The Knock-Out Punch—You will be amazed at the strength and endurance of the human body in withstanding punishment when you read a really remarkable article next month by Gene Tunney, American light-heavyweight boxing champion. You will also learn of the body’s weak points—the points of vulnerability where a single blow may be a knock-out.
These Are the Men Who Direct the POPULAR SCIENCE INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS
POPULAR SCIENCE Monthly Guarantee
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THE City of New York some time ago recognized Collins P. Bliss as an authority on testing methods and industrial standardization by appointing him on a Committee for the Standardization of Fireproofed Wood. Since then, the Bureau of Buildings of this city has based its approval or disapproval of all such material on the standards established by this Committee.
A story of the remarkable struggle between steam, electricity, and oil—Marvelous inventions may mean cheaper travel by rail and sea
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Hawthorne Daniel
DEVELOPMENTS in transportation during the last few months all seem to point to the ultimate subordination or elimination of steam as a direct source of power for the movement of ships and trains. Significant of this trend was the recent arrival from Great Britain of the motorship Aorangi at the Panama Canal and later at San Francisco, and the keen interest of American engineers in this beautiful 23,000-ton passenger liner driven by internal combustion engines.
You may think you can make your steps go straight, but really you wander in circles—Why whirling makes you dizzy — How to test the intricate balancing machinery of your body
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Robert E. Martin
HAVE you ever tried to walk a chalk line? If you have, you probably found it difficult. The reason is obvious—your supporting base was narrowed, and you had to support your body almost on a point. But can you walk in a straight line employing your usual gait, with feet at a normal distance apart?
Threatened Famine May Be Prevented by a New Process of Salvaging Crop Rubbish
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Newton Burke
FROM Europe recently came the announcement that science had produced an effective process by which the waste straw of food crops, such as wheat, barley, oats, corn, and rice, may be utilized as a substitute for the wood pulp from which 90 per cent of the world’s paper now is made.
Aviation Plays Important Rôle in New British Naval Designs
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THE great sham battle staged by the American Navy this spring off the coast of Lower California to test the efficiency of the modern warship defense against attacking aircraft as brought to a head the live controversy over the question: I the plane making the battleship obsolet as a weapon of naval warfare?
A Narrative of the Thrilling Adventures of Postal Pilots
Giant London-Paris Plane
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Norman C. McLoud
AIR-MAIL pilots do more than carry the mails. Each day of their lives open for them a new chapter of thrill and adventure. Constantly, day and night, 20 of the 70 fliers who compose this branch of the postal service are the wing some where between New York and San Francisco and just constantly danger and excitement lurk in their path.
You, Like Hundreds of Others, Might Owe Your Safety to the Science and Daring of the Rescue Squad
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Ama Barker
ABOUT four o’clock one morning 10 years ago a policeman, patrolling a congested factory district in lower New York, saw smoke pouring from the cellar of a four-story loft building. The chief of the fire department responded to the subsequent alarm, together with four engine companies.
How Paris Plans to Solve Suburban Transit Problems
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Arthur A. Stuart
PARIS bids fair to be the first of the world’s largest cities to solve its rapid-transit problems high in the air. Recent reports from the French capital indicate that actual construction work soon may begin on a remarkable, high speed aero-railway, along which propeller-driven cars suspended from head monorail will travel 60 miles an hour, carrying thousands of commuters between Paris and the suburb of St. Denis.
MORE than half a million acres of national forest lands laid in waste by flames! These startling figures set 1924 down as one of the most critical years in the experience of the United States Forest Service. Growing carelessness on the part of the campers, combined with long sustained droughts are given as the cause.
Inventor Claims New Method Simplifies Film-Making for the Amateur
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MANY novel features are incorporated in a new method of producing moving pictures for non-theatrical use developed by Thomas Armat, of Washington, D. C., who was a pioneer in the development of the moving-picture projecting machine. The new process involves a camera, a projecting machine, a new kind of moving-picture film, and new ways of taking and showing pictures, which permit one-eighth of the usual quantity of film to be used.
