhere. It’s run by and for people who miss the rattle-clang of the streetcars that have been discarded by Progress in favor of malodorous diesel buses. Fifteen years ago three sentimental Bostonians acquired a 12-bench open trolley; now the New England Electric Railway Historical Society has 300 members and owns rolling stock from points as far away as Denver and Minneapolis.

view additional pages

PARATROOPS by the PACKAGE

Like rations or ammo, infantry squads in metal containers can be dropped behind enemy lines.

By Frank Tinsley

SURPRISE packages have become America’s newest war weapon!

Engineers in the Air Materiel Command are testing a 6,000-pound capacity container which can be used to drop an entire infantry squad, completely equipped, from an airplane.

A universal-type container, along with another cargo container, recently designed by the laboratory, will be used in the newer cargo airplanes such as the Fairchild C-119. The second container has been developed for use with the overhead mon- orail of the C-119. Still in an early research and development stage, the universal container holds great promise. Read the rest of this entry »

This car apparently met a sad end in 1970

view additional pages

MEET THE BESASIE X-2

ZERO to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds is fast enough to scorch the wrinkles on an asbestos-lined bald dome but that’s what the Besasie X-2 can do, claims its designer-builder, Raymond Besasie. The Milwaukee, Wis., inventor spent an estimated 5,200 hours and close to $20,000 building his dream car which features running lights on its sides. The center wheel-steered auto has no doors. You hop in and out via recessed step plates on either side of what would be doors on a conventional car. Read the rest of this entry »

The only car that keeps your teeth white! (and yes I know that’s not how it’s spelled)

NEW RENAULT FLORIDE

ONE of the stars of the recent Paris auto show was the Renault Floride, a new model from the makers of the famous Dauphine. With racy, Ghia-styled lines, the Floride will be available in convertible, hardtop and cabriolet with removable hardtop. The chassis is reported to be stock Dauphine. The Floride is expected to be on sale in the U. S. in June. The price will be $2,300.

view additional pages

Threat To America… THE RED FLEET!

By Arthur Kranish

While we raise massive defenses against the Red air menace, the Russians are building an atomic navy designed and trained for global domination.

HUGE atomic submarines for round-the-world espionage or attack missions. . . Fantastic new missiles ready to flatten almost any city in the U.S. from under-sea hiding. . . . Hundreds of new, missile-carrying cruisers and destroyers. . .

This is the new Russian Navy, a fleet that may soon be powerful enough to isolate and destroy this nation in a single sneak attack.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost impossible not to read that headline wrong…

Butt-Snuffer

Bob GILL of Portland, Oregon, ran afoul of the law a few years ago. A cop picked him up for throwing a lighted cigarette butt out of his car window, a deed which is criminal in that forest-fire ridden state. “What do you usually do with your butts?” the cop asked. “Step on ‘em,” Gill replied. “Let’s see you step on that last one,” the cop retaliated.

This episode gave Gill an idea. Why not make an automatic butt-snuffing ashtray? He did and it has won Mi’s $50 gadget award. You’ll see it on the market soon, helping us to keep our forests green.

$17,500 Sports Car

Le GRAND SPORT (The Big Sport) is I the name for the lush, cream-blue-and-chrome sports car on Mi’s cover. Louis Ritter, New York furrier and hotelman, bought the 170-hp French Talbot chassis for $4500, paid $13,000 more to have the super-streamlined steel body built by hand in Paris by the celebrated designer Saoutchik. Luxuriously soft inner-spring upholstery, interlined convertible top, special push-button doors, leather-padded steering wheel and instrument panel, all helped up the car’s cost. But despite its high price and high-speed (115 mph) performance, the Talbot yields 18 miles per gallon under ordinary driving conditions. Comfortable, too, says MI Editor Bill Parker, above.

view additional pages

Helicopter Prodigy Designs Man-Carrying Rocket

STANLEY Hiller, Jr., isn’t satisfied with his helicopters. He has his sights set on a star. Literally, that is. And if he has his way, he’s going to get to that star in a machine of his own make, a man-carrying rocket which he calls the VJ-100.

The present model uses a combination of jet and rocket power and looks like a V-2 with wings. It is designed to take off straight upward, powered by a Rolls Royce Nene turbo-jet engine and 5,000 lbs. of rocket thrust. Later conversions will make use of rocket power alone to drive the VJ-100 away from the earth’s gravity on its interplanetary explorations. Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

NEW for CHRISTMAS

FOR THE HOME

PLASTIC SHADES of Vinylite adhere directly to glass without adhesive, can be peeled oil easily. Transeal, North Ave., Plainfield, N. J.

REFRIGARRANGERS are light, durable easy-to-clean containers of Bakelite styrene for leftover foods. Valley Forge Creations. Malvern. Pa.

PANCAKE TURNER-GREASER carries a replaceable absorbent pad to grease the pan. Without pad, holes drain grease. Paul Laux. Shavertown. Pa.

STORM WINDOWS of plastic can be used on homes, farmbuildings. withstand all weather. Easy to install. Central States Bag Co., St. Louis, Mo. Read the rest of this entry »

DIVING SPIDER PLANE To HURL Big BOMB

AVIATION’S newest wartime l threat is rumored to be a plane, tiny enough so that a fleet of them will fit into a dirigible, which, when released, will guide huge, two-ton bombs to within a few hundred feet of their objective.

Like giant spiders clutching bottle flies, they will zoom into power dives, each carrying tons of destruction.

Fantastic? Not if recent experiments are carried to their logical ends. The use of the power dive as a means of attack is not new.

When attached to a carrier, the bomb becomes an integral part. It is released only when a direct hit is a certainty. After releasing the bomb, the plane can return to the carrier or act as a interceptor fighter.

Life Guard Speeds to Drowning Swimmer on Motorized Surfboard
SURFBOARD riders won’t have to depend on outboard motors or speed boats to pull them over the water in the future. Below is shown a motorized surfboard scooter recently invented in Australia. The small motor in the rear furnishes the power and also sets the board at the proper angle in the water. A good machine for life guards.

Navigation Computers have progressed a wee bit since this was published.

New Navigation Computer Solves Flight Problems

SIMPLIFYING aerial navigation problems

to a point never before possible, an entirely new type navigation computer has been perfected by engineers and adopted as standard equipment by many pilots on the nationwide air travel systems.

Designed to provide an immediate answer to navigation questions the pilot must face during the course of a flight, the new instrument combines features of a slide rule with a series of special scales in the form of three celluloid discs which rotate around a common center.
Read the rest of this entry »