Workshops, Music, Art, And Sports Keep Nerves Keen and Fingers Nimble
By Frederic Damrau, M.D.
IN A recent series of articles in Popular Science Monthly, I told of the marvels of modern surgery and described some of the miracles of the operating room. Since then, scores of readers have written me, asking for facts about famous surgeons and how they fit themselves for their life-work.
Steady Smokers turn to Camels
Frank Crilley says, "Deep down under 300 feet of water, working feverishly under terrific pressure — no place for a nervous man! That's why a diver's nerves must always be in perfect condition. And that's why I smoke Camels and have smoked them for years. They are a milder cigarette and they taste better. But more important than that to me—they never upset my nervous system"
This is written in one inch — the smallest advertisement accepted in this magazine. Small advertisements of one or two inches produce results of many times their cost for hundreds of companies or individuals who have novelties, scientific or mechanical equipment, tools, games, puzzles, etc., to sell, and for firms looking for agents.
RACK FOR BOTTLED BEER Refrigerator space is economized when this rack is used to hold bottled beer. Eleven bottles can be placed in it and then put in refrigerator without removing a shelf
It would really suck if someone picked that moment to walk out to their car. “Never did know my Paw, he got killed by an indestructible barrel. I like to think he died in the name of science.” STEEL BARREL TESTED IN 200-FOOT DROP An eighteen-story plunge in Detroit, Mich., recently tested the strength of […]
Finally, I can realize my dream of making a floor out of radio tubes! RADIO TUBE OF METAL CAN BE WALKED ON Proof against the roughest handling, an indestructible type of radio tube developed in England is so sturdy that it may even be stepped on without damage, as shown above. A metal bulb replaces […]
MERRY-GO-ROUND LAUNCHES AIRPLANE Swung into the air from a merry-go-round launching device, a plane could attain flying speed without the need of a long runway, in a plan proposed by a Denver, Colo., inventor. The device consists of a tall mast with a revolving horizontal boom at the top, from which is suspended a hoop-shaped […]
Daily, as upon a magic loom, the world is bound together by telephone. There, in a tapestry of words, is woven the story of many lives and the pattern of countless activities.
In and out of the switchboard move the cords that intertwine the voices of communities and continents. Swiftly, skilfully, the operator picks up the thread of speech and guides it across the miles. Constantly at her finger-tips are your contacts with people near and far.
FENDER LIGHTS WARN OF LEFT OR RIGHT TURN To make it easy for a driver to signal his intention of turning, a new warning device is controlled from buttons mounted beneath the steering wheel and within convenient reach of the fingertips. Pressing the left-hand button illuminates arrows pointing to the left on front and rear […]
By Earl D Hay
EXPERIMENTS in an amateur chemical laboratory are much more interesting when they are made with the same kind of apparatus as that used in professional laboratories. As a rule, however, the home chemist experiences a great - shortage of flasks and endeavors to use various kinds of bottles as makeshifts, little realizing that he may make from burned-out electric light bulbs a great variety of useful flasks like those sold by chemical supply houses at from 20 to 75 cents each. The lamps used in the average home vary in size from 25 to 200 watts and are suitable for small Florence or boiling flasks. Larger flasks are made from 300-, 500-, and 1,000-watt lamps, which can be obtained from the janitors of stores and linemen of the city lighting companies.
NEW MERRY-GO-ROUND OF MIDGET AUTOS A merry-go-round of toy automobiles is proving a popular amusement in Germany. A light steel frame is pivoted on a central hub holding all the midget autos an equal distance from the center. The children do their own pedaling and steering and can govern the speed at which they go. […]
COFFEE TESTER FOR UNCLE SAM Official Coffee Tester for Uncle Sam is the title of H. A. Lepper of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. It is his job to pass on all coffee purchased for the Army, Navy, veteran’s hospitals, and even for the inmates of Leavenworth and Atlanta prisons. After samples have […]
NO FENDERS ON NEW AUTO An unusual automobile, now being manufactured in Colorado, has a front axle that arches completely over the engine, while the body extends the whole width of the fenders so that separate fenders outside the body are not necessary. The width of the car makes it possible for an ordinary adult […]
GHOSTLY, sheeted figures, seen as one runs past a dark cemetery, are not merely figments of the imagination. They are actually seen as real ghosts looming out of the night.
