GIVING spectators an animated view of human glands in action, a "transparent woman" designed by Dr. Frank H. Netter of New York City for exhibition at the San Francisco World's Fair is declared the first of its kind ever made.
If a certain Professor Faber could listen to "Pedro the Voder," the amazing new machine that produces artificial speech with vacuum tubes (P.S.M., Apr. '39, p. 72), he would see the realization of a dream that haunted him a lifetime. For forty years this Austrian experimenter labored to create a machine that could talk. His nearest approach to it, by 1870, was the remarkable contrivance above.
Wooden Knives and Forks for Polar Explorers Making wooden tableware for use by polar explorers is a curious side line of an Oregon woodworker. From carefully selected wood, he fashions knives, forks, and spoons that will be taken along by expeditions to the arctic and antarctic. At the extremely low temperatures encountered in the polar [...]
This is pretty damn cool. I would have loved to take a tour of my local switchboard. “Ever Seen Your Telephone Switchboard?” It’s a fascinating sight — the inside of a telephone central office where your telephone may be connected with the whole Bell System. Would you like to know more about the telephone and [...]
By ANDREW R. BOONE
FROM aerial photographs snapped by giant bombers soaring four miles above the earth, U. S. Army engineers are compiling maps that will serve as eyes for our armed forces if they ever have to wage a defensive war on American soil.
Flying out of Fort Lewis, Wash., the camera planes have recently been engaged in photographing all unmapped areas between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific, from Puget Sound to the Siskiyou Mountains of California. With their multiple cameras they make five pictures at a crack, one straight down and four at angles ahead, astern, and to the sides. Finished prints of the photographs are sent to the 29th Engineers at Portland, Ore. Here, in two old school buildings, they are turned into topographical maps showing all important features that would figure in wartime plans.
Radio-Newspaper Receiver for Home Use Designed to fit the top of a commercial table receiver which it matches in cabinet style, a complete radio-newspaper receiver for home use has just been placed on the market. All necessary apparatus for receiving and printing news bulletins and pictures transmitted over the air are contained in the unit. [...]
I’ve never heard the expression “keep the wolf from her door”, I guess it means to avoid poverty? Or is the wolf something specific, like a bill collector? Mail Boxes Keep the Wolf from Her Door Forced to find some way to earn her living when she moved to California for the sake of her [...]
Corkscrew Puts Leverage on Stubborn Stoppers Even the most stubborn cork is said to be tamed by the powerful leverage of a new corkscrew. Inserting the screw in the cork, by turning a winged key, raises a pair of geared arms to a horizontal position. Push the arms down again, and out comes the cork, [...]
CAPTIVE airplanes with clipped wings would hurtle across country at more than six miles a minute, in a "flying-railway" system proposed by a European engineer. His scheme calls for a giant new type of streamline passenger car, having stubby wing surfaces and a body like the fuselage of an airplane. At low speeds, as in starting and stopping, the vehicle rolls along standard rails on flanged wheels at front and rear.
Choose Your Flavor in Lipstick Lipstick, like gum and soda pop, can now be obtained in a choice of flavors to suit the taste of the user. The stick-form lip rouge is made in a wide variety of fruit and beverage flavors, including peach, apricot, rye, champagne, banana, and pineapple. The three young women at [...]
Junk Yard Yields Parts for Odd Organ Discarded bottles, an old vacuum-cleaner motor, sections of inner tubing, and other objects salvaged from the scrap heap comprise the parts of a unique junk-yard organ recently exhibited at Atlantic City, N.J. Individual notes are sounded by air from the cleaner motor blowing across small holes in the [...]
Portable Tire X-Rayer Shows Nails and Cuts AUTOMOBILE tires are X-rayed for hidden nails, bruises, and similar dangers by the novel portable apparatus pictured at the left. Introduced by Firestone engineers, the X-ray unit is rolled under a jacked-up wheel, and the tire is viewed section by section, just as a physician examines the body [...]
