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.

Tiny Lamp Outshines Giant Tube

SIZE doesn’t seem to be the most important feature when it comes to candlepower in lamps, for the tiny photo flashlamp shown in the photo below is about three and one-third times as powerful as the larger one. However, the small one lasts only one-fiftieth of a second, while the large one lasts about a hundred hours.

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HOW TO MAKE MEN LIKE YOU

Ever wonder why so people are liked by everyone they meet Usually because they work at it—even though their effort may not be apparent to you. They are the ones who take the extra trouble to get a stranger’s name right, to remember a co-workers birthday, to telephone or write their thanks for a favor.
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Neon Beacon Has 120-Mile Range

Huge Light Is Visible to Aviators Across Entire State of Indiana

All aerial night traffic on the transcontinental route from New York to the Pacific Coast is now guided across the entire state of Indiana by the world’s largest neon aviation beacon, which has recently been completed atop the tallest building in Indianapolis. Standing 375 feet above street level, the red beams of the 2,000,000 candlepower light may be seen by aviators within a radius of 60 miles. On clear nights it may be picked up 100 miles away.

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Trouble Busters

You toss them a tough problem and they toss back a tender solution.

BY MARGOT PATTERSON

“NO POTATOES,” the grocer said grimly.

“No potatoes?” the housewife exclaimed with emotion. “Why, I must have potatoes! My family needs potatoes!”

“Sorry, lady,” the grocer said. “There’s a shortage. It’s on account of the rot.”

Until 1938, this little scene was re-enacted annually all over the United States. Bacterial soft rot baffled shippers. It would spread through whole carloads of potatoes, causing losses of millions of dollars. Finally, the shippers put the problem in the hands of the Armour Research Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

Light Pipes

GLASS tubing—eight hundred miles of it each month—flows from the nose of the 100-ton mandrel furnace at right. Cut into five-foot lengths for 100-watt fluorescent lamps, the tubes are first thoroughly cleaned inside and out with the combination brush and suction cleaner shown above. Then each one is filled to the top with fluorescent powders called phosphors. The liquid drains out leaving a phosphor coating inside and the long bulbs are placed on the rack at left to dry. Above, the furnaceman inspects tubing as it emerges

Fletner S-Rotor Used for Windmill

TAKING a hint from the unique power plant of the rotor ship designed by Anton Fletner several years ago, Charles L. Lawrence, aeronautical engineer, has designed a windmill —the only one of its kind in this country — which uses the famous S-Rotor to catch the wind. Mounted high on a platform as shown in the accompanying photo, the cylindrical rotor is hooked to a pump which supplies water to a duck pond. Pump is housed in the shed beneath.