The amazing variety of dangerous objects found in human stomachs—How they get there and how they are removed— Precautions to safeguard yourself and your children
To Avoid Trouble—
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Ada Patterson
IN HOSPITALS in many parts of the United States are museums where are displayed an amazing assortment of articles, mostly useless. There are carpet tacks, pins, needles, fragments of combs and eyeglass frames, thumbtacks, bits of wire, shoe laces, pieces of bed springs, paper clips, metal tags, washers, curtain hooks, cartridges, shot, safety-razor blades, teeth both natural and false spoons, hairpins, phonograph needles, safety-pins, fragments of bone, watermelon and other seeds, coffee beans, pieces of solder, beads strung and unstrung coins, the last almost entirely of denomlnations less than half a dollar.
FROM hundreds of queries that have been received from our readers during the month, the following dozen questions were selected. How many of them can you answer? Write down the answers as best you can, then turn to page 132 and see how nearly you were right.
A HIGH-PRESSURE diving suit and pressure-resisting deep-sea lights, recently invented by Capt. Benjamin Leavitt of Philadelphia, make it possible, it is claimed, for salvaging to be done at depths in which, hitherto, it has been impossible to work for any length of time.
URGENT need of houses that can be rented at prices a workman can afford to pay, has brought about a new type of steel home in Great Britain, principally in Scotland. They can be erected, largely by unskilled labor, almost overnight. Three motor-trucks are said to be sufficient to carry the materials for a complete house from the factory to the site.
A TELEPHONE without mouthpiece or receiver! Press a button and talk into the air in a natural tone of voice and the message will be repeated at the other end of the wire. This unique telephone was designed especially for use in factories and large offices.
MAKING children eat bread crusts may be a useful practice from an economical standpoint, but the time-honored belief that the crusts possess better dietary qualities than the center of the bread seems to have scant basis in fact. This was revealed in some interesting experiments just completed by Professor Roscoe Hart Shaw of the American Institute of Baking.
ALMOST everybody probably has tried the experiment of turning a cat upside down and dropping it to the ground to see it right itself in falling and land on its feet. Recently Professor R. Magnus, of the University of Utrecht, Holland, set out to learn why it is that a cat possesses the odd ability to change the direction of its body While falling.
A POSTCARD device that tells its message not to the eye but to the ear is the invention of Charles Rammelsberg, of Berlin, Germany. With a phonographic apparatus small enough to be carried in a pocket, the inventor states that any one is able to make faithful voice records on gelatine films the size of postcards.
How to Save Big Repair Bills by a Few Simple Precautions
Know Your Car
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a Garage Owner
A FEW days ago a car-owner from out of town paid me a bill of about $125. The bulk of the work for which the charge was made consisted of reboring a scored cylinder and refitting it With piston and rings. To me, though, the most interesting item on the bill was the last, and one of the smallest:
What happens when a station goes dead in the middle of a program—The inside story of transmission
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Jack Binns
WHAT happens when a broadcasting station stops short right in the middle of a program? “Must have blown out a tube,” says the average radio fan, but he will be wrong in most instances. A blown tube is a mere detail at any of the larger stations.
Time-Saving Tools and Useful Ideas for Set Builders
Right-Angle Screwdriver
A Simple Low-Loss Coil
The coil is wound on a form made of
Silencing Battery Charger
Label Your Battery Wires
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ANY one who has attempted to start a small screw in a radio set, when instruments and wires are in the way of the fingers, will find a pair or two of homemade tweezers exceedingly useful. They will soon pay for themselves in time and trouble saved.
Electrically Equipped Work Table Aids in Making Pictures at Home
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Richard C. Tarr
HOME photographers who attempt to do their own work often are at a loss to find a place for developing and printing. A compact, neat-looking, and efficient work cabinet may be made from an old commode by any one handy with ordinary tools. If a commode is not available, a second-hand bureau, without any mirror, may be utilized.
