SEDANS of two popular makes are now offered with back seats which can be converted into comfortable beds more than six feet long and over four feet wide. Cushions have been so designed that they can be moved forward and laid flat like Pullman sleeping-car seats to form a foundation for bedding. The foot of the improvised bed extends into the rear luggage compartment, baggage being transferred to the front seat for the night.
MAN-MADE TORNADOES DRIVE ODD PLANE Following successful ground tests of a wooden model, a Stillwater, Okla., inventor has begun construction of a full-sized airplane of radical design that he expects to show unprecedented speed. The craft’s twin propellers will blow a tornado of air through a pair of cylindrical ducts, shaped to enhance the propulsive […]
ODD MASSAGING MACHINE USES JIGGLING FRAME Intended to remove surplus weight and to stimulate circulation, a strange motor-driven massaging machine has been devised by a Tulsa, Okla., woman. The subject stands erect within a cagelike frame of iron, and from six to eight rollers resembling large coil springs are fastened about her. When an operator […]
EIGHT-WHEELED AUTO DEFIES SAND Mud and sand offer no obstacles to an eight-wheeled car exhibited by a German inventor, since its multiple tread surfaces assure ample support and traction. The wheels are grouped in two sets of four each at the front and rear of the machine—an arrangement imposing an unusual mechanical problem in the […]
REPORTERS RAINCOAT HAS WRITING WINDOW To facilitate taking notes in the rain, a German newspaper reporter has equipped his raincoat with a window of transparent material. By holding his pencil and notebook in front of him, directly under the improvised window, he is able to see what he is writing, and jot down his impressions […]
CLEAVING the water at express-train speed, a propellerless power boat of new design may shatter existing speed marks if it fulfills the hopes of its West Easton, Pa., inventor. Its slim hull rides upon three buoyant, barrel-shaped rollers, of which the forward two are connected to the power plant and revolve at high speed.
When the fisherman's figure is pushed backward, one of the fishes instantly disgorges a "butt"
By HOWARD R. HEYDORF
STRUGGLING with his catch, this comic fisherman seems to be fighting a pretty hopeless battle. Give him a little help by tilting him backward and he will reward you with a cigarette delivered through the mouth of one of the fishes. He will continue to deliver cigarettes one at a time till the magazine of thirteen is empty.
INTRICATE geometrical designs, many of striking beauty, are produced by a curious instrument constructed by Milan Fiske, junior student at Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., and known as a precision harmonograph. The unusual device, which its youthful builder believes may be the only one of its kind in the country operating on similar principles, aids in the mathematical study of compound harmonic motions.
By Edwin Teale
PIONEERS in an amazing new field of research recently traveled to the Loomis Laboratories, Tuxedo Park, N. Y., for the first meeting of its kind in America. The sixty scientists who compared notes are "brain-wave" experts, students of minute, telltale pulsations of electric current that come from the billions of cells in the human brain.
With supersensitive electricity-recording instruments, able to register less than a millionth of a volt of current, they are discovering curious facts about our brains and how they work. Already, these scientists have achieved such exciting feats as "photographing a dream," watching the electrical pattern made by brain cells in solving a mathematical problem, and witnessing an "electrical storm," piling up in the brain of an epileptic. By discovering rhythms in the varying strengths of these tiny currents, they are working toward a radically new technique in detecting and diagnosing various ailments of the brain.
WINDSHIELD FOLDS INSIDE UMBRELLA An umbrella with a built-in windshield, recently patented, protects the user from driving rain but allows him a clear view ahead. Made of sections of transparent celluloid, the windshield folds inside the umbrella when not in use and automatically drops down into place when it is opened. Metal rods hinged to […]
Electric Hookah? ELECTRICITY OPERATES “FIRELESS PIPE” A “fireless pipe,” operated by electricity, has been devised by a Toronto, Canada, physician, who maintains that it prevents the inhalation of harmful carbon monoxide and reduces fire hazard by eliminating the use of matches. Tobacco is volatilized by a heating element and the fumes are breathed in the […]
MOTH-KILLER GAUGE
A container now supplied with a moth-killing compound is fitted with a moving indicator to show how much of the chemical it contains at any time. When the supply runs low, it can be renewed easily
BAGS FOR VEGETABLES
For large heads of cabbage or lettuce, which cannot be put in the average refrigerator receptacle, rubber-fabric bags are now available. They close snugly with snap fasteners
How an Innocent-Looking Plant, a Roadside Weed In Many States, Presents A Grave Narcotic Problem
By William Wolf
ONE DAY last summer, a squad of men suddenly descended upon a vacant lot in a large eastern city. Attacking a patch of innocent-looking weeds, they first burned the stalks down to the ground and then spread chemicals to make sure that every vestige of life in the roots was destroyed.
The weed was marijuana—better known as Indian hemp—and within that one vacant lot there was enough, if converted into cigarettes or "reefers" and peddled through underground channels, to be the potential cause of half a dozen murders and other brutal crimes.
Motor Cycle Is Driven by Steam POWERED by steam from a compact boiler, this novel motor cycle is virtually silent in operation. The inventor, a Miami, Fla., filling-station man, claims that the odd cycle averages fifty miles on a gallon of fuel.