Stomach Meter Aids Study of Digestion Subjects who don’t amind the inconvenience of dining after having swallowed an electrode at the end of a long rubber tube, are solving mysteries of digestion at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy. Through the tube, wires lead to an electric meter that constantly records acidity changes in the stomach. [...]
Corkscrew Puts Leverage on Stubborn Stoppers Even the most stubborn cork is said to be tamed by the powerful leverage of a new corkscrew. Inserting the screw in the cork, by turning a winged key, raises a pair of geared arms to a horizontal position. Push the arms down again, and out comes the cork, [...]
Globe for Globe-Trotters Folds Like an Umbrella Geographical globes of the world which can be collapsed like umbrellas are an English novelty gaining in popularity among boat travelers on round-the-world cruises. In their collapsed form, the globes take up no more space than ordinary umbrellas, making them easy to carry or to stow away in [...]
Pet Shops Wrap Fish in Transparent Bags Customers of pet shops selling goldfish and various tropical species can watch their purchases swim around as they are carried to home aquariums in novel transparent bags just introduced. Made of waterproof, transparent cellulose material, in various sizes, the fish bags have reenforced handles for ease in carrying. [...]
This doesn’t seem like such a great idea to me… Treat Inflamed Eyes with Radio Waves Inflamed eyes are now being treated with ultrashort radio waves in the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, London, England. A large electrode is buried beneath the patient’s pillow, while smaller electrodes, swathed in soft padding, are applied directly to his [...]
Whether you’re an astronomer, a beaver hunter or just a peeping tom, this is the perfect telescope for you! FUN WITH A TELESCOPE • Bring distant scenes close up in a jiffy. And for clear seeing be sure your telescope is an optically fine world-famous Wollensak, with money-back guarantee. 8-power (illustrated, wonderful value at $3.75) [...]
This thing looks incredibly fun! Propeller Drives Homemade Flying Merry-Go-Round A FLYING merry-go-round in their own back yard is the pride and joy of young” Christopher Elliott and his sister Maureen, of Beccles, Suffolk, England. Built by their father, the novel whirligig has a two-passenger open gondola suspended from twin booms that revolve around a [...]
Office on Wheels Keeps Employees Close to the Job TO SAVE time and footwork on the part of employees, officials of a German museum in Munich rigged an office on wheels that could be rolled through the corridors and exhibition rooms during an inventory of museum displays. Desks, typewriter, wastebasket, and bench were mounted on [...]
By E. W. MURTFELDT
BLAZING with brilliant, ever-changing colors that rival the hues of the rainbow, the illuminated face of a giant electric clock is attracting crowds to an exhibit of timepieces at the San Francisco World's Fair. Visitors, curious to know how this spectacular effect is obtained, are amazed to learn that this gleaming disk of light, sparkling with an intricate, moving pattern of colorful stars and concentric circles, is produced not by any complicated arrangement of colored bulbs, projectors, and revolving niters, but merely by plain white light, and strips of transparent cellulose mending tape sandwiched between two practically colorless disks.
Policeman’s Billy Has Built-in Flash Light Flash light and night stick are combined in a single unit that leaves policemen and watchmen with one free hand in nighttime emergencies. The wooden billy, strong and rugged in construction, is hollowed out to accommodate two dry cells and a light bulb that throws a beam from the [...]
Dart-Shooting Fish Gun Has Pistol Grip Angling with a dart gun, a sport that has steadily increased in popularity, especially along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in France and Italy, is expected to be improved by the recent invention of a fishing gun that is fitted with a pistol grip so that the weapon [...]
Modernistic Fireplace Opens to Reveal a Small Bar FOR the small apartment or house where space is at a premium, a combination fireplace and bar may be constructed by anyone who can use a hammer and saw at a cost of approximately five dollars. The one illustrated was built from clear white pine 1″ thick. [...]
