This was the Focke Wulf F-19 and yes, the “backwards tail” is called a canard. It wound up in a museum and was destroyed in an Allied air raid. GERMAN TAIL-FIRST PLANE FLIES ACROSS CHANNEL Germany’s tail-first plane, which appears to be flying backward, soared across the Channel to visit Britain in one of its [...]
A beam of light that left the star Arcturus about the time of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 will set in motion the wheels of the 1933 World's Fair at Chicago. Upon the star, approximately forty-one light years away, will be trained the great forty-inch telescope of the Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wis.
MEMORIAL TO COLUMBUS IS EARTHQUAKE-PROOF Earthquake-proof because of its massive and low-hung design, an impressive memorial is to be erected on the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean Sea to commemorate the arrival of Columbus on his historic voyage. It will be floodlit and surmounted by a powerful beacon, to serve as a lighthouse [...]
Odd Facts of the Month as Our Artist Sees Them
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION ASTRONOMERS HAVE PREPARED A MAP WHICH SHOWS THAT THE MOON HAS A NEW FACE.
DR. F.E.LAWSON, BRITISH CHEMIST, COMPUTES THAT THE CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES IN ANY MAN'S BODY ARE WORTH ABOUT ONE DOLLAR.
RAZOR CAN TRIM HAIR A clever attachment for a standard make of safety razor enables any man to trim his hair in the manner of a professional barber, it is said. Drawn downward against the hair, the razor blade is given an increasing tilt by two metal rockers, and produces a “feather edge.”
FIREWORKS ROBOT SEIZES FLAMING FOOTBALL A game of Rugby football was played in fireworks recently in England as a spectacular part of a great pyrotechnic display. At the climax, a robot goalkeeper outlined in flames recovered a blazing ball from beneath a pair of flaming goalposts. A rehearsal of the thrilling episode is shown in [...]
SIGNS GUARD INVALIDS FROM HONKING CARS When the city surveyor of Birmingham, England, recently sought a way to end the honking of automobiles outside the homes of sick persons, he devised the means shown in the photograph. Signs bearing a warning legend were prepared and placed in readiness by city officials. Now a written or [...]
USE PHONOGRAPH AS AN ALARM CLOCK A novel attachment for the phonograph by which a heavy sleeper may be aroused at any hour he wishes by soft music, was recently shown in London, England. The alarm-clock device is set at the desired hour, and wound. A brake on the turntable of the phonograph is released [...]
BATTERY IN HEEL RUNS LIGHT ON SLIPPER Created originally for a New York theatrical production, illuminated dancing shoes are now on the market. A small bulb on the tip of the shoe is illuminated by a dry cell battery concealed in the aluminum heel. It lights when the dancer kicks the heel on the floor, [...]
These kids should get themselves a midget brass section. SEVEN BOYS PLAY BIG HARMONICA Seven boys are needed to play a huge harmonica recently demonstrated at Detroit, Mich., and which is declared to be the largest of its kind in the world. It measures eight feet in length, giving sufficient space for each performer to [...]
RADIO SIGNALS GUIDE FARMER’S PLOW Nearly seven years ago this magazine prophesied that farmers someday would do their plowing by radio. That prediction has now come true, at least on an experimental scale. Recently, J. J. Lynch, of Miles City, Mont., demonstrated his radio-controlled tractor before 200 electrical experts and business men. Steered from a [...]
PASTE NOW ATTACHED TO TOOTHBRUSH A toothbrush that carries its own paste is now on the market. When the tube on its back is squeezed, paste is forced between the bristles. A fitting permits substitution of another tube when the first is used up.
TALKIE, PHONOGRAPH, RADIO, ALL IN ONE A new “home talkie” device houses in one cabinet a projector for standard sixteen-millimeter film, a phonograph for the sound accompaniment or for ordinary records, and a radio receiver. Words or music accompanying the pictures are played by sixteen-inch disks, synchronized with the film. The hinged top of the [...]
PISTOL FIRES RED PAINT AT FLEEING AUTO So that gangsters and hit-and-run drivers cannot escape pursuing police cars in crowded city streets, a St. Louis, Mo., inventor has devised a pistol which shoots a small celluloid shell about the size of a hen’s egg. Upon hitting the body of a fleeing automobile it creates a [...]
