New Inventions Answer Varied Public Needs

New burners for gas stoves have openings in side of mountings. Boil-overs run past fuel openings and will not clog flame.

A bridge table beverage shelf keeps glasses and smoking trays from cluttering up the table. The metal shelf holds two glasses and a cigaret tray and is attached to the table leg.

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Largest Golf Club Weighs 100 Lbs.

THE world’s largest golf club, with a head 36 inches long, and other dimensions in proportion, is being used at opening ceremonies for various golf tournaments in California.

Three players perched on a step ladder are needed to drive off the 13 inch diameter golf ball atop its gigantic tee.

How Light Companies Trap Power Thieves

WE’RE sorry, madam, about the electric lights. Our meter reader found some wires connected ahead of the meter indicating that electricity was being stolen. Consequently, we have turned off your power and will remove the meter tomorrow. The final decision will rest with our legal department. Good bye.”

The Superintendent paused and glanced at the service reports under his hand. This was the sixth case of power thievery reported in one week. “People will never learn that they can’t steal power and get away with it, ” he said.

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Smoke ~ The Modern Armor

By FAIRFAX DOWNEY

Armor plate for soldiers went out of style with the Knights of the Round Table, but modern armies go into battle clad in an entirely new type of protective armor—smoke! Important recent advances in the wartime use of smoke screens are set forth in this authoritative article.

WHEN knights joined combat with dragons in the old wonder tales, the monsters did not depend on their tough scales to protect them, but puffed out heavy snorts of smoke through their dilated nostrils. Most of the stories relate that the knights went right ahead regardless and slew the dragons. Still there must have been some occasions, which did not appeal to the story tellers as good material, when the hero, lost in his adversary’s fog, suddenly found the dragon on his neck and became a casualty.

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Germany Builds Peace Auto Tank
LIMITED by the Versailles treaty to war machines of an inoffensive and somewhat ineffective type, Germany is making the best of the situation by constructing weapons which, while not so formidable, at least inspire terror and provide good training. A special armoured auto has been devised to do duty as a tank, which is prohibited. Shown in the photo above, this automobile has a special heavy-duty chassis, and is surmounted by a turret, swinging a small bore gun.

Looks like an alien autopsy photo.

X-Ray Detects Disease in Mummies

THE X-ray is the latest instrument of science being empolyed by experts in photographing Egyptian mummies to determine the nature of the diseases which ravaged the ancients. The above X-ray of an Egyptian boy’s mummy is interesting in its disclosure of the fact that he suffered from malnutrition. Scientists determine this from the irregular development of the ends of the long bones, indicating deficiency of calcium in the diet. Photographs of other mummies show distinct curvatures of the spine. Teeth condition is also studied fron the photographs.

The advantage of the X-ray is that the bone structure of the mummies can be studied without unwrapping the body, with the consequent lowering in value of the mum-my as a museum specimen.

Full Disclosure: I attended Bronx Science (Class of 94). I think I actually did take electronics in that classroom on the third page. Though, the building was obviously a bit older when I went, it was still a pretty awesome school. In my sophomore year the school got a pair of IBM RS6000 workstations and a dedicated 19.2k internet connection, which was upgraded the next year to 56K. Doesn’t sound like a lot now, but it was pretty amazing for a high school at the time. I remember installing one of the early builds of Mosaic when it came out and just being bowled over by it. I used to use it everyday to download weather maps for a meteorology class I was taking. I also remember going to the Mosaic (or it may have been GNN) home page all the time to look at the “New Sites” section which was literally a listing of all the new websites that came online.

The school offered, and I think still does, a simply amazing variety of classes, particularly the electives. I took classes in electronics, robotics, forensics (way before C.S.I), meteorology, graphic arts and publishing (Using Quark 2, I think) and computer networking/telecommunications, which I have to say was pretty much the coolest class I’ve ever taken. When we arrived for the first day of class we were greeted with a stack of boxes containing brand new IBM 486DX2 PC’s, which were pretty damn good machines for the day. We had to set them all up, then repeatedly network them, both to each other and the internet. During that semester I think we learned to deploy networks using 10Base-5, 10Base-2, and 10Base-T. I think I was probably one of the first high-school kids in the country to start spending all of my free time on the web

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Your High School CAN Produce Science Fair Winners

There is a secret to the pace-setting science high school. Your school may have it; you need it yourself.

By Ken Gilmore

NEW YORK’s celebrated Bronx High School of Science has a spanking new modem building, well equipped laboratories, 2500 pre-selected, scientifically inclined students (each of whom has won out in fiercely competitive entrance examinations), and one out of five teachers is a Ph. D. It would be surprising if “Science, ” as its students call it, didn’t send finalists to the National Science Fair and the Westinghouse Talent Search, and if its students didn’t win Armed Services scientific awards, scholarships, and honors of all kinds by the hundreds. It is, in a word, one of the finest scientific training grounds in the country.

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How To Win At Science Fairs

by Ronald Benrey

YOU CAN WIN at a Science Fair as long as one thing interests you more than winning does. This is your project itself. It is going to be judged on scientific thought, creative ability, and presentation. You will really have to know the field your project is concerned with. This takes effort. Since you lack the means of a professional laboratory, you will have to do much with little. This takes trial and error and just plain work. Your presentation must be attractive and clear.

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Walking-Stick Supplies a Light for the Smoker

A CIGAR-LIGHTER in a walking-cane is a novelty that is being introduced in France. The lighter is operated by compressed air.

A long steel rod attached to the handle and extending into the hollow of the cane carries a briquette of highly inflammable material, the chemical composition of which is secret. When the handle is thrust into the cane quickly, the air compression is said to ignite the composition. The substance glows like a pocket light. It is extinguished by thrusting back the steel tube.

Flying Whirligig Is Newest Aircraft
A “FLYING WHIRLIGIG” combining the principles of the standard airplane, the autogiro, and the helicopter, is envisioned by a Glenn Dale, Md., inventor, just granted a patent. His design calls for a main wing of conventional form, having at each extremity a set of windmill-like vanes, or “booster-copters, ” arranged to rotate freely when the craft is in motion; their lift aids the main wing to support the machine.

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Tail of “Hot” Suit Serves as Entrance

A TECHNICIAN puts Oil this plastic protective suit by crawling into it through its fat “tail, ” which is connected to a port in the door. Used in radioactive areas at the Hanford plutonium factory, it stays inflated because air pressure inside the “hot” room is lower than pressure outside. This prevents any radioactive dust from leaking outside the room.

NEW ELECTRIC TRUCK STEERED WITH FEET

The operator of a new German industrial truck stands on a small platform mounted on a horizontal axle. Tilting it to one side or the other by pressure of his right or left foot steers the vehicle to right or left as desired, leaving both hands free to control power and brakes. Steering by the operator’s platform in this fashion makes a compact machine, with the greatest amount of loading capacity on the shortest wheelbase and turning circle.

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