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France Builds World’s Greatest Defense System

In spite of the recent peace treaties and disarmament conferences, Europe is preparing for war. This article describes the French reaction to current peace talk.

NOT since the ancient Mongols erected the great Chinese wall more than two thousand years ago, has any nation conceived so gigantic a system of defensive fortifications as is now under construction on the eastern frontier of France and Belgium.

This system, when completed, will provide a chain of forts stretching from the English Channel to the Mediterranean Sea. Two hundred miles of this chain, reaching from the Mediterranean to Lorraine, are now ready; and that this southern half should be rushed to completion first, shows that the French Republic fears Italy at this time more than disarmed Germany.

This defensive chain consists of armored concrete cupolas placed three-quarters of a mile apart, with a secondary chain of similar “pill-boxes” placed farther to the rear and half way between the first line. Any two of the front line forts, with its corresponding member in the rear, will form a triangle three-quarters of a mile on each side with its base toward the front. In wartime they are to be linked together with a system of trenches and underground passages connecting with each other and with the rear. The entrenched protection line connects to the rear with an underground railway for bringing up munitions and evacuating the wounded.

Each of these miniature forts will be equipped with heavy guns for long-distance firing, and will bristle with machine guns for use against attacking infantry.

The crew for each casemate numbers thirty men, and comfortable living quarters are provided forty feet underground. Under this forty feet of earth is a ten-foot layer of concrete, while the turrets themselves, which project but slightly above the surface of the ground, will be of heavily armored concrete.

Also, despite all of his fantastical ideas, Hugo Gernsback was an excellent debunker.

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Scientific Frauds

By HUGO GERNSBACK

IT would seem that, in this enlightened age, the public should be sufficiently educated not to fall prey to the multitude of scientific quackeries which still abound.

With the public pretty well accustomed to science, there would seem to be no excuse for these latter-day swindles which are still being practiced all over the country; but, strange as it may seem, there is still a great amount of business being done by various individuals and companies who make a specialty of thus exploiting the public.

Usually, these scientific – mechanical frauds masquerade under some high-sounding technical name; and the literature as a rule contains a good deal of pseudo-scientific nonsense which the unsuspecting layman, not versed in scientific manners, swallows hook, line and sinker.

Moreover, when the layman has some disease or sickness, his mentality is usually not at par with that of a healthy individual, and he therefore falls a prey much more readily than he would do normally.

If, at any time, you or your friends see one of these scientific or mechanical contraptions, there is always one good way to find out whether it has any value or not. One need only go to the family doctor; and his advice on such matters may be trusted.

Unfortunately, there are still many thousands of people who are victimized every year because they do not wish to take the advice of their doctor, and because they think their own deductions are best. Hence the traffic in these contrap- tions which it seems difficult to eradicate.

On this page, I have shown a number of such frauds, many of which have already been exposed, and denounced by the American Medical Association as out-and-out fakes.

Fig. A shows a celebrated “goitre cure” and, believe it or not, this contraption has actually been patented by your own Uncle Sam. (Of course, that does not make it any less of a fraud. If you patent a mouse-trap, and afterwards sell it as a cure for rheumatism, the article is still patented and protected by patent law.) So with the “Galvano Necklace” for goitre, at one time advertised and sold extensively by a Western (Wis.) company.

This necklace is composed of glass beads strung on a flexible wire. Interspersed between the glass beads are copper discs and zinc discs. The contraption is supposed to liberate, in presence of an iodine salve and the moisture of the skin, electricity which, presumably, dissolves the goitre. In practice, however, the combination does not produce any current. As a matter of fact, whatever moisture there is in the skin tends to short-circuit the minute batteries thus formed, and the electrical effect obtained is nil. Even if there were current formed, it would still country the “Electric Comb.” This ingenious fake is a combination comb made of bakelite, in which are set teeth which are unusual only in that they are metallic. The even-numbered teeth are connected to the positive pole, and the odd teeth to the negative pole of a flashlight battery cell, inserted in the handle of the comb (Fig. B). You comb your hair; and the electricity let loose in your scalp is supposed to cure anything from dandruff to barber’s itch and falling hair. If the scalp is wet, it cannot be denied that a mierometric amount of current will actually reach the scalp. That amount of current, however, is so little, with a source of potential of the value of a volt and a half, that there is hardly any effect whatsoever. It has, as yet, to be proven that galvanic electricity at low pressure will do anything whatsoever on the human scalp, either good or bad. The contraption may be good as a comb; but you would hardly pay $5.00 for a 25c comb, and that is exactly what this gadget is—just like any other comb, as far as magic results are concerned.

