Ike Likes Art
GENERAL Dwight Eisenhower has been a very busy man. First it was the Army, then Columbia University, then SHAPE and now the White House could be just around the corner. A man couldn’t do the jobs Ike has done without having some means of relaxation. With Ike it’s art. When the whistle blows at the end of a tough day, the General unlimbers his art tools and makes like Rembrandt. And he does pretty well, too. One of his early pieces, a painting of an Indian head, sold for $2,600. His oils stole the show at Columbia art exhibit.

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Santa Clauses, Salami-Tyers and Soap-Tasters

Like to join the Brotherhood of Odd-Jobholders? Maybe some of these weird occupations aren’t difficult, but they’re certainly unique.

By E. I. Grinda

EVERY year during two weeks of October and November, men from all aver the United States gather at the most unusual school in the world—Santa Claus College. In Albion, N. Y., they study to be genial St. Nicks, sent there by department store managers who have found that their most acute problem near the end of each year is where to get a good reliable Santa Claus.
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IT’S NEW!

TRI-OPTIC LENSES for the near-blind give high magnification for near and far vision, normal peripheral vision for localization of objects.

PORTABLE TV set by GE. battery-powered and transistorized. has full selectivity. Cost of transistors keeps it off market for the present.
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INVENTIONS WANTED!

ELECTRONIC FOOD ANALYZER chocks ripeness of fruit vegetables, eliminates bad selections. R. Reece. S. Pasadena, Calif.

PLASTIC COVERED bathtub for little monsters who like to splash. Prevents bathroom flooding. Jack Kruse, Unionville. Conn.

METAL SPIKES on rubber tires which would slip over lawnmower’s wheels, aerate lawn while mowing. Michael Fey, New York, N. Y.

PAINT PILL which brush wielder would merely drop into thinner to produce desired hues. Victor Ashford, Garden Grove, Calif.

LUMINOUS SMOKE that sky writers could use to spell out night messages, produce eyecatching ads. F. H. Kraus, San Antonio, Tex.

Is there a gadget you think should be invented? If so, send its description to Inventions Wanted Editor, MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED. 67 West 44 St., N.Y. 36. N.Y. Each one printed will be awarded $5.

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Big Profits From Little Prophets

The Kahns took the old Swiss weather house, put it on a modern production line and now collect over % million dollars annually.

By Clive Howard

TO make a million dollars, or at least to put yourself far out along the road toward your first million, you don’t necessarily have to invent something that nobody ever thought of before. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to invent anything.

You can, like young Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kahn of Highland Park, Illinois, simply resurrect for the modern market an invention that is nearly as old as time.
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INVENTIONS WANTED!

NO KNEES-FREEZE with this plug-in car blanket that works on car juice or drive-in outlet. For winter sports car drivers and their victims. Bill Hickey, Stillwater, N.Y.

KNOW MORE ABOUT MPG with this clever fuel gauge that tells you how much gas you have in gallons instead of the usual full-empty gauge. Earl J. Heckel. Galesburg, Ill.
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Cleveland Club Helps New Inventors

Fledgling gadgeteers won’t be at the mercy of dishonest promoters when Bill Korth’s New Inventors Club is battling for their rights.

By Alfred Eris

NO one ever has worried much about the troubles of inventors.

More than one inventive soul will shame-facedly confess to having been fleeced out of his idea and the time, effort and money it involved. Countless others will admit that they just never did anything about their inventions, and perhaps threw away a chance to make big money, for the simple reason that they didn’t know how or where to begin. Read the rest of this entry »

“All other factors being equal”? So they controlled for the widespread gender bias that was present at the time? Because if girls even think that boys will do better than them on a test (or vice versa, or any particular group) it can have a negative impact on their test scores. It’s called the Stereotype Threat.

Which Sex is the Smarter?

Other factors being equal, men are as much as 50 percent better than women at solving complicated problems, according to Edward J. Sweeney, Stanford University research psychologist. It took Dr. Sweeney two years and multitudes of tests given to male and female students to arrive at this conclusion.

Intelligence is a combination of many special abilities, says Dr. Sweeney, and problem-solving is only one of them. As for general intelligence, he adds, there has never been any demonstrable superiority of either sex at any age.
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IT’S NEW!

ENGLISHMAN’S DOME is a glass castle; architect Hugh Pope and wife relax under glass. Modest Crystal Palace went up in two weeks for cost of $1,400.

CITROEN station wagon, one of the French firm’s new line of utility autos, holds lots of cargo for a smallish vehicle. The rear seats face inwards, fold into floor very cleverly. Below: true French chic.
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White Elephant Party

There is only one drawback to this kind of affair: you may get back a worse eyesore than one you gave.

GETTING rid of unwanted household articles and having a good time to boot, was the purpose of a recent White Elephant Party celebrated by a group of Camden, S. C., Du Pont plant employes and their wives. The reason for such an affair is diabolically simple: find that awful gift your great-aunt Zenobia gave you a few years ago, gaily wrap it and bring it to a party where some unsuspecting soul will win it. There is only one drawback to this plan: what you win may prove to be more of a white elephant than what you gave!

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Patents ~ Nutty or Novel

Maybe you don’t believe that the inventors of the devices shown on these pages went to the trouble of securing patents on them, but they did, every one of them.

Hurricane Cable Anchors Houses to Ground to Resist Storms.

WHAT couldn’t have been done for the leaning tower of Pisa with the anchoring cable shown in the drawing above! Too bad the idea was patented about 400 years too late to do the leaning tower any good— and in the meantime it went right on leaning and got itself famous, being the originator of that now famous stunt. Read the rest of this entry »

Speed Indicator to Aid Typist

A WORD tabulator has been devised for attachment to typewriters to assist operators in watching the speed with which they are typing. Ella Freer, school novice typing champion of New York state, is shown below using a wood tabulator attached to her machine as she practiced for the international typewriting contest at Toronto.