By Gaylord Johnson
FEW people realize that the famous green flash as well as the marvelous color effect called the rainbow, is explained by a principle which can be demonstrated indoors with the simplest of laboratory materials. In fact, not many persons have seen the green flash at all, either at sunset or sunrise, although it occurs frequently at sea or on land when the sun rises or sets in a clear sky on a level distant horizon.
UNUSUAL FEAT RAISES TREASURE SHIP In one of the most remarkable salvaging operations ever undertaken, the steamer Islander, believed to contain $4,000,000 in gold, has been lifted from her resting place in 365 feet of water and placed high and dry on an Alaska beach. Divers reached the sunken steamer and attached cables from a […]
Before penicillin this was probably true. INFECTION MAYBE FATAL PROTECT EVERY CUT Neglect may lead to amputation—even death. Treat cuts, scratches or blisters with antiseptic and cover with Drybak Band-Aid, quickly, easily and safely. Drybak Band-Aid is the only ready-to-use adhesive bandage with these features:— waterproof backing, sun tan color, individually wrapped. At your druggist’s. […]
By Raymond B. Wailes
BECAUSE of its importance in glass making and other industries, silicon opens a particularly interesting experimental field to the home chemist. In nature, silicon is almost as plentiful as oxygen. Yet, it hides itself well in its compounds. It never is found free and uncom-bined and can be separated from its associates only through clever chemical thievery in the laboratory.
Industrially, silicon is obtained by heating sand—a compound of silicon and oxygen—and coke to a high temperature in an electric furnace. The white-hot coke steals the oxygen from the sand to form carbon monoxide and frees the silicon. Although the amateur chemist will have no electric furnace in which to duplicate this process, he can obtain a similar result by heating sand and powdered magnesium over his ordinary laboratory gas burner.
Talk about times changing. The headline looks like it’s about the perils of gay marriage but it’s actually about the horrifying thing single and working parents today call daycare. He has two mothers … but still he’s lonesome Johnny Rogers has two mothers. He sees his real mother for only a few moments each evening […]
Looks easier than a balloon and a box of whippets. DENTAL PATIENT CAN GIVE HERSELF GAS Dental patients can now administer their own anesthesia. The gas, the same as that now used by dentists, is a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. A tube leading to the tanks containing the gases is equipped with a […]
By Arthur Grahame
MANY writers have painted grim and lurid word pictures of the next war—pictures of mighty cities blown into reeking ruin by a hail of bombs from out of the sky; of the merciless slaughter of combatants and noncombatants alike with gases a hundred times more deadly than the mustard and phosgene of 1918, and with the stealthily sowed germs of malignant diseases; of gigantic tanks, land battleships that will crush thousands beneath their grinding tracks. They have drawn pictures of air armadas so mighty that they will decide the issue before ever a soldier marches across a frontier; of robots that will do the front-line fighting in place of flesh-and-blood men; of strange electrical weapons that will send dreadnaughts plunging to destruction and wipe out armies before they can fire a shot in defense; of war so terrible and so devastating that it will annihilate our civilization.
CAR DRIVER CAN NOW FLASH SIGN FOR HELP Attacked by hold-up men or kidnapers while in his car, a driver using a Detroit inventor’s new alarm signal may appeal to police or passing motorists for help. The signal is lettered with the word “Help.” When not required, it folds up out of sight. When danger […]
NEWEST AUTO GADGET SAYS, “THANK YOU” Courtesy lights mounted on an automobile enable the driver to flash a “Thank You” message to other motorists. The lights, attached to the radiator cap and to the rear of the car, are operated by a control on the dash or steering wheel. Their widespread use may tend to […]
A new way of giving pictures an effect of depth, has been devised by a Bridgeport, Conn., inventor, who foresees its application in the movies. His method provides a miniature picture that is viewed with one eye, while a full-sized picture is viewed with the other. Since the two pictures are taken from slightly different viewpoints, a stereoscopic effect is obtained. The advantage of this method when applied to motion pictures, he points out, is that a theater patron may view a movie either in the ordinary way or with added depth, as he chooses.
ARM CLAMP HOLDS LIGHT A man working in the dark may keep a flash light focused upon the job by means of a recently marketed holder. This consists of two elastic bands and two metal clips that are snapped on the flash light barrel. A non-elastic strap permits it to be held in other positions.