Not so long ago, the so-called Askins “Vitality Batteries” or “Heart Batteries” were declared a fraud by the Post Office Department, and the company debarred from doing business in the United States. Our illustration (Fig. C) shows this marvelous invention, consisting of a pair of discs about a fourth of an inch thick and about three inches in diameter. It is described by the inventor as comprising a “zinc or negative battery, and a copper or positive battery.” Each “battery” is made of two thinner discs, tightly joined together at the edges. The copper “battery” is symmetrically seamed, and contains a small quantity of vinegar and a strip of copper. The zinc “battery” has several perforations and contains a filler of cotton or other absorbent material and a strip of zinc; it is to be steeped in vinegar, about once a week, for five minutes to recharge it. This invention is supposed to cure anything from cancer to heart disease, H right’.; disease, diabetes, tuberculosis, and other diseases. Why it should do so, no one knows, not even the inventors. No electro-galvanic current worth mentioning is generated by this fool device; although it sells at $5.00 per set, while the entire material of which the contraption is composed of would actually cost about 40c to make. For efficiency, a rabbit’s foot, we believe, is much better.

And now we come to the famous “Electro-Chemical” ring, at one time put out by a Toledo company. This ring, strange as it may seem, is made out of ordinary commercial iron, worth about one tenth of a cent apiece (Fig. D). Yet, it was sold for $2.00. The claims were made that wearing the ring would result in the cure of such ailments as Bright’s disease, diabetes, epilepsy, goitre, cancer, etc.

Although the government issued a fraud order against the original company, the business has been revived under different names by the original individuals; the latest fraud order being under date of February 24, 1931. That anyone in his right senses would pay $2.00 for an ordinary piece of iron, because he supposed it to have inherent magic powers, is taxing one’s credulity to the utmost. Yet, such is the gullibility of the uninformed.

A few years ago, in my former magazine, Science and Invention, I exposed another famous swindle under the name of “I-ON-A-CO,” “The Magic Horse Collar.” This swindle, of late, was revived under the name of “THERONOID” by a company of that name, which flourished in New York City, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, and elsewhere. Believe it or not, 12,000 of these “Theronoids” were sold and may even now be selling in various localities.

Here we have a more subtle swindle; one for which even the man who knows a little about science may fall easily, because it is actually electrical. This contraption is a sort of horse collar, wound with some 560 odd turns of ordinary insulated copper bell wire, and covered with leather or some leather imitation (Fig. E). As a part of the hoax connected with the horse collar, there is a so-called control box, which is supposed to regulate the “strength of the magnetic field.”

Now, it is perfectly true that, if you plug this device into the electric circuit of a 110-volt alternating current, there will be generated inside of the horse collar a strong magnetic field. This magnetic field is advertised to cure practically every disease, for reasons known only to the manufacturers. But it is a fact, which has been verified for the past 100 years by many research laboratories, that magnetism, no matter in what form, has no effect whatsoever on the human system or its functions.

Attendants in big electrical power plants are subjected daily to a tremen- dons amount of magnetic flux; yet, they are liable to all diseases that humanity is heir to—and mind you, the amount of magnetism that exists in these power plants is millions of times more powerful than the “Theronoid” device and yet it produces no discernible effect. The fact is, that no matter how much magnetism is generated, and no matter how you use it on the human body, the effect is absolutely nil. Hence the “Theronoid,” with or without control box, and whether you plug it in the electric light socket or whether you just wear it as an adornment, is in each case equally efficacious.

The device is one of these subtle frauds to which the intelligent layman will easily fall a prey; that is one of the reasons why it obtained a large sale. If anyone is foolish enough to pay $50 to $75 for six pounds of bell wire, worth about $2.00, and hang it around his neck, that is of course his own affair; but a prudent man will not do it.

Another of these subtle fakes is known under the name of “Vit-O-Net,” an electric heating pad, made at one time by a Chicago company. This device is a genuine electric heating blanket, with which you are supposed to cover yourself from head to foot after it has been plugged into the electric socket (Fig. F). It cells for $102.50, and is worth perhaps $10.00 or less. If this heating pad had been sold simply as a heating device, no one could possibly get very much excited about it; because it is a good heating pad; but when claims are made that the “Vit-O-Net” blanket will “magnetize the elements in the blood and tissues,” such claims belong properly to Fairyland. Equally preposterous and ridiculous is the claim that “the blanket produces a vibratory action in the deepest organs.”