Nope, nothing scary here. Who would have a problem hanging out in a tin can being dangled a few thousand feet below a blimp? I’m not really sure what the propeller is supposed to do. Are they saying there is actually an engine in the capsule? NEW OBSERVATION CAR FOR AIRSHIP Nicknamed the “flying fish,” [...]
By Kenneth Malcolm
CURLING wisps of smoke rising in a fireplace, great smoke-gusts bursting in from an offstage forest fire, steam issuing from grotesque modernistic machinery or even from the spout of a humble teakettle—all the realistic steam and smoke effects which so often add to the interest of professional dramatic productions can be easily duplicated, at least on a moderate scale, by the amateur.
The apparatus to be described is a simplified version of that used in the professional theater, and costs not more than a dollar or two. The smoke—produced chemically by uniting ammonia gas with chlorine—is harmless and may be generated instantly wherever desired.
HE'D counted on landing the job—but he missed out. Again he'll have to "stall" the landlord, the grocer and all the rest. One thing stood between him and a weekly pay check. His wife is somewhat reluctant to tell him. He doesn't realize that a fresh, close shave is important in getting and holding a job.
MIDGET AUTO HITS 55 MILES AN HOUR For two summers, Gardner W. Turman of Boulder, Colo., alternate boy in the 1929 Edison contest, spent his spare time in his workshop, and the result was a midget automobile that can carry its single passenger as fast as fifty-five miles an hour. Even a motorcyle dwarfs the [...]
This looks pretty useful. LIGHT KNEE REST HOLDS BOOK OR MAGAZINE Reading is made painless for the most comfort-loving of mortals by a new book rest that clamps lightly over the reader’s knee. It not only supports the book’s weight but holds it open and keeps the place. Extension arms unfold to hold a magazine [...]
Electrification of Pennsylvania R.R. on Gigantic Scale May Presage End of the Steam Locomotive
By Kenneth M. Swezey
FROM the Pennsylvania Railroad route between New York and Washington, D. C, the snorting monsters which for more than fifty years have hauled some of the heaviest freight and passenger traffic in America are soon to disappear. By the middle of 1933, at least 150 electric-powered giants, and several hundred multiple-unit cars, will be handling the entire traffic on this section of the line with a speed, smoothness, and economy never before achieved. This greatest steam railroad electrification project, involving 325 miles of route and 1,300 miles of track and costing a hundred million dollars, marks the beginning of a new era in railroad transportation. For almost half a century, the Iron Horse has roared across the continents of the world, snorting defiance at the threat of electricity. Without undue humiliation it let its sleek rival do the quiet and smokeless auxiliary work at terminals, in long tunnels, and on suburban and inter-urban passenger lines.
So, basically they are saying that long term weather prediction methodology is so bad that randomly guessing works better? 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 [...]
Now millions prevent colds by twice-a-day Listerine Gargle 66% reduction shown in tests
Now people are beginning to realize that if they have a cold they have only themselves to blame.
They are learning that ordinary colds can frequently be prevented . . . their number often reduced 50% and sometimes 66%. One cold a year instead of three.
TYPEWRITER AND TOILET ARTICLES IN ONE CASE A boon to the professional man or woman who travels is a utility case that not only contains a portable typewriter and writing supplies but most of the toilet articles and other things that are likely to be needed on a trip. Despite its all-purpose usefulness, the compact [...]
Gee, I can’t imagine why these cigarettes never caught on, not to mention the tobacco salad with tobacco oil dressing. Sounds delicious! NEW TOBACCO PLANT HAS NO NICOTINE Tobacco minus nicotine is produced from the leaves of a remarkable plant raised in Germany. This botanical freak is the reward of experiments conducted under the direction [...]
When snow-blocked roads hindered Father Frank Nestor, of Cando, N. D., from visiting his outlying parishes during the winter months, he determined to build a machine that would be proof against unfavorable weather. An opportunity came to purchase a good 100-horsepower airplane engine secondhand, and around this Father Nestor constructed the remarkable air-propelled vehicle that he calls his "snow-boat." On packed snow or ice the slender streamlined vehicle can travel at a speed of 100 miles an hour.
BIG MONSTERS IN PARADE Monster animals, inflated with helium gas, are being turned out by an Akron, O., factory for department stores to use in advertising their wares. A few weeks ago some of these creatures paraded in Boston, as shown at left. Released, they soar away. Clarence Chamberlin, noted aviator, recently won a store’s [...]
