June 23, 2008

New Inventions Answer Varied Public Needs (Jun, 1934)

Filed under: General — @ 11:53 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1934
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New Inventions Answer Varied Public Needs

New burners for gas stoves have openings in side of mountings. Boil-overs run past fuel openings and will not clog flame.

A bridge table beverage shelf keeps glasses and smoking trays from cluttering up the table. The metal shelf holds two glasses and a cigaret tray and is attached to the table leg.

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June 21, 2008

Walking-Stick Supplies a Light for the Smoker (Mar, 1922)

Filed under: General — @ 2:51 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1922
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Walking-Stick Supplies a Light for the Smoker

A CIGAR-LIGHTER in a walking-cane is a novelty that is being introduced in France. The lighter is operated by compressed air.

A long steel rod attached to the handle and extending into the hollow of the cane carries a briquette of highly inflammable material, the chemical composition of which is secret. When the handle is thrust into the cane quickly, the air compression is said to ignite the composition. The substance glows like a pocket light. It is extinguished by thrusting back the steel tube.

Tail of “Hot” Suit Serves as Entrance (Mar, 1954)

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Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1954
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Tail of “Hot” Suit Serves as Entrance

A TECHNICIAN puts Oil this plastic protective suit by crawling into it through its fat “tail, ” which is connected to a port in the door. Used in radioactive areas at the Hanford plutonium factory, it stays inflated because air pressure inside the “hot” room is lower than pressure outside. This prevents any radioactive dust from leaking outside the room.

June 20, 2008

Science Helps Carve Giant Faces on Mountain (Dec, 1938)

Filed under: General — @ 1:31 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1938
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Science Helps Carve Giant Faces on Mountain

Huge models in studio are used in carving giant faces on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills. One inch on the models represents one foot on the mountainside. The models aid in making measurements and taking readings.

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June 19, 2008

Blind Get Fair Map Printed in Braille (Oct, 1939)

Filed under: General — @ 12:37 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1939
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Blind Get Fair Map Printed in Braille

For the benefit of the numerous blind persons visiting the New-York World’s Fair, the New York Association for the Blind has made available a map of the exposition printed in raised Braille characters. Complete in every detail, the map is designed for use with a special Braille guidebook describing the major points of interest. In the photograph below, a blind visitor is shown “reading” the special map.

June 16, 2008

Sculptor Models Statue from Pulp (Jan, 1931)

Filed under: General — @ 8:45 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1931
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What happens when it rains?

Sculptor Models Statue from Pulp

This life size statue of George Washington was modelled from pulp made of old newspapers by George W. Cook, shown with his creation above. The statue weighs 22 pounds.

Petrified Display Dinners Made From Real Roast Turkey (May, 1934)

Filed under: General — @ 8:45 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1934
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Petrified Display Dinners Made From Real Roast Turkey

PETRIFIED foods are now a reality. Van Olkon and Arthur Cohler, two young Minneapolis college graduates, have developed a secret wax composition which can be molded into realistic imitations of absolutely any food. The new wax foods keep their fresh appearance even with the burning summer sun beating down on show windows.

Wax foods are used by restaurants, by ice cream manufacturers, or by anyone who wants to display a perishable product. Green peppers filled with gleaming macaroni, and topped with rich yellow cheese, turkeys roasted and fairly dripping with delicious gravies, and even chocolate candy are duplicated in wax with a naturalness that is unbelievable.

In making a turkey model, the chef first bakes a real turkey in the ordinary style, basting it with rich sauces. The fowl is coated with stearin and kerosene, and a plaster mold made. The mold is cut apart, the bird removed, and the rejoined mold filled with the wax compound.

June 15, 2008

When Inventors Pull Boners… (Aug, 1953)

Filed under: General — @ 10:47 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1953
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When Inventors Pull Boners…

Many gadgets didn’t succeed at first. Some initial attempts were amusing and others nearly ended in disaster.

By Douglas Greene

IF the invention you have struggled with for so long has kicked you, literally or figuratively, in the face, take heart. You are not alone. Be thankful, at least, that it wasnt your 280-pound tank that ran amok in the living room, nor was it your burglar alarm that worked so faithfully it trapped its own inventor.

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June 13, 2008

Strange Facts about Power Age (May, 1936)

Filed under: General — @ 12:53 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
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Strange Facts about Power Age

WHAT has the power age done for America? Experts now give the United States credit for performing half the useful work of the world. This means that Americans, with the help of science and invention, accomplish as much work as 1,875,-000,000 people in other parts of the world, or that one-sixteenth of the world’s population now performs as much work as the other fifteen-sixteenths. This is not a chance guess, but is based on a recent world survey by Prof. T. T. Read, of Columbia University.

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June 12, 2008

Rubber Case for Cigarettes (Jul, 1939)

Filed under: General — @ 1:49 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1939
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Rubber Case for Cigarettes
Comfortable to carry, a new cigarette case of rubber is declared sufficiently flexible to conform to the body, but stiff enough to protect from damage the ten cigarettes it holds. To remove one, the elastic cover flap is drawn back as shown at right. When released, it closes of its own accord.

June 11, 2008

WALKING INTO A WILLIWAW (Apr, 1946)

Filed under: General — @ 12:50 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1946
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WALKING INTO A WILLIWAW

This Army pilot struggles to make headway against one of the sudden gales common to the Aleutians. The photo, submitted by R. D. Thomas, of Renton, Wash., was taken by flash on infrared film.

June 10, 2008

Machine Measures Thought but Is No Mind Reader (Apr, 1930)

Filed under: General — @ 12:03 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1930
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Machine Measures Thought but Is No Mind Reader

Thoughts, as well as actions, can speak louder than words, according to Dr. Milton Metfessel, of the University of Southern California, when they are hitched up to an ingenious device he has just invented. Those thinking processes which go on so silently within people’s heads are, he says, actually the expression of powerful forces at work, nerve impulses flashing from one end of the brain to the other along complex networks of nerve fibers.

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