Quoting from the circular, we have these choice bits of nonsense: “It remained for the Vit-O-Net Mfg. Co. to concentrate these magnetic waves in the Vit-O-Net Electro-Magnetic Blanket, so that such energy will enter the human body, magnetize the elements in the blood and tis-ues. A vibratory action is produced in the deepest organs, stirring every cell into activity, increasing metabolism, and hastening the elimination of waste products.”

“When a human body is enveloped in the Vit-O-Net Electro-Magnetic Blanket, a gentle vibratory action takes place throughout the system. Every cell is stimulated by these magnetic waves, resting tired nerves, repairing broken down tissue and eliminating toxins through the pores and other waste channels.”

“At the suggestion of a noted San Francisco scientist, the Vit-O-Net Electro-Magnetic Blanket was thoroughly tested by the E. R. A. system which is recognized by thousands of physicians. These tests showed startling evidence of a definite emanation of energy from the blanket.”

“When you are wrapped in the Blanket, your body with the exception of the head, is entirely surrounded by a current of electricity. You are in a magnetic field (Faraday’s law). With 15,000 feet of magnetic wire contained in the Vit-O-Net, considerable magnetism is generated. The metallic salts in the blood being an excellent conductor, the entire blood stream, a moving body, becomes charged with magnetic energy.”

All this is a ludicrous twisting of facts and fiction. It is, of course, true that, when you are wrapped in the Vit-O-Net blanket, connected with the electric-light socket, your body is surrounded by a current of electricity. It is also true that you are in a magnetic field, and while that may mean something to an ignorant person, to the man of science it doesn’t mean a single thing, except that it makes him shake with loud laughter.

You are entirely surrounded by a current of electricity in your home whenever an electric light is burning; and every human being who is still on earth is surrounded by a magnetic field, because the earth has its own and most powerful magnetic field. So you do not have to buy the Vit-O-Net to get these magical results, because you get them for nothing anyway.

And, as for the metallic salts in the blood becoming “charged with magnetic energy,” this makes no sense whatsoever; for the plain and simple reason that magnetism (at low frequencies, at least, such as those of the 60-cycle line) has no effect whatsoever on blood nor the salts in the human body.

It may be stated, however, that the “Vit-O-Net” is a nice electric heating blanket, and will keep you warm and even, perhaps, cure your cold feet after you have found out how you have been swindled.

The writer will be glad to have readers consult him as to devices they think may be a scientific-mechanical fraud, falling into this class. Everyday Science and Mechanics will be happy to test the device and report the findings to our readers.

Handy Wristholder for Pencil

FOUNTAIN pens and pencils are made quickly and easily accessible by the use of a new wrist pencil and pen holder now on the market.

RADIO WAVES KEEP AIRSHIP ALOFT
PROPELLERS and engines are not needed to fly the model airship of Bernays Johnson, who is shown with his craft in the photograph at the right. A powerful radio wave which neutralizes the pull of gravity is the force which keeps the ship aloft. Johnson experimented for ten years before he succeeded in discovering the principle of his anti-gravity waves. The ship can be controlled from within itself or from the ground. It was exhibited at the recent Boston radio exposition

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How Fast can Man Travel?

Is there a limit to the speed which the human body can withstand? Five miles a minute caused no ill effects for the English aviator who recently attained this speed.

RECENTLY broken records for speed in various methods of transportation have bettered the marks of recent years by such a wide margin that scientists are asking the question, “How fast can man travel before the functions of his body cease to be normal? Is there a limit?”

For many years the standard American idea of “fast going” has been travel on the 20th Century Limited. This train travels the 1,500 odd miles between New York and Chicago in 20 hours. The average running speed is reputed to be in the neighborhood of 80 miles an hour.

But, in methods of transportation, there is a new era at hand.

The nation is becoming airminded rapidly, and is accepting the airplane and the new type motorbus as the coming common conveyors. The reason is summed up in the one word, speed!

Tomorrow the 20th Century will be considered slow. New machines synonymous with speed will have come into common usage. How fast will they go? How much faster will they be than present modes of travel? And how much of the speed which these machines have at their command can be utilized for moving human beings?

That is the purpose of recent speed trials in which new automotive and aeronautical records have been shattered. Much has been learned.

