view additional pages

Their Ship Came in… from Tokyo

Clair Oberly and Les McDonough, two ex-fliers, parlayed their model boats into a million-dollar-a-year business. By Louis Hochman SEVEN years ago, Clair Oberly and Les McDonough were just another pair of ex-Army and Navy fliers earning their keep as pilot and navigator for the Flying Tiger Line, a commercial outfit operating between the United States and Tokyo.
Read the rest of this entry »

Giant Eyeball demonstrates the actions of the muscles which control your eyes. This plastic device is used in medical classes by the Air Force.

Typewriter Has 2,000 Keys

AN INGENIOUS typewriter containing 2,000 Japanese ideograms besides the usual assortment of Roman characters for European languages, has been invented by Hizen Izutsu, teacher at a vocational school in Osaka, Japan.

Despite the enormous keyboard capacity, the novel typewriter is smaller than many ordinary standard typewriters previously in use. The machine sells at about $50. Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

What Magicians Do When Magical Tricks Go Wrong

Mechanical ingenuity and high-speed thinking are required by magicians when something goes haywire with their tricks. Here Fred Keating, famous magic master, tells of some of his embarrassing moments.

As told to George Bailey by FRED KEATING

AT ONE time when Robert Houdin, patron saint of modern magicians, after whom the great Houdini adopted his name, was asked by the execution of what trick he judged a conjurer, he replied, “Never by the execution of any trick, but wholly by his ability to get out of a trick that fails, and covering it up.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Bathing Cap Has Suction Cups
A WATER-PROOF bathing cap now on the market is provided with a one-inch band, consisting of three rows of scientifically designed suction cups, which permits the cap to fit over the head perfectly so as to exclude all water. The wearer merely moistens the suction cups, tucks the hair up inside past the cup band, and thereby becomes prepared for a comfortable swim.

Tourists Can’t Lose Road in Radio Guided Automobile

AUTOMOBILE tourists still get lost, especially in states where the road marking is poor and at night when various guiding signs are invisible.

A new system of direction finding will banish all of that. In the future the auto tourist, rolling along in strange country, will hear an alarm on his dash sound when he gets off the right road for each great national highway will then have its set of code signals flowing through the telephone or telegraph wires at the side of the roads by means of carrier waves. Read the rest of this entry »

Drug Said to Cause Clairvoyance
A SOUTH AMERICAN plant called Yage is believed by natives to have the magical property of enabling the drinker to see great distances or through obstacles. Before the drinker falls asleep everything seems to be filled with hazy bluish rings. As the stupor deepens the sleeper sees vivid visions of things or people known to be somewhere else. This is the reason the drug is supposed to cause clairvoyance.

Screening Fierce Battle in Drop of Water

YOU might not believe it, but ferocious and cannibalistic battles are staged every moment of the day in the drops of water that make up the rivers, lakes and oceans of the world.

A few of these battles are to be brought to the screen for the amusement and amazement of visitors to the Hall of Science at the 1933 World’s Fair. What will make this feat possible is a special projector which throws on the screen in a greatly magnified scale what is seen at the eyepiece of a powerful microscope.

Drops of water containing various species of unfriendly protozoa will be joined on the slide under the microscope connected with the projector. The battle to the death will be primitive and unmerciful, for protozoa are hungry and they ask no quarter and give no quarter. The artist’s drawing above shows how the projector and screen will be rigged up for the show.

Electric Shovel is Mechanical MONSTER

A NEW monster in the mechanical world has made its appearance in the form of an electric excavation shovel of almost incredibly gigantic dimensions.

Shown above, the shovel has a dipper that will scoop up 18 cubic yards of dirt at one sweep, and will dig enough in a 24-hour day to fill 7,500 motor trucks of 4 yards each. A seven-passenger car can be driven through the dipper with room to spare.

The enormous reach of the shovel is illustrated in the fact that it can pick up a dipper full of earth, rotate, and dump it 200 feet away on the top of a seven-story building.

view additional pages

What YOU should know about PATENTS

By Harry Kursh

WHAT is a patent? It is a “legal monopoly” authorized by the Constitution and granted to inventors by the U. S. Patent Office. It gives inventors the right to exclude others from making or selling their inventions.

How long does a patent last; can it be renewed?

A patent is good for 17 years. It can be renewed only by a special Act of Congress but no patent has ever been renewed in modern times.

What does it cost to get a patent?

You pay the Patent Office $30 when filing your application for a patent and another $30 when and if the patent is granted. An additional $1 is charged for each claim in excess of 20 claims. If you engage a patent attorney, the initial patent search may cost about $25. If your invention is patentable, and the attorney files the necessary papers, takes care of the drawings and follows through on your application until the patent is granted, average legal fees for a relatively uncomplicated patent will total $300-$500. Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

These SKIMMERS Go Anywhere

THE Wright boys would blink in astonishment at some of the weird rigs taking to the air these days. Air-Cars, Sky-Boats, Flying Jeeps, Hovercraft—they’re revolutionizing the Age of Flight.

Most of these craft are based on two new devices: the ducted fan and the air cushion.
Read the rest of this entry »

Black Spray
of carbon is blown into the face of this industrial worker to test the efficiency of a respirator incorporating a revolutionary new dust filter. The mask was developed by the American Optical Company to protect laborers exposed to microscopic poisonous and disease-producing
dusts smaller in diameter than 24 millionths of an inch.