April 11, 2007

Now You Can Fly Around the World (Jun, 1936)

This sounds like a lot of fun. As long as they keep the Hindenburg filled with helium and not hydrogen on that first leg.

Now You Can Fly Around the World

TWO NEW AIRWAYS MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO BUY A TICKET FOR A TWENTY-DAY AERIAL JAUNT AROUND THE GLOBE

By John E. Lodge

OUT of the sky over Lakehurst, N. J., a few days hence, the enormous silver Von Hindenburg, biggest Zeppelin ever built, is scheduled to nose down for a landing at the end of its maiden voyage to America. Not many weeks later, the four-engined, twenty-five-ton China Clipper will head out past the promontories of the Golden Gate on its first passenger flight to the Orient.

Those two events will forge the final links in a vast chain of airways to encircle the globe. Before the end of this summer, you will be able to buy tickets for an aerial circuit of the earth as easily as you now purchase them for a round-the-world cruise by steamer. Years of preparation, the flights of daring pioneers, and the latest advances in engineering and radio have given a solid foundation to what, but a few short decades ago, was a seemingly impossible dream.
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Pencil Forms Midget Radio Set (Sep, 1934)

Filed under: Radio — @ 6:28 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1934
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Pencil Forms Midget Radio Set
A MIDGET crystal set, built into a common lead pencil, is the technician’s answer to demands for a personalized radio receiver. The crystal and cat’s whisker are built into eraser end of pencil. Headphones complete the outfit. Construction plans for a similar device were carried in the May issue of this magazine.

HOBBYHORSE REALLY GETS SOMEWHERE (Nov, 1936)

HOBBYHORSE REALLY GETS SOMEWHERE

When a child jumps up and down in the saddle of a hobbyhorse of new design, the mechanical steed carries him forward several feet with each bounce. The secret of the ingenious motion lies in a locking mechanism that enables the rubber-tired wheels to move frontward only. Each jounce compresses the spring frame, exerting a forward kick against the movable front wheels and a backward kick against the locked rear wheels, and thus propelling the whole vehicle ahead.

Beating the Burglar at His Own Game (Dec, 1924)

This is a really entertaining article about the arms race between safe-crackers and the safe-makers/users.

Beating the Burglar at His Own Game

War-Time Tear Gas Is Added to Equipment Used to Foil Bank Robbers and Expert Safe Crackers

SCIENCE again is a lap ahead of the burglar and safe blower in the eternal race between criminals and the law.

The development of the oxyacetylene torch, coupled with the discovery that a rod of ordinary soft steel would help it burn through the hardest manganese steel ever made, for a time gave the bank robber an advantage.

Then science stepped in and produced a new metal which, so far, has resisted all efforts to melt or drill it. The composition is a closely guarded secret, but copper, apparently, is one of the materials used. Applied to vault doors, a sheet of ordinary hard steel is used on the outside, then a sheet of what appears to be a copper alloy, next a thickness of an exceptionally hard material that looks like carborundum, another sheet of the copper alloy, and finally the inside steel plate.
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April 10, 2007

Death Chamber for Dogs Is Built into Truck (Nov, 1937)

Filed under: Dogs,Scary — @ 10:40 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1937
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Yes, every little girl should have the character building experience of watching her dog’s execution. She seems to be taking it well.

Death Chamber for Dogs Is Built into Truck
A death chamber for dogs is a feature of a truck operated by the Animal Protective Association of Washington, D. C. Incurably sick or injured animals are placed in the compartment and destroyed by carbon monoxide gas.

Mechanical Wonders of Chicago World’s Fair (Sep, 1933)

Wow, the airplane ride and especially the skyride look awesome.

Mechanical Wonders of Chicago World’s Fair

“CENTURY of Progress” is the name given the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and the whole show is well named, for it is an exposition depicting the progress of man’s advance in civilization in the last 100 years. And this progress revolves almost entirely around the advances made in science and mechanics in that length of time.

Every conceivable mechanical oddity worth displaying is on show, and each month during the course of the exposition Modern Mechanix and Inventions will display for readers who are unable to view the fair an increasingly augmented series of unusual pictures to help carry the true import of the exposition.
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Latest Inventions for the Household (Jun, 1936)

Latest Inventions for the Household

WASHING MACHINE CHARGES BATTERY
Gasoline-powered washing machines, used on farms and estates not served by power lines, now can be fitted with a small generator unit to charge storage batteries for tractors, automobiles, or radios. Mounted on the platform with the engine, the generator is hooked up to the pulley by means of a drive belt

BOTTLE OPENER HAS SEALING CAP
To preserve the freshness of beverages after the bottles are opened, a new cap lifter contains a rubber sealing plug which can be clamped over the bottle lip. It gives an air-tight seal on all standard necks, and cannot be blown off easily
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COWHIDE-LEOPARD REVERSIBLE AUTO SEAT COVERS (May, 1952)

COWHIDE-LEOPARD REVERSIBLE AUTO SEAT COVERS

Can be used on both Sides — Printed Heavy Duty plostic with COWHIDE design on one side and LEOPARD SKIN on the other.
• GUARANTEED TO FIT
• Reinforced Seams and tie back
• Will not crack or Peel —withstands Read the rest of this entry »

How Wallpaper is Made (Mar, 1924)

From the Stone Age to Wallpaper

Patterns of Today Reflect Designs, Coats of Arms and Tapestries First Used During the Middle Ages in Europe

ALTHOUGH the manufacture of wall-papers is one of the most interesting branches of the paper industry, comparatively few persons are familiar with its details or with how its development has kept pace with the progress of mankind from the earliest ages.

In the modern mill waste paper of various kinds—catalogue trimmings, office records and overissue newspapers—is reduced to pulp together with a certain amount of chemical, coloring matter and sizing. Since the output of this process does not have the color or texture necessary for the background, a coating of china clay, or plain ground color, is applied before printing.
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Man’s Legs Serve as Identification Card (Mar, 1938)

As usual, when it was time to cast his character in Memento, they went with someone much more attractive.

Man’s Legs Serve as Identification Card
Theodosius D. Rockwell, of Portland, Ore., whose face is shown above and whose legs are shown below, says that he isn’t afraid of amnesia, or loss of memory. His legs are tattoed with his telephone and social security numbers, and with his name and address in forty different languages.

New Comforts for Trailer Travel (Feb, 1938)

Filed under: Automotive — @ 9:21 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1938
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New Comforts for Trailer Travel

ANY attractive spot along the road is home, for the owner of the latest in automobile trailers and fittings. Pictures on these pages show some of the most ingenious accomplishments of clever designers in providing new luxuries for those who live on wheels.

Vying to combine roominess with the most elaborate array of conveniences, trailer makers have performed magic space-saving feats. One offers a double-duty fireplace that heats the trailer by day, and turns into a dresser at night! Another provides a three-gallon hot water tank that swings out over a gasoline-stove burner to heat a supply for the washstand, shower, or kitchen sink, and disappears into a closet when it is not in use.
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April 9, 2007

POCKET STEREOSCOPE (Jul, 1933)

This looks like an early Viewmaster.

POCKET STEREOSCOPE SHOWS VIEWS ON FILM

Gone is the old-fashioned parlor stereoscope of a generation ago, but its counterpart, in modern guise, has just made its appearance. The new pocket-sized form of the instrument, illustrated above, is as small as a pair of opera glasses and uses thirty-five-millimeter motion picture film instead of paper photographs. A shift lever causes the pictures to appear.

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