Racing Canoes With Large Umbrella for Sails Is Popular Water Sport

RACING canoes with umbrellas for sails has become a popular water sport at the southern resorts and will undoubtedly be taken up seriously everywhere this summer.

The canoes are jockeyed into place along the starting line by paddling, and the over-grown umbrellas are then opened for action. At the starting signal, paddles are taken from the water and the canoes start off under full sail. In some races the “skipper” is allowed to use the paddle to keep the canoe in its course and prevent collisions.

World’s Smallest Auto Demands Traffic Equality

TRAFFIC regulations have made no qualifications concerning the size of a car. Here is the world’s smallest car taking the right of way in Brooklyn, N. Y. Officer Thomas Hallman was rather surprised when Master Bernard Muller and his playmate, Miss Adele Wallack, rolled up to the corner. Read the rest of this entry »

GYP of the MONTH

Want to be a better crook? Harry the Hyp will help.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD some American tourists complain about being gypped by the natives in Europe, but now we give you a tourist who reversed the story. He bought a railway ticket at a station in Scotland and paid with a $50 bill. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Mystery of the Shrinking Oranges

A Sad Story from Southern California

by John Devaney

California’s Valencia oranges are shrinking. The Golden State’s summer orange, which provides the entire nation with orange juice from July to November, has become little larger than a golf ball. And nobody in California knows why. Read the rest of this entry »

Tricycle Vender Solves Girl’s Unemployment Problem
UNABLE to find suitable employment in her profession as a typist, Miss Clara Cage, of Hollywood, discovered an unusual method of earning a living. She rigged up a tricycle as a delivery wagon and now delivers cartons of ice cream direct to consumers. During hot spells Miss Cage turns many a pretty penny by pedaling her way about the streets on her tricycle, which is shown in the photograph at the left. Along Hollywood boulevard, her favorite selling area, she attracts attention by her novel togs and vehicle.

Electric Banana Ripening
THE ripening of bananas, which are cut from the trees when green, requires carefully controlled heat and humidity. A new and positive method has been devised by using electric strip heaters mounted under water pans suspended from the ceilings. The rooms in which the bananas are ripened are specially constructed, practically air tight, and with refrigerator-type doors. Thermostatic control maintains the room temperature between 60 and 75 degrees, depending on how green the bananas are when placed in the room and how soon it is desired to complete the ripening process which is from 48 to 60 hours.

Novel Door Lock Stops Gangsters
AN AUTOMATIC electric clock built for revolving doors such as are used in banks and department stores was designed by three Minneapolis inventors to thwart gangster attempts at wholesale robbery.

The device is concealed in the wall just above the axis of the door. In case of a holdup any employee can press the alarm push button. A small electric motor immediately engages notched clutches which prevent the door from turning.

Berlin Installs First Stamp Vending Machine

BERLIN postal authorities have adopted a new invention that promises to be of real help to all. The automatic stamp vending machine which can be attached to trolley wire posts will relieve a long felt need. The photograph shows a customer operating the crank that produces the stamps. How many times have letters been written, only to be carried in the pocket because there was no stamp with which to post it! The Berlin idea is very simple. Read the rest of this entry »

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Stamp Collecting For Profit

by Frank G. Stein

TO ORDINARY laymen, stamp collecting may seem like a waste of time, effort and money. But to those who have been “bitten by the bug” it is the most interesting hobby any man, woman or child can take up.

When such well-known persons as the late King George V of England, the late Arthur Hind of Utica, New York, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Queen Helena of Italy, Suzanne Lenglen, famous French tennis player, Adolphe Menjou and Clara Bow, of the silver screen, and countless other personages of world-wide fame were and are collectors, it is no wonder that this hobby is so popular with millions of Americans. Read the rest of this entry »

Shoes for Fastidious Walkers

IF YOU are a fastidious walker you will probably appreciate the unique shoe soles shown in the photo below. The design is made by the use of inlaid bits of colored leather and with studs, so that the patterns run all the way through the leather, if that means anything to you. The shoes were displayed recently at the Shoe and Leather Fair in the Royal Agricultural exhibition in Islington, England. They were held to be a masterpiece of the shoemaker’s art.

Novel “Driver-Seat Shop” for Motorists’ Convenience

SOMETHING distinctly new in the way of ideas for merchandising automotive equipment is represented in the “Driver-seat Shop,” a steel and glass display cabinet that can be placed in all filling stations for the convenience of motorists who wish to make purchases without alighting from their cars. Read the rest of this entry »

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SEEING SOUND With A Home-Made Oscillograph

by MAXWELL R. GRANT

Hooked up to the loudspeaker terminals of a radio this device converts music into rhythmic light rays.

FASCINATING mysteries of sound can be explored with a simple oscillograph made from junk-box parts. Plugged into your radio set, it will convert programs into wiggling lines of light, moving across a screen. Read the rest of this entry »