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They Chisel Plastic

Modern sculptors can carve light and shadow into their work with a thrilling new man-made material.

LOT’S wife was turned into a pillar of salt in the Bible but British sculptor Arthur Fleischmann has chipped her out of the biggest block of Perspex ever made. Perspex is a British plastic similar to Plexiglas or Lucite. With Perspex a sculptor can “sculpture in glass.” A Dubliner named Maxwell Moffet drills beautiful marine animals into plate Perspex; properly lighted, his creatures swim brilliantly in a sea of shadow.

Beautiful Figures Make Letters

BEAUTIFUL figures of girls of a motion picture studio are used for making neat advertising letters, nineteen of them being trained to form large letters by reclining on the grass for their sun baths.

Paper Coat Sheds Rain — Folds Up Into Small Package

TWO distinct developments are represented in a new type of rain coat recently introduced in Hollywood. The first is in the line of convenience, the coat being collapsible, so to speak, into a small compact package that can be carried in the pocket. The second is in material, paper replacing the customary rubberized fabric.

When worn, the coat resembles the capes commonly worn by policemen. Special treatment of the paper prevents the coat from falling to pieces or developing leaks in a downpour. The photo at the left shows Buddy Rogers, movie star, garbed in one of these new coats. Although it isn’t raining, it might start any minute, and Buddy is ready.

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New Products

FILAMENT CHECKER.

Speedy testing of filaments and heaters in all types of tubes is the function of the Sencore FC123. Nuvistors, novars, compactrons, and 10-pin tubes, as well as all of the more familiar types, can be quickly and easily checked with this device. A pair of test leads is supplied for checking CRT’s, making other continuity tests, and testing neon indicator lamps. The FC123 sells for $3.95. (Sencore, Inc., 426 S. Westgate Dr., Addison, Ill.)
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New Eye Test Gauges Judgment of Level

An eye defect that causes some persons to see things slanted that are actually level, may be the cause of certain types of plane crashes and automobile accidents, according to optical scientists at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. A pilot suffering from this ailment, it is stated, might see a landing field on a slant and bank his plane accordingly on landing, only to find too late that the field was flat. Read the rest of this entry »

Thousand Tons of Rails Test Strength of Concrete Piers

A THOUSAND tons of steel rails were piled upon a concrete pier in Chicago recently, to determine whether piers extending only to a layer of hardpan, and designed for a four-story building, would support the weight of a 16-story structure on the site of the Chicago Union Station.

The soil at this point is composed of 65 feet of soft earth over an eight-foot layer of hardpan. Beneath the hardpan a second layer of soft clay and sand is encountered before rock is reached. The tests were conducted to avoid, if possible, the expense of excavating to bedrock, and to find how many additional piers would be required to support the 12 additional stories.
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Remote Keyboard of this electromatic typewriter makes it possible for disabled, bed-ridden patients to type their own letters while lying in almost any position. This veteran, Russell A. Ludden, a patient at the Bronx Veterans Hospital, is shown being given a typing lesson by Miss Margaret Dale, instructor of commercial subjects,

NEW WHEELED CONVEYOR MOVES BAGS

A flexible conveyor system on wheels for loading and unloading freight cars carrying bagged and baled materials has
just been placed on the market. It speeds up the work, requires fewer men, and can be moved about to send the bags around corners or into the warehouse rooms. This one-man outfit is a new development of a screw conveyor system introduced some years ago. Sections of spiral tubes, revolved by an electric motor, have screwlike threads on the surface that keep the bag moving. The load moves at the rate of ninety feet a minute.

Store Robot Reduces Audit Labor, Costs

A ROBOT that eliminates at one fell swoop all cash registers, sales, audits, inventories and much other office routine work is now being manufactured for use in large department stores.

The robot, shown in operation in the photo above, consists of a number of units joined in series and operated by electricity. The system eliminates all manual labor and cuts costs of audits in half, according to the inventor, Prof. A. L. Woodruff, who worked two years on the device.

The dog collar and the signal lights on the truck are certainly out there now. Not too sure about the others.

Inventions Wanted!

TELESCOPING HEELS which could be lowered for tired tootsies or to please a short boy friend. R. F. Hom rich, Clawson. Mich.

SIGNAL LIGHTS on back of big trucks which would tell motorist whether or not it’s safe to pass. Fred Warner. North brook. Ill.

RUBBER-BOTTOMED can wouldn’t slide off or mar fastidious owner’s paint job when polishing car. M. Traficanti, Pittsburgh, Pa. Read the rest of this entry »

Conveyor Speeds Shoeshine

CONSISTING of a rotary conveyor seating eight persons and an elevated platform with steps for ascending and descending, a new shoeshining service unit has made its appearance in St. Louis, Mo. Better and quicker shines are said to be provided through use of the unit.

After mounting a seat from the ascending side of the platform, the customer is slowly-conveyed past six attendants who stand behind the machine and successively perform the various shining operations. An electric motor powers the conveyor.

Scientific Novelties

Peacetime Tank for Swamps

• The machine at the left was built by a member of a distinguished engineering family with the idea of using it for relief in case of hurricanes or floods in the Florida Everglades.

Telescope—Anti-Aircraft

• THE machine below shoots at balloons, but it is a camera, 16 feet long, and the longest outside astronomical observatories. It was used as another check on altitude flight.
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