This is the conclusion arrived at by psychologists who now claim that people really see with their own eyes the apparitions that form the bases of "true" ghost stories.
According to these psychologists you can, at will, see synthetic specters, in the following manner:
STARTING from scratch eighteen months ago, F. L. Schlink, of Portland, Oregon, has made a profit from the beginning by selling, installing, and servicing of car radios exclusively. At the present time, he is the only one so specializing in The Pacific Northwest.
Early in 1932, he rented a small garage for a service shop. It would accommodate only four cars. He had only one service man and did all the selling himself, helping with the service work in spare moments. Even now, while engaged in bigger deals and more of them, if there comes a momentary interim between telephone calls or demonstrations to customers, he is into a car in an instant with pliers or test set, helping the men. It is this drive within him for utilizing every spare moment which, I believe, is in no small measure accountable for his success.
How Hidden Fingerprints May Be Found by Using Iodine Vapor — Forgeries Also Are Revealed by This Remarkable Element
By Raymond B. Wailes
NEW thrills await the home chemist who experiments with iodine. Besides its queer properties and varied uses, it serves as the gateway to a new branch of chemistry—the mysterious and interesting art of scientific crime detection.
With iodine, the amateur experimenter can transform his home laboratory into a miniature crime bureau. In a few hours, he can master some of the chemical tricks that aid the modern sleuth in his search for hidden fingerprints, clever check alterations, and forgeries.
First, however, the amateur must learn how to obtain this active element in its free state. For years, it was recovered commercially from a giant type of seaweed called kelp. Now it is obtained from the solutions left behind when Chile saltpeter is crystallized in large quantities.
Electric locks foil hold-up men in a new cashier's cage for filling stations and small-town banks. Just large enough for one person to enter at a time, it is completely inclosed in bullet-proof steel and fits conveniently in a corner of a room. When the attendant enters to make change, cash a check, or leave a deposit, he presses an electric contact. The door glides shut and locks him in, simultaneously exposing the money drawer and fifteen numbered buttons on a panel above it. Pressing a certain combination of three buttons opens the drawer. It must be shut by pressing another secret three-button combination before the outer door can be re-opened by a concealed electric switch. As the outer door swings open and the attendant steps out, entrance to the money compartment is again barred by a metal curtain.
With all windows sealed, and a stream of fresh, filtered air at just the right temperature entering through a special duct, the world's first air-conditioned automobile recently made its debut in a successful test run on New York City streets. It demonstrated a remarkable new system that promises all-the-year-round driving comfort, regardless of summer heat or winter cold. Air is drawn into this system through a concealed inlet, filtered to remove dirt and dust, blown over coils that chill or warm it as required, and admitted through grills to the car's interior.
Sounds great, what could possibly go wrong? OIL PIPE LINE CROSSES PALESTINE Crossing the Tigris, Jordan, and Euphrates rivers and winding for 1,180 miles across the birthplace of Christian civilization, a new pipe line will soon begin transporting oil from the rich fields of Iraq to the Mediterranean sea coast. At some points, the line […]
RUNNERS USE TREADMILL AS TRAINING TRACK A one-man training track for runners is part of the equipment recently installed by an English sporting club. The device consists of a small treadmill platform with an upright pipe frame in front. Gripping the frame, the runner begins his workout, a speedometer at one side of the apparatus […]
JETS OF WATER, HURLED OUT BY MOTOR, DRIVE THIS BOAT Jets of water, spurting backward from nozzles at each side, drive an unusual craft that has just met its first tests successfully on the Vltava River near Prague, Czechoslovakia. Instead of turning a propeller, the motor at the rear of the odd craft operates a […]
All the world trembles in fear at the sight of fierce American weaponry. Well at least all the babies and midgets do. BABY CANNON ADDED TO U. S. FIELD ARTILLERY Latest addition to the artillery of the United States Army is a midget cannon, just large enough to take a .22-cal-iber cartridge. It is built […]
My first reaction to this was “Wow, I’ll bet you that waterproof coating is really bad for you when you smoke it.”, as if smoking the cigarette without the coating were good for you. Although it would be cool to see just how deadly they could make it. Perhaps if they used an asbestos filter, […]
A WELL-MOUNTED deer head is a source of continual satisfaction to the sportsman who bagged the animal, and if he mounts the head himself his pleasure is increased a hundredfold.