For instance, the recent rivalry for the world’s automobile speed record between Malcolm Campbell, Frank Lockhart, and J. M. White produced the knowledge that man can travel at 211 miles an hour without suffering any ill effects. Neither nausea, faintness, nor mental aberration were noticed. It has been assumed that most normal human beings could travel comfortably at such speeds for prolonged periods without suffering.

D’Arcy Greig, English ace, recently flew his Supermarine-Napier seaplane at an average speed of 319.57 m.p.h.

Just how fast are the speeds of these machines in relation to each other? The 20th Century, traveling to Mars, would take 68-1/2 years. J. M. White’s Triplex could make the 40,000,000-mile trip in 26-1/2 years. D’Arcy Greig would be there in 13-2/3 years!

Invents Hourmeter to Time Hops

THROUGH an electrical contact attached to the landing gear, the recently invented hourmeter timing device records trip and total flying time the moment the plane leaves the ground. The same contact stops the clock when the landing is made. Spreading and contracting of the landing gear actuates the electrical circuit. Current is supplied by two dry cells, or from the ship’s battery.

Aeronautical experts declare that this instrument will fill in one of the gaps of aviation.

Chain Prevents Dropping Shaver
To prevent dropping and possible damaging of an electric shaver, a razor guard with chain attached is available. The guard is secured by removing one of the screws from the case and replacing it with a longer screw furnished with the guard. A loop on the end of the chain is worn over the thumb.

Odd Ventilator Pumps Pure Air to Bomb Cellar

Knowing that poison gas seldom rises more than thirty feet above ground level, a British inventor worked out an odd device designed to draw fresh air into gasproof shelters on or under the ground. Resembling a giant accordion, a special hand-operated bellows sucks fresh air into the shelter through a flue pipe that extends up forty feet above the ground. Said to be foolproof, the apparatus draws in air at the rate of 400 -cubic feet a minute.

TINY GLASSES SHIELD EYES FROM GLARE
To reduce the blinding glare of approaching automobile headlights, a novel eye shield has recently been introduced. Strapped to a band worn about the head, a metal frame extends from the forehead and holds two ovals of amber glass in front of the eyes, where they are normally just out of range of direct vision. A slight turn of the head places the glass ovals between the eyes and the rays of oncoming car lights.

Elaborate Mechanism Works and Works to Do Nothing Well

We all know someone who works harder doing nothing than most of us work doing something, but we can’t possibly know anything that works harder at nothing than a machine built by a California hobbyist. The machine has over 700 working parts that rotate, twist, oscillate and reciprocate—all for no purpose except movement. It is the brainstorm of Lawrence Wahlstrom, a landscape artist, who calls it a flying-saucer detector. The machine not only accomplishes nothing, it is never completed—it has been under construction seven years. Each year Wahlstrom adds 50 or more moving parts to it so it can do nothing more efficiently!

GUESSER GETS WEATHER RIGHT
While day-to-day weather forecasting enjoys reasonable accuracy, meteorologists have still to work out a basis for long-range prophecies. Nevertheless, Dr. C. F. Marvin, head of the U. S. Weather Bureau, is experimenting with a “scientific guesser.” Small balls are marked for a certain kind of weather. The balls are thoroughly mixed and poured into troughs. Their sequence, depending solely upon laws of chance, has proved strikingly similar to actual weather records.

Tiny Grand Piano Can Be Played with a Toothpick

FOUR craftsmen took six months to build a two-inch-square working model of a Steinway grand piano, illustrated at right. Played with a toothpick, it has thirty-six ivory keys and is strung like a full-size instrument. With other objects in the photo —miniature enamel furniture, and a dancing girl’s toe bell from Bombay, India, displayed on a finger —it forms part of a private collection of 28,500 curios from fifty-four countries exhibited recently in San Francisco.

Corridor Traffic Light
Wartime’s proximity fuse is regulating hallway traffic at General Electric’s Schenectady research laboratory. Above, the girl at left has been “picked up” by a microwave transmitting-receiving unit (A), operating traffic light (B). The girl at right, carrying delicate instruments, is warned by a red light that the corridor is not clear.

Cigarette Case Keeps Account of Smokes Given to Friends
A novel cigarette case keeps tabs on the cigarettes your friends “borrow.” When you want a smoke yourself, press one button to open the case. But when an acquaintance “bums” a cigarette, press a second button. This not only opens the case but operates a counter built into the case.

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.

