MODERN MIRACLE
SYNTHETIC CHEMISTRY: WEALTH FROM WASTE
by John E. Pfeiffer
This is the first of a series of articles on the romance of synthetic chemistry in which science has solved the mystery for turning waste into wealth.
“Don’t throw that away!” This is the battle cry of the great synthetic chemical industry which makes everything from hair-brush handles to T.N.T. from stuff that was once just waste. If you want to buy some perfume, the odds are that the bottle will contain odors extracted from coal tar, once a nightmare to factories who paid people to get rid of it.
But today, whether it’s waste gas, tar, or peanut shells, the chemists want it to sell back to you again in the form of motor fuel, photographic film, or pipe stems. What men do with rubbish would turn the most efficient housewife green with envy and the whole thing only started late last century.
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AN APPLIANCE designed to - condition the air at the armpits to eliminate perspiration has been patented by Clarence L. Mumaugh, of Lima, Ohio. The appliance consists of two bulb-shaped pumps, one under each armpit, provided with flap valves through which antiseptics and other chemical conditioners can be inserted.
When arm pressure squeezes the bulbs, air, conditioned by the chemicals in the bulb, is forced out through valves, cooling the armpit. Cold virus killer can be inserted in the bulbs a
nd inhaled through a long tube connected to the bulbs as a treatment for colds, if desired.
BARBERING, BANK ROBBING AND BARTENDING
If your thirst for knowledge is not quenched by ordinary colleges or schools, there are other halls of education open to you.
A suite of offices located somewhere high in the cement jungle of New York City houses one of the most amazing—and most hush-hush—institutions of learning in America. None of the building’s other tenants have the faintest suspicion that it’s a school. The elevator jockeys don’t know and neither do the cleaning women or even the owners. In fact, only a handful of persons is aware of its very existence.
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about torpedo control systems
…AND FORD INSTRUMENT COMPANY
When a torpedo is launched, its control system must solve many problems — not only directing it towards the target, but controlling its depth, speed, and stability.
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Mediumistic Tricks
FOR new Hallowe’en thrills, put on a mediumistic party with turban-bedecked medium, darkened room, spirit writing, tables floating in the air, and all the other tricks which fake spirit mediums use so successfully. The mere suggestion, on your invitations, that all weak-hearted persons should stay at home will insure a crowd.
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World’s Longest Bridges Span San Francisco Bay
by CHARLES W. GEIGER
A comprehensive article on the Golden Gate and San Francisco Oakland Bay bridges, telling of man’s struggle with nature to complete, at a tremendous cost, two of the most daring construction feats ever undertaken by American engineers.
HIGH over the surging tides of San Francisco’s Golden Gate, the two towers of the world’s largest single suspension bridge stand in defiant majesty as symbols of man’s victory over natural forces. And farther back, the eight mile skeleton of towers and piers stretch across the San Francisco—-Oakland bay, ready for the spans which will complete this, the world’s most costly bridge project.
These bridges, built at a total cost of $112,000,000, are being erected to aid traffic in and around San Francisco. The bridge to Oakland cuts the 30 mile trek around the circuitous shoreline of the bay to a straight 8-1/4 mile trip across the bridge; the Golden Gate project eliminates a detour of approximately 80 miles for direct coastal traffic between Canada and Mexico.
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In the mid ’30s everything was a robot.
Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public
TO AID persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England.
Known as the “notificator,” the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.
The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.
H. G. Wells Photographs the FUTURE in His Motion Picture “THINGS to COME”
SUBTERRANEAN cities flourishing under the scientific miracle of weather manufactured by machines—
Light-ray traps which recapture the very incidents of long vanished centuries so that you may watch Columbus discover America if you wish—
Flowers and vegetables grown without soil or sunlight—
Personal radio telephones carried on the clothing in a space no larger than a coat button—
An electric Space Gun powerful enough to rocket human beings around the Moon—
Boring machines which carry joy-riding passengers to Aladdin’s caves ten miles beneath the earth—
These are some of the amazing achievements predicted for the world of tomorrow by H. G. Wells, world-famous British novelist who is hailed as the greatest prophetic genius of our day. With other miracles of the year 2054, they will soon be seen in Mr. Wells’ startling motion picture, prophetically entitled “Things to Come.”
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I Psychoanalyze Ghosts
By Nandor Fodor, LL.D.
author of The Search For The Beloved
“You may be a ghost yourself,” says this former Director of Research, International Institute for Psychical Research. Here’s his own story of weird probing into the unbelievable realm of some supernatural disturbances.
LESSONS were going smoothly at the I Wild Plum (N.D.) schoolhouse when suddenly the pail of coal near the stove began to stir restlessly all by itself!
Mrs. Pauline Rebel, the teacher, and her eight pupils were even more amazed when lumps of coal started popping out of the pail, striking the walls and bounding back into the room. Window shades started smouldering and a dictionary began to move by itself.
“Ghosts!” one of the children screamed and they all rushed madly for the door.
Later, after a careful investigation, the state fire marshal admitted he could not solve the mystery. He analyzed the coal, examined the pail and studied the dictionary. Nothing was wrong with them. People at Wild Plum still wonder and whisper about the schoolhouse ghosts.
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