Modern Mechanix | Yesterday's tomorrow, today.

Modern Mechanix

Issue: Apr, 1934

Posted in: Radio

Tags: giant sized

Posted: 05/12/2006

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Giant Radio Has 37 Tubes (Apr, 1934)

Giant Radio Has 37 Tubes
EQUIPPED with 37 tubes and six speakers, the largest of which is 18 inches in diameter, one of the largest radio sets in the world has been produced by a Cincinnati, Ohio, radio manufacturer. The set is nearly five feet high and weighs 475 pounds.
The huge radio has a tremendous volume range with a maximum output of 75 watts, yet it can be tuned down to normal living room volume without distortion of tone quality. Four chassis are required to mount the working elements.
The set is capable of reproducing from 20 to 20,000 cycles of audio frequency, although the normal human ear is incapable of hearing above 16,000. The dial of the receiver is 12 inches in diameter.

Modern Mechanix

Issue: Feb, 1936

Posted in: Medical

Tags: radium

Posted: 05/12/2006

1 Comment

Precious Radium is Medicine’s Treacherous Helper (Feb, 1936)

Precious Radium is Medicine’s Treacherous Helper

Rare metal is teamed with common lead to become an ally of science.

Weird masks impregnated with lead shield this doctor from the withering rays of radium held in the tiny vial. These same rays become healing agents when they are properly directed.

Leftâ€”-This solid lead container protects hospital attendants who transport radium. Aboveâ€”â€”Guarded by a lead shield containing thick lead glass, a nurse restores a vial of radium to its holder. Rightâ€”Lead vaults for radium. Box marked 100 contains one-tenth of a grain of radium. It is worth $7,500.

Lead is the only thing radium rays will not penetrate and without a lead shield, this interne must work at a distance. Right-â€”Radium is now valued at $1,000,000 an ounce. It looks like a white salt, and each grain must be well guarded.

Modern Mechanix

Issue: Jan, 1936

Posted in: Sports

Tags: golf

Posted: 05/12/2006

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Fishermen Match Technique With Golfers in “Golf Casting” (Jan, 1936)

Fishermen Match Technique With Golfers in “Golf Casting”
GOLF casting” a game originating on the Pacific coast, has developed a keen spirit of competition among fishermen who pride themselves on the accuracy of their bait casting. The game, played on a regulation golf course, consists of casting a tournament plug down the fairway and into the cup, the number of casts required being scored as in golf. Casting “drives” of 300 feet or more are not unusual when tournament rod and reel are used. So successful are the fishermen at placing their plugs that in many instances a 100-foot cast has landed the plug within a foot of the cup. Scores compare favorably with those made in golf in spite of the greater distance the golfer can drive his ball. Accuracy is the scoring factor for the plug caster.

Mechanix Illustrated

Issue: Jan, 1956

Posted in: Sign of the Times, Space

Tags: rockets

Posted: 05/11/2006

3 Comments

ALL ABOARD FOR OUTER SPACE! (Jan, 1956)

ALL ABOARD FOR OUTER SPACE!

Is this the ship that will take us to earth’s first manned satellite?

By G. Harry Stine, Viking-Aerobee Operations Engineer, White Sands Proving Grounds

ON May 24, 1954, a Navy Viking rocket thundered 158 miles into space.

As recently as February 1949, a V-2/ WAC-Corporal “Bumper” rocket soared 250 miles into the sky over New Mexico’s White Sands Proving Grounds.

Just last year, an Air Force pilot flew the Bell X-1A rocket plane “above 80,000 feet” and at more than twice the speed of sound.

We have built rockets which have gone beyond the earth’s atmosphere and returned; they have reached altitudes where the remnants of the atmosphere around them were a better vacuum than that in a radio tube. We have sent men to altitudes where their blood would boil if they were not protected by a pressure suit and a pressurized cabin.

Popular Science

Issue: Apr, 1939

Posted in: Cool, Dogs, Medical

Posted: 05/11/2006

4 Comments

Eyeglasses for Dogs (Apr, 1939)

There is actually a company called Doggles that sells prescription eyewear for your dog.

Eyeglasses for Dogs

BY MENTIONING that her dog seemed nearsighted, a girl customer started an optician of Geneva, Switzerland, on his way to becoming a specialist in fitting canines with glasses. Not only did he succeed in curing her pet, but now he has found a novel and profitable career in applying his newly discovered methods to other four-footed subjects.

Popular Science

Issue: Mar, 1939

Posted in: Kitchen

Posted: 05/11/2006

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Home Unit Extracts Vegetable Juices (Mar, 1939)

Now you too can make juice! It’s almost as easy as changing a tire!

Home Unit Extracts Vegetable Juices

A NEW electric juice extractor makes it easy to prepare fresh-vegetable juices of every description at home. When carrots, beets, celery, spinach, fruits, and berries are fed into its motor-powered shredder, they are instantly reduced to pulp. Collected in cloth bags, the product is said to yield all its vitamins, minerals, and other valuable nutritive elements in a powerful hand press, where tons of pressure exerted by means of a convenient lever squeeze out every drop of juice and leave only a bone-dry residue behind in the bag.

Popular Science

Issue: Feb, 1948

Posted in: Advertisements, Medical

Posted: 05/11/2006

1 Comment

EAR NOISES? (Feb, 1948)

The ELMO Co? Do they tickle the noise away?

EAR NOISES?
If you suffer from those miserable ear noises and are Hard of Hearing due to catarrh of the head, write us NOW for proof of the good results our simple home treatment has accomplished for a great many people. NOTHING TO WEAR. Many past 70 report ear noises gone and hearing fine. Send NOW for proof and 30 days trial offer.
THE ELMO CO., Dept 1243, Davenport, Iowa

Popular Electronics

Issue: Dec, 1958

Posted in: Computers, Cool

Posted: 05/11/2006

2 Comments

Amazing Computer Called MRS (Dec, 1958)

Wow! This was a stunningly advanced computer for the time. I think it would give HAL a run for his money.

MRS

A temperamental MRS computer doesn’t always follow instructionsâ€”and self-programs a surprise that only another computer could understand

By Hugh B. Brous, JR.

FIRST OFF, let me tell you that the MRS is no off-the-shelf commercial computer. MRS stands for Multipurpose Research System, and we designed and built the whole works ourselves at the Research Institute. Consequently, we can blame only ourselves for the design features that led to all the troubles. Everyone on the staff still feels that the basic concepts are sound but we unanimously agree that some changes will have to be made before MRS can be a dependable computer system.

MRS is a well-built hunk of hardware with just about everything a computerman could want. She’s got microprograming, built-in compiling routines, half a billion words of high-speed memory, a basic pulse rate of a micromicrosecond, and fantastically fast input-output scanners that work with a whole printed page at a time.

Science And Mechanics

Issue: Feb, 1935

Posted in: Automotive, Cool, Just Weird

Posted: 05/11/2006

1 Comment

Miniature Cars are Practical (Feb, 1935)

I really wish people still drove around in these. I certainly would pay extra for a pizza delivered by a little kid wearing a cap, driving tiny car.

Miniature Cars are Practical
CHEAP and serviceable, this little car has attained much favor in England. It goes only 15 miles an hour, but can be driven by a child, and is obviously easy to maneuver and park. Weight, 200 pounds; balloon tires, 12-inch diameter. It is cheap to run â€”and taxes (based on power) are very low. It is even used for sales display as a miniature of larger cars, with bodies on a reduced scale. In spite of a juvenile appearance, it is quite serviceable for commercial and individual use. Control is by a single pedal.