THE amateur mechanic who specializes in metalwork and, indeed, the professional machinist, often wish to build a chest to hold their growing collection of tools. A chest of this type that is of neat and workmanlike appearance, may be constructed by following the accompanying drawings.
Strong Sawbuck Lightens Work of Handling Heavy Logs
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THE inverted V between the lower legs of the sawbuck illustrated makes it exceptionally strong and rigid. If made of hard, heavy wood, it will hold as large a log as two men can handle. The buck also has the upper part clear for the passage of the saw and it can be made long enough for a piece equal to two sticks of the finished wood to lie across its horns.
What Was the Most Profitable Home Workshop Job You Ever Undertook?
New contest offers $50 in prizes for the best money-making and money-saving experiences of readers
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WHILE the fun they get from working with tools is what leads most men to become home workshop enthusiasts, there is no disguising the fact that a vast amount of money is saved and earned each year in the home workshops of the United States. Every job undertaken in your home workshop has a monetary value.
WHEN heavy objects must be lifted on a truck without the aid of winch or tackle, it often is possible to use the method illustrated in the accompanying photographs. These show how a heavy stump was loaded by three men. The chain was tightened and the stump rolled up the incline once more, when it was possible to pry up the lower ends of the planks until they were nearly level with the truck bed.
Backyard Aerial Coaster Provides Thrilling Sport for Children
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DONALD W. CLARK
SMALL children can have great fun in riding on the aerial trolley coaster illustrated above. It not only is thrilling sport for the youngsters, but also develops their hand and arm muscles. The coaster is made from two pulley wheels, such as are used for clotheslines, about 5 in. in diameter.
IF YOU are in the habit of carrying your fishing-rods without any protection save thin canvas cases, sooner or later they will come to grief in transit. A tube for two fishing-rods can be made readily out of a length of round galvanized iron rain-spout tubing about 3 in. longer than the rods when they are unjointed.
After the springs are in place, whether sewed to webbing or held in the manner explained, the next step is to tie the tops in a position to give the seat its shape. Figure 3 shows the springs tied and the worker driving the last tack. In this particular operation you should keep in mind how the original job was tied and do the new work accordingly.
SO MANY times has the tracing for our No. 2 blueprint gone through the blueprinting machine that it soon will have to be withdrawn. If you expect to make a smoking cabinet, it will pay you to send for this blueprint.
A SMALL portable electric motor or a fan motor can be adapted easily for removing varnish from floors, sandpapering the wood, and waxing and polishing the finished surface. A wooden frame is made as shown. If a fan motor is used, the ends of the wooden frame are drawn together with light bolts so as to grip the body of the motor.
EASILY as it may be made, this fixture makes possible the speedy grinding of U.S.S. or 60-deg. thread tools and Acme or 29-deg. tools. Either type of tool can be ground at one setting. For example, to grind a 60-deg. tool, the sides A and B are placed on the magnetic chuck of a tool-grinder and the C is used only when a U.S.S. tool is desired to make a flat on the thread.
TOMMY JONES, who had been in the shop only a week, was like a colt fresh from pasture. Old Bill had been keeping a watchful eye on him. As Tommy was going out on Saturday, Old Bill told him to wait a while. After every one had gone they went into the office, Tommy a bit suspicious.
A PIECE of glass from a broken wind-shield or mirror makes a useful surface plate for the small shop or the home workshop. As precision surface plates of guaranteed accuracy are quite expensive, there are many mechanics who do not wish to purchase one.
MOST lathes have two pans for chips, one for iron and one for brass. If your turning is mainly iron, the trouble of changing the large pans can be saved by making a small pan that just fits in the opening in the bed under the chuck. The majority of lathes have a flange at the bottom of the bed that will hold the pan.