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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.

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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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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.

Related posts

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• Whacks on Head Test Helmet (Mar, 1941)
• GOBS TO GET RAKISH CAPS (Mar, 1941)

“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.