Largest Dial Thermometer Built

THE world’s largest dial thermometer has recently been installed at Atlantic City. The diameter of the dial is 22 feet; the pointer measures 9-1/2′. The control element is a small helix of bronze tubing filled with a liquid which expands or contracts with each change in temperature.

BOOKS in Postage Stamp and billboard Sizes!

WHETHER you want a book that you can carry around in a thimble, or one which requires a truck to move about, you can find what you are looking for in the great libraries of the world. The pictures on this page show some of the Davids and Goliaths of the book world.

Taller than an average man, this huge atlas is more than 400 years old, dating from the 16th century. It is housed in the University of Rostock, Germany. The man in the picture is studying a map of the world as it was known to scholars of the middle ages. Note the hinges for clasping the book shut when not in use. Read the rest of this entry »

Bureau-Shaped Building Houses Bureau of Information
AS a novel means of advertising their town’s chief industry, the manufacture of furniture, the local Chamber of Commerce of High Point, N.C, has erected a building resembling a huge bureau to house its headquarters. The novelty of the structure lies in the sign on the mirror, for the building is actually a bureau—a bureau of information. This unique building was erected by popular subscription and is located in the heart of the town.

The World’s Largest Saxophone
THERE is plenty of music in this horn. Standing six feet, seven inches in height, this saxophone is believed to be the largest in the world. In spite of its height it may be played from a sitting position—provided the musician is sufficiently expert.

Giant Chronograph
watch was built at the Western Pennsylvania Horological Institute to teach students how to repair this type of timepiece. It’s 23 inches in diameter and the entire movement weighs about 60 pounds. The difference between this model and its tiny counterpart is that the big watch has its transparent face on the back.

Ski Boot Weighs 1,200 Pounds

A GARGANTUAN ski boot, size 371, took six weeks to make and is an oversize duplicate of the type worn at fashionable winter sports resorts in the United States and on the Continent.

Built for exhibition purposes, the boot measures 13 feet in length and has six eyelets, eight hooks and the laces are of mountain rope. The heel is 35 inches wide and 40 inches long. The entire boot weighs 1,200 pounds.

Ancient Pirate Gun Is Reclaimed from Sea

Weighing 150 pounds and resembling a cannon more than a firearm, a huge, brass-barreled, portable field piece has been recovered from the sea, where a pirate lost it, and added to a collection of ancient guns in Pasadena, Calif. The gun was one of those used by the pirate, Hippolyte de Bouchard, when he and 400 followers sacked Monterey in 1818. In returning to their ship, the men lost this gun when a small boat overturned. In later years it was recovered by fishermen who saw it on the ocean floor at low tide. Another firearm almost as remarkable is a gun with a very long barrel used by Spanish settlers in hunting. They believed that the longer the barrel, the further the ball would carry, and so used long-barreled guns to kill game at long range. The long gun has an over-all length of about ten feet.

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.

Science Helps Carve Giant Faces on Mountain

Huge models in studio are used in carving giant faces on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills. One inch on the models represents one foot on the mountainside. The models aid in making measurements and taking readings.
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Giant Outdoor Billiards Now Played With Mechanical Cue

WHILE golf and autos have gone midget, billiards has reversed the process and gone giant. This unusual condition came to pass recently in Seattle, where the outdoor billiard table you see in the photo at the left was built.
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GIANT Pictures From Pigmy Prints

By H.H. Slawson

LIKE all big things that have a small beginning, the making of giant photomurals was just a little idea back in 1927, when Mrs. C. B. Goodspeed of Chicago walked into the photo studio of Kaufmann & Fabry. She carried with her a 4×5 negative of India’s famed Taj Mahal and explained to the skeptical Messrs. Kaufmann & Fabry that her idea was to have a picture large enough to cover the entire wall of an alcove in her home.

“We told her at once,” said Arthur E. Clason, the veteran photographer who eventually completed the job, “that a picture the size she wanted had never been made before. Enlargements, as known today, were unheard of. The widest paper available was only forty inches, so three strips would be required to cover her eight-foot alcove. Read the rest of this entry »

Twelve Foot Muzzle Loading Gun Recalls Days of ‘49

WHEN they shot game in California in the hard days of ‘49, they really shot game, as is demonstrated hy a 12 foot, muzzle loading gun just added to the Pony Express Museum at Pasadena, California. The gun was acquired from a pioneer at Calaveras,
California.

The gun weighs fifty pounds. Being a muzzle loader, it used powder and ball. A huge ramrod was required to stuff in the firing material and bullets. It is easy to understand that the weapon carried a terrific kick, especially if loaded with a little more than the required amount of powder. It was fired from a rest.