BUSINESS Welcomes NEEDED GADGETS

Motor cleaning fluid which is poured into an auto engine through the spark plug openings is said to clean out carbon deposits overnight.

Bottle cap with a new measuring cone permits accurate pouring of the correct medicinal dose without using a spoon or dropper.

Centrifugal water pump powered by 10 h.p. outboard engine is designed for fire fighting, small irrigating jobs, or even for pumping dirty, sand-laden water. Read the rest of this entry »

Racing Canoes With Large Umbrella for Sails Is Popular Water Sport

RACING canoes with umbrellas for sails has become a popular water sport at the southern resorts and will undoubtedly be taken up seriously everywhere this summer.

The canoes are jockeyed into place along the starting line by paddling, and the over-grown umbrellas are then opened for action. At the starting signal, paddles are taken from the water and the canoes start off under full sail. In some races the “skipper” is allowed to use the paddle to keep the canoe in its course and prevent collisions.

GYP of the MONTH

Want to be a better crook? Harry the Hyp will help.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD some American tourists complain about being gypped by the natives in Europe, but now we give you a tourist who reversed the story. He bought a railway ticket at a station in Scotland and paid with a $50 bill. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Mystery of the Shrinking Oranges

A Sad Story from Southern California

by John Devaney

California’s Valencia oranges are shrinking. The Golden State’s summer orange, which provides the entire nation with orange juice from July to November, has become little larger than a golf ball. And nobody in California knows why. Read the rest of this entry »

Tricycle Vender Solves Girl’s Unemployment Problem
UNABLE to find suitable employment in her profession as a typist, Miss Clara Cage, of Hollywood, discovered an unusual method of earning a living. She rigged up a tricycle as a delivery wagon and now delivers cartons of ice cream direct to consumers. During hot spells Miss Cage turns many a pretty penny by pedaling her way about the streets on her tricycle, which is shown in the photograph at the left. Along Hollywood boulevard, her favorite selling area, she attracts attention by her novel togs and vehicle.

Electric Banana Ripening
THE ripening of bananas, which are cut from the trees when green, requires carefully controlled heat and humidity. A new and positive method has been devised by using electric strip heaters mounted under water pans suspended from the ceilings. The rooms in which the bananas are ripened are specially constructed, practically air tight, and with refrigerator-type doors. Thermostatic control maintains the room temperature between 60 and 75 degrees, depending on how green the bananas are when placed in the room and how soon it is desired to complete the ripening process which is from 48 to 60 hours.

Shoes for Fastidious Walkers

IF YOU are a fastidious walker you will probably appreciate the unique shoe soles shown in the photo below. The design is made by the use of inlaid bits of colored leather and with studs, so that the patterns run all the way through the leather, if that means anything to you. The shoes were displayed recently at the Shoe and Leather Fair in the Royal Agricultural exhibition in Islington, England. They were held to be a masterpiece of the shoemaker’s art.

It’s All Gold that Glitters Here

HALF of the yearly gold production of the world passes through the great refinery at Germinston, South Africa, where the photographs shown on this page were taken.

This article is incomplete. It does not continue on page 188. In fact I looked on every page of the magazine, and the ending is nowhere to be found. Oh well.

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Amazing Vacuum Tubes May Eliminate Motors

by JAY EARLE MILLER

Based on an interview with Dr. W. R. Whitney and Associates of the General Electric Research Laboratories Scientists have accomplished the marvelous feat of literally taking nothing, sealing it in a glass tube and making it perform the tasks hitherto done by huge motors. Thyratrons, as these amazing vacuum tubes are called, may soon relegate all machinery to the junk pile. Already vacuum tubes are curing dread diseases, increasing the range of man’s senses, and saving industry huge sums.
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NEW SCALP EXERCISER IS DRIVEN BY ELECTRICITY

BALDNESS seems to be the fear of all men. Here is the newest remedy for that fear. The new motor-driven scalp exerciser is guaranteed to give the scalp all the exercise that it needs. Scientifically the principle that this machine exemplifies is correct. Since blood is the food on which all the tissues of the body feed, the supply must be kept fresh and plentiful. Read the rest of this entry »

Largest Dial Thermometer Built

THE world’s largest dial thermometer has recently been installed at Atlantic City. The diameter of the dial is 22 feet; the pointer measures 9-1/2′. The control element is a small helix of bronze tubing filled with a liquid which expands or contracts with each change in temperature.

PERMANENT LETTER FILE

ANYONE possessing a phonograph can read the “photovox letter” shown above, by merely placing the plate on a machine and playing it like any other record. The chemical process that was devised to manufacture the photovox disc and retain a permanent record of the spoken word was the work of two Vienna inventors, Prof. Eugen Fischer and Chemist Otto Zecha.

The difficulty with the ordinary reproducing record that can be made at home or in the office is that the air will make the record deteriorate so that it is unintelligible. The “photovox” plate has been made impervious to the air by the new chemical process.