IF, BY some miracle, you could be transplanted backward in time to the days of our prehistoric ancestors, what would be the first thing you would do?
It makes no difference whether you are a banker, a farmer, a politician, or a factory worker, your first action, assuming that you didn't drop dead at the suddenness of the change, would be to search for food. The second would be to search for shelter both from the elements and from wild beasts. In other words, the two necessities of existence, which you now take so much for granted, would occupy your thoughts to the exclusion of everything else. Guessing what you would do after that depends on the particular kind of primeval wilderness to which you were transplanted. You might, for example, find yourself in a time and location in the past when the struggle for existence was fierce. Getting food and shelter would, in that case, occupy every waking thought until you met death under the claws of some carnivorous beast. And you wouldn't last long, either, for only the exceptionally skillful in the art of self-preservation lived even to middle age under such difficult conditions.
WIRE REPLACES WAX IN NEW DICTATING MACHINE Unusually clear reproduction is claimed for a new type of dictating machine invented in Germany. In this device the fluctuations of a speaker’s voice, conveyed electrically to electromagnets, leave a moving steel wire traveling through them more or less strongly magnetized according to the intensity of the voice [...]
By RAYMOND B. WAILES
WITH simple equipment requiring surprisingly little financial outlay, you can build in your home a small chemical laboratory that will provide a fascinating hobby. Here you may amaze your friends with seemingly magical chemical tricks, as by the manufacture of paint that shines in the dark or of writing inks that disappear unless the secret of bringing them back is known. You can manufacture useful things for the home, as soap or liquid court plaster. You can test gold rings and ivory piano keys to see whether they are genuine. If you wish, you can investigate the chemical processes used in industry, with the ever-present possibility of an important discovery. To the real dyed-in-the-wool experimenter, chemicals in themselves are intriguing, and a beautifully colored precipitate or a startling formation of crystals is its own reward for the trouble of preparation.
VERSATILE TONGS. Useful in the kitchen are these tongs which serve many purposes from grasping hot potatoes to lifting eggs out of boiling water. Also at one end there is a handy bottle opener
DRIES HAIR QUICKLY. This new hair drier can be used with an ordinary gas plate. When the curved housing of sheet metal is set upon the burner, it directs outward a stream of hot air which, striking the hair, quickly dries it
THEY SAVE YOUR HANDS. Especially designed to aid in washing clothes are the tongs shown below. Their grip will not harm fragile fabrics, it is said
PHONOGRAPH RECORD IS MADE ON PAPER Phonograph records on paper, costing a cent or two apiece and playing twice as long as standard records, are promised by an entirely new process developed by two young Argentinian engineers. In principle the scheme resembles the method used for sound motion pictures. Apparatus in the recording studio transforms [...]
This is the coolest gas pump ever. SPHINX SERVES PATRONS AT GASOLINE STATION Like water flowing from fountain statuary, gasoline spouts from the mouth of a model Sphinx in London, England. An enterprising owner of a filling station, desiring to attract the attention of passing motorists, had a gasoline pump erected in the form of [...]
USE CAR’S EXHAUST TO CLEAN CUSHIONS Using the exhaust gas of the automobile to clean the upholstery is the accomplishment of a recently invented device. An aluminum attachment is fastened to the exhaust pipe and the engine is allowed to idle. As the exhaust gas passes through this device suction is created at the inlet [...]
SHIELD ON EYEGLASSES PROTECTS THE NOSE Equipped with a shield that completely covers the nose, these new sun glasses may not impress the beholder as an aid to beauty, but that is what they actually are. The shield protects the wearer’s nose from sunburn and consequent redness. A Los Angeles inventor designed it.
DR. WILLIAM K. GREGORY, distinguished scientist of the American Museum of Natural History, in the first articles of this series, has given the absorbing history of the tiny living speck from which all life arose and sketched its slow development into Man. The manner in which Man passes his characteristics on to his offspring and the functions of the ductless glands were described by Dr. Herbert Ruckes, of the Biological Faculty of the College of the City of New York. Last month, Dr. A. T. Poffenberger, head of the Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, told Michel Mok, staff writer, that our emotional life is based upon fear, anger, and love. In this talk, Dr. Poffenberger explains how circumstances and civilization influence and mold our individual emotions; why one man becomes a racketeer and another a useful citizen.