Breathing Balloon
will develop your form, if that’s what you want. It’ll also train you to breathe deeply by measuring your lung capacity by means of the shut-off valve. Moore’s, 14548 Forrer Ave., Detroit, Michigan.

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19,000,000 CUSTOMERS WAITING!
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Here’s the easy, effective way to trim down waist, abdomen, hips, thighs!

New Inflatable Air Shorts provide pneumatic support plus massage to help you slenderize where you need it most!

This may well be the easiest, most comfortable trim-down method you’ve ever tried. All you do is slip into these astounding new slenderizing shorts and inflate them with the little hand pump we provide. Then merely do a few simple exercises, housework or any usual daily activity. What happens after that is likely to amaze you. The puffy, snug-fitting pockets of air which surround you actually work to provide gentle pneumatic support plus effective massage while they generate additional body heat.

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You’ll notice the improvement almost immediately in four vital areas. Yes, we guarantee it! Your Inflatable Air Shorts must help you trim down your waist, abdomen, hips and thighs . . . must help you look slimmer and younger, faster than you’d believe possible — or your purchase price refunded without question!
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Take advantage of this unusual no-risk opportunity. Inflatable Air Shorts were originally sold at $9.99. Our direct-by-mail price is only $6.99. (You save $3.00!) One size fits both men and women.
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Soldiers Wear Camouflage
The men in the above picture are not inhavitants of Mars. They are only British soldiers, wearing camouflage in their helmets during a mimic battle.

Automatic Drive Catches Up with Rockin’ Chair

Feller retired t’other day and got himself a new kind of rockin’ chair. Rocks itself. Rocks him, too. Semms like when this feller, a machinist type, quit to take it easy, some other fellers he’d worked with said, “Well now! How about havin’ a chair that rocks automatic-like?” So they built it out of a one-cylinder gas engine and gears. Works, too. Noisy though. Feller’s name is Frank miller. Other fellers – them as built it- are Bull Nyman, Bob Connely, Joe Wright and Bill Jacobus. Chair rocks itself and Frank in Huntington Station, N.Y.

Speed mask streamlines swimmer

This prow-shaped mask with built-in snorkel and compass holder was invented by Calvin Gongwer and used by him in a recent 22-mile swim from Catalina Island to San Pedro Calif. He claims that the “speed mask” cuts drag by 35 percent.

Egg-Beater Wind Plane Imitates Hovering Flight of Eagle

Revolving blades resembling somewhat the working parts of an egg beater replace wings and tail stabilizers on the “cycloidal flying machine,” an airplane designed to reproduce the best features of an eagle’s flight.

A seven foot model of the unusual craft has already been built in the aeornautical laboratories of the University of Washington by its inventor, Dr. Frederick K. Kirsten. The novel wing mechanism is expected to give higher speeds, hovering flight, and slower landings.

Made in Moscow for use in rural areas, this all-wave radio is reportedly powered by the kerosene lamp hanging above it. A group of thermocouples is heated internally to 570 degrees by the flame. Fins cool the outside to about 90 degrees. The temperature differential generates enough current to operate the low-drain reciever. Regular listeners may want fur lined union suits, though: it works best in a room with open windows.

“Glamour Bonnet” Provides Vacuum to Aid Complexion
Some persons believe a mud pack is the answer to the search for a beautiful complexion, others think massage will do the trick, but Mrs. D. M. Ackerman, of Hollywood, Calif., has decided that reduced air pressure is a good treatment. So she has devised a “glamour bonnet” like a diver’s helmet with which the atmospheric pressure around the beauty seeker’s head can be lowered. The effect is similar to what a person feels who climbs a high mountain or flies high in a plane, and Mrs. Ackerman claims that the reduced pressure stimulates blood circulation and thus aids the complexion to attain its natural beauty. A window has been installed so the customers can read during treatments.

“AT LAST America has it – the nonskid roll for hot dogs! A clever inventor has devised the metal mold shown at left to turn out rolls imprinted with a series of ridges. They take a masterful grip upon the delectable but elusive weenie and prevent it from slipping from it’s rightful place to fall to the floor or one’s lap.”

Mechanical “Willie” Combines Crooning With Housework
CROONING in mellow baritone on command and manipulating a vacuum cleaner with almost human skill, “Mechanical Willie,” laboratory robot, may prove a novel servant.

The product of Westinghouse engineers, Willie salutes, raises flags, smokes, sits, stands and bows at the operator’s orders. Words spoken via a receiver are transformed by a photo electric cell into light beams which transmit impulses to his operating mechanism.