Even the professional taxidermist has no secret formula by which he can take a poorly prepared, burned, or rotted skin and make a perfect mounted specimen of it. At best it will have a stuffed and lifeless look. It is obvious therefore that some thought and care must be given to the preparation of the trophy when the animal is first killed and without delay.
This is a wonderful ad. You see, hunting is not about quantity, it’s about quality. Quality mounting that is. And this guy Jack, well it’s nothing but quality for him. Just look at his beautiful living room. Is that a leopard on his mantle? You bet it it is! A baby leopard at that! And, […]
Who knew the low-rider was invented in England? LOWEST AUTO ONLY 27 INCHES HIGH With an overall height of only twenty-seven inches, a dachshund car recently appeared on the roads of England. It is believed to be the lowest automobile in the world, the distance from the top of the windshield to the pavement being […]
SUDDENLY, through the drifting smoke of a hard-fought battle, rush weird, one-man fighting tanks. They have the appearance of disk wheels and roll like hoops across the battlefield. Pouring out machine-gun fire, they leap over trenches, vaulting across on strange steel crutches to pursue the disorganized enemy.
Such is the startling vision foreseen by a New York inventor. He has just obtained a patent upon a unicycle-type tank which he believes will revolutionize battlefield tactics.
Revolutionary Method of Propulsion Used in Gigantic Normandie May Herald Sweeping Change in Transatlantic Travel
By Kenneth M. Swezey
WHEN the 75,000-ton French liner Normandie starts next spring on her first voyage westward, electrical power equivalent to the combined steam powers of the Leviathan, the Majestic, and the Ile de France, will whirl her giant propellers. Electrical machinery will haul her ropes, raise her anchors, guide her helm. A thousand electric servants will watch over every item of comfort and safety of her 3,500 passengers and crew.
Not only will the Normandie be the most completely electrified ship in the world, but she will be the first electrically-driven ship to pit her might against the directly steam-driven ship in the race for transatlantic supremacy.
From the earliest days of the steamship, until about 1907, this race was waged with the help of the constantly developing reciprocating engine. Edged on by the demand for larger and faster vessels, the simple steam engine of a few hundred horsepower grew into a double-and triple-expansion engine of thousands of horsepower, until the maximum was reached in the 40,000-horsepower engines that drove the Kaiser Wilhelm II.
FOOD PACKED IN BEER STEIN Adding a handle to the container in which prepared food is packed, the manufacturers have turned the glass jar into a stein. When the metal lid that protects the contents is removed, it is found that the lip of the jar is smooth, there being neither threads nor shoulder to […]
Gigantic Carved Head Nears Completion CUTTING into the solid granite of a 300-foot cliff, workmen under the direction of Gutzon Borglum, famous American sculptor, are now putting the finishing touches on the sixty-foot head of George Washington which will form the center of the sculptured group in the Black Hills mountain-top memorial in South Dakota. […]
First Telephone Used to Help Escaping Slaves America’s oldest telephone, pictured here, was used before the Civil War by abolitionists who helped negroes escape. It consisted of a wire attached between drumlike boxes containing diaphragms. A ringing bell announced that a message was to be sent.
By Thomas M. Johnson
IT WAS after midnight at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Dark and silent, a large residence on a side street stood apparently deserted. Its shutters were closed, its blinds drawn. But, inside, were brilliant lights and the tense atmosphere of the gambling hall. Men and women leaned over green-topped tables and a tide of chips and currency ebbed and flowed according to the caprice of various games of chance.
At the far end of the room, a big man shoved his pile of colored chips to the center of the table.
"I'll bet the works, five grand more," he challenged. "Who'll cover my bet?"
There was an angry murmur of dissent.