Now I like cigarettes as much as the next smoker, but never have I had a smoke and then said “Ahh that was refreshing! Now let’s go run around a tennis court!”. I’m wondering if Camel didn’t lace their cigarettes with speed in the 30’s. “Camels, now with the extra power of methodent!” You’ll enjoy […]
A SMALL electric arc furnace for experimental purposes can be made from two flowerpots, one 2 in. in diameter and the other either 6 or 8 in. Drill two holes opposite each other just below the lip of the smaller pot. (An ordinary steel drill will do this.) Make them large enough to receive carbon arc-light rods.
By Charles Irving Corwin
How a Collection Album Illustrates Many Fields of Human Knowledge
AN you describe in detail a common United States postage stamp? If you can, you are exceptional. We may think we know what they look like, but it is difficult to tell offhand, without peeking, just what figures or phrases are used, let alone describe the central picture or border designs. The recent Mother's Day and NRA commemoratives are exceptions, since the criticism and controversy aroused by these miniature steel engravings made us examine them more closely. It is recalled that a vase of flowers was smuggled into the reproduction of Whistler's Mother, and the fact that in the NRA issue business was out of step with labor and agriculture provoked some amusement, but even these two well-known stamps will catch most of us. For instance, is the "three cents" spelled out or indicated by a figure?
By A. J. Adamson
ONLY by dealing patiently and kindly with a cat, particularly during its early life, may you develop the sort of animal everyone wants as a companion and pet. Unlike dogs, cats will respond only to kindness. Punish them and they grow surly and spiteful. I speak from rich experience, having bred fully 10,000 cats during the last quarter of a century.
The old idea was that every animal should be punished when caught in a wrongful act, but cats do not understand the meaning of a whipping. They are weak-willed and easily tempted and must, therefore, be guided in paths of righteousness.
I love that they store the oxygen in a bag. SWIMMERS PEPPED UP BY WHIFF OF PURE OXYGEN Athletes were transformed into super-swimmers in a recent test at Springfield College, Mass. Each of the swimmers was given two deep breaths of pure oxygen before he leaped into the water. Holding their breath until they had […]
NEW AIR CONDITIONER. No larger than a radiator, the air conditioner shown above, is designed for the home and will be marketed at a price anyone can afford. Chilled water from a small refrigerating unit is used to cool the air. Steam warms it. Diagram, right, explains the system
PACKAGE HANDLE. A number of packages can be carried easily with this handle. Snaps clip to the strings
PORTABLE SHOWER This shower outfit can be attached quickly to any faucet and is held to tile wall by rubber suction cup
HOME CANNER. All the operations of canning are done with the machine shown here. It opens and seals tin cans
By H. J. Sexton and O. M. Freeman
WITH apparatus costing less than two dollars to make, the amateur microscopist can now produce and observe polarized light. This opens up a field hitherto limited by the prohibitive cost of the required accessories. It enables the amateur to witness the most beautiful phenomena and conduct the most delicate investigations of which the microscope is capable.
Nowhere in nature are to be found more astonishing and magnificent displays of variegated color effects or more exact delineations than those produced by polarized light in its passage through a simple slide made from a strip of mica, or a thin section of horn or quill. No degree of magnification, however high, will so clearly resolve the limits and boundaries of a specimen composed of layers normally transparent to ordinary light.
TRICKS used by press photographers and detectives come in handy when it is desired to snap imposed photographs of friends or members of the family. For such pictures photographers usually use tiny, easily concealed cameras. Despite their size, these midget cameras are surprisingly fast and accurate, and their wide angle lenses make the use of a range finder unnecessary. One of the commoner ways of screening a camera from the intended subject is to cover it with a handkerchief until the trigger is released. Occasionally the camera is carried in a vest pocket with the lens shielded by the wearer's coat.
“TRUTH CHAMBER” DESIGNED TO WRING CONFESSIONS FROM CRIMINALS A “truth chamber” recently devised by a New York criminologist is expected to wring confession of crime from a prisoner by compelling him to study his own features as he replies to a steady barrage of questions. It is a square cubicle with four mirrored walls. A […]
By Robert E. Martin
SUNSHINE, our greatest source of potential power, is now largely wasted. It is highly probable, however, that a few years hence science will find a way to harness the mighty energy of the sun's radiation. Solar engines and solar heating apparatus will then make it economically practicable for us to use at least a small portion of our now-wasted sunshine to run our factories, light our streets, cook our food, and warm our houses. In the United States we use, each year, something like a half billion tons of coal, a half billion barrels of oil, and fifty billion horsepower hours of water power for heat, light, and power.