.Flying Saucer Camera will be used by Air Force to clear up saucer questions. One lens takes regular picture; the other separates light into colors so scientists can judge the source and make-up of saucers.
.Horned Owl Clings to Radiator Cap for Eighty Mile Drive
ALIVE owl of the horned species flew up to the car of George Carpenter of Minneapolis while he was driving near St. Cloud, Minnesota, and refused to be shooed away. The tenacious bird clung to the radiator cap for the entire 80 mile trip back to Minneapolis, making a living radiator ornament that attracted considerable attention. The owl is now making its home in the Carpenter garage, and is rapidly becoming a family pet. Mice have mysteriously disappeared from the garage and vicinity since the arrival of this bird, so the Carpenters consider that it is earning its board.
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Synthetic Scenery Eliminates Movie Sets
HUGE, one-sided sets built at great cost in Hollywood movie studios to recreate for the camera famous buildings and famous settings, are fast becoming obsolete. Stored away in round metal cans in the film vaults of Radio Pictures, are hundreds of well-known synthetic settings, and cameramen are now being sent around the world to gather thousands more, to be used in a revolutionary new process called “rear projection.”
What does now taste like? Sweeter or more bitter than then?
What sound does purple make?
What does 12 smell like?
At Bell Labs, we’re working on all these questions and more!
Bell Labs, for all your existential research needs.
Also, I love the fact that they didn’t spring for a color ad.
.WHAT TIME IS GREEN?
In color television, the colors on the screen are determined in a special way. A reference signal is sent and then the color signals are matched against it. For example, when the second signal is out of step by 50-billionths of a second, the color is green; 130-billionths means blue.
Gallery of new toys for the 1946 Christmas season, the first one toy makers could gear up for after WWII. Check out the “reaction jet engine” on page 3 and the proto-legos on the last page.
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The Return of The ToysThis year’s mechanical marvels are sturdier, more realistic —and more expensive.
I think that Mr. Colbert would disagree.
.Yesterday… “The Fates” Decided
In the 6th century, B. C, King Croesus of Lydia was told by the Delphic Oracles he could defeat the Persians. Relying on “The Fates” instead of the facts, he took on an enemy he should have known was too strong for him .. .and he was badly beaten. Lack of facts cost him his kingdom and his freedom.Today… Facts Are What Count
The recent great strides in military science, pure science, commerce, and industry have resulted from modern man’s ability to determine the facts and act accordingly.
Tremendous advances have been made in the past few years in fact-finding machines. Through electronics, great masses of data that would have taken a lifetime to process can now be handled in a few days. Ordinary volumes of work can be done in minutes.
By making “mathematical models” of specific processes, products, or situations, man today can predetermine probable results, minimize risks and costs.
World’s Leading Producer of Electronic Accounting Machines
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, 590 Madison Ave., N. Y. 22, N. Y.
.Tiny Drum With a Big Memory
THIS 6 oz. stainless steel memory drum holds more than 10,000 bits of information recorded on its magnetic surface. Designed for airborne computers, it can hold as much information as larger, conventional drums.
Because the drum is a thin shell, most of its mass is concentrated at the surface, where it provides maximum strength and rigidity to withstand severe vibrations and shock. A lightweight frame surrounding the drum holds magnetic pickup and recording heads imbedded in rectangular blocks of plastic called slider bearings. These bearings slide over the surface of the drum on a cushion of air, staying only 100 millionths of an inch away from the drum. International Business Machines Corp., New York, designed it to withstand more than 15 times the force of gravity.
This reminds me a lot of that Robotic Pack Mule video that’s been going around.
.COMBAT VEHICLE “WALKS” LIKE A MAN
An Original MI Design by FRANK TINSLEY
IMAGINE, if you can, machines that walk—articulated mechanical “mule trains” that could thread a tortuous path through boulder fields and forests and negotiate mountain passes with heavy loads of freight. Sound crazy? Well, our Armed Forces and Space Authority are dead serious about it. Right now engineers are perfecting pilot models that are already walking around laboratories and testing grounds.
One of these devices is the solar-powered Moon Rover vehicle intended for remote-controlled reconnoitering of the moon. Designed by the engineers of Space-General Corporation, the Moon Rover will be lofted to our lunar satellite by an Atlas-Centaur rocket. Upon landing, the six-legged explorer will unfold, raise its panel of sun batteries and, with the power thus generated, march off about its business at a brisk three mph, picking up geological samples with pincer-like fingers, analyzing them and flashing the information back to earth.
In the mid 50′s every company on earth made their own computers.
.What’s 500 times faster than a sliderule?
Today’s quick answer to mathematical problems for engineers and designers is GEDA — the Goodyear Electronic Differential Analyzer. GEDA uses voltages and wave forms to compute in an hour the most complex math problems that would take 500 man-hours or more, using slide rule methods—acts as an “electrical brain” that can solve any problem from trajectories of space rockets to improvement of workflow through factories.
The newest GEDA, Model L3, is smaller, more compact and easier to operate than other electronic computers—occupies no more space than the average desk. After brief instruction, clerical workers are able to operate GEDA.
.AUTO RADIO “DE LUXE”
TO MEET the growing need for broadcasting from outside points, the National Broadcasting Company, of Chicago, 111., has outfitted a new car with all necessary equipment for this type of work. The vehicle is capable of traveling from place to place at high speeds.The equipment for this mobile unit consists of two transmitters, three receivers and a gasoline driven generator, all compactly mounted in a specially built touring sedan. Considerable weight reduction was achieved by discarding storage batteries and substituting the generator for the transmitters’ power supply.
Immediately in back of the front seat is the control panel and console, which houses the ultra-high frequency receiver and the specially designed four-stage high gain audio amplifier. To the rear, in the space usually occupied by the back seat, is a large compartment containing a fifty-watt transmitter, used for stationary broadcasts. A forty-watt ultra-high frequency transmitter is used for mobile broadcasts. The mobile unit is so designed that one man can drive and broadcast at the same time.
