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November 7, 2008

Spike the potato

Lrg Unique Game
Unique Game for Party Amusement Modern Mechanix, 1933 - surely to be a Wii game soon....

“SPIKE the Potato” is a highly entertaining game for any party. All that is needed is a single large potato, a number of paper cones and some needles. The paper cones are about 7 in. long and 1-1/2″ in diameter at the large end. When you roll them into shape, slip a needle or pin into the small end and daub it with glue. This, when dry, will hold it in place. At the same time, glue the edge of the paper fast. Then pull a small tuft of cotton into a fluffy ball and after rubbing some glue on the inside of the open cone end, push the cotton in.

October 15, 2008

Electric miniature mono-railway

Make Pt1055
Electric miniature mono-railway Modern Mechanix, Feb, 1931.

IT IS a well known fact among experimenters that when a whirling gyroscope is set in an upright or inclined position it will not change unless some strong exterior force is applied. Due to this peculiar quality, which is known as the precessive effect, the gyroscope can be utilized in the construction of many scientific instruments and practical devices which are used in every day life.
One of the most important uses to which the gyroscope is put is that of keeping a mono-rail train in an upright position as it speeds along on its single track. The most practical and outstanding railway of this kind is known as the Brennan Mono-railway, which is used in Ireland.

An interesting and instructive toy mono-railway working on the same principle as its big brother can be easily made by any home craftsman out of a few Meccano parts, an old six-volt toy motor, a bell transformer, a piece of No. 20 gauge sheet iron, an old sewing machine fly wheel, and some No. 14 bare copper wire.

October 13, 2008

Radio-cooked toast

Lrg Fin0066
Every time there is a new technology, the makers figure out a way to cook food with it... Radio cooked toast, 1933.

RADIO cooking is the latest stunt developed by broadcast engineers. If a hot lunch is wanted by the operators in a transmitting station, all they have to do is place their food between the electrodes of the transmitter. In a few moments it will be done to a turn. Bread may be toasted in six seconds, but steak and potatoes take several minutes. Oddly enough, food overdone by cooking on the radio transmitter does not have a burned taste. Toast can be charred black without tasting in any way different from the kind a cook would be proud to serve. Engineers are not quite sure just why this is so, but believe it is because the cooking is done by the electric discharge and the electrodes get only slightly warm.

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Laser cooked toast... Made :)

July 28, 2008

In response to my posting of the hat-i-fied version of the Bleep Labs' ThingamaKIT, MAKE Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder emailed me this cover from a 1949 Hugo Gernsbeck pub, Radio - Electronics. Thanks, Mark!

More:

ThingamaHat

June 7, 2008

HOW TO - Movies in 3 dimensions

Xlg 3D Movies 0
How to adapt any 8 or 16mm movie camera and projector to take and show stereo movies -Mechanix Illustrated 1953.

IF you own an 8 or 16mm movie camera and projector, you can make your own amazingly lifelike three dimensional movies in full color or black and white at a cost of less than $6 for equipment.
The principle of stereoscopic vision is simple. Each eye sees a slightly different aspect of any view. The right eye sees slightly more of the right side of solid objects in the foreground, and the left eye sees slightly more of the left side. In addition, when the eyes are gazing at an object in the foreground, the objects seen by the right eye in the background are displaced to the right, and the objects seen by the left eye in the background are displaced to the left. These two slightly different images that fall on the retinas of the right and left eye are transmitted to the brain and are fused into a scene which enables us to perceive depth.

March 24, 2008

TRANSISTORS - first family of electronics

Xlg Bell Transistors Family
Scientific American, August, 1956 - TRANSISTORS-first family of electronics.

Related:

How transistors work

Transistor 20070726
Microcontroller basics.

How transistors of an integrated circuit are made.

February 27, 2008

Amuse Friends with chemical stunts

Make Pt0457
Modern Mechanix 1934

DO YOU like to dabble with chemicals? It was a hobby with Thomas A. Edison during his youth and formed the basis of an education that later brought thousands of new inventions into the world. Far from being a "dry" science, chemistry can be very amusing and entertaining. How many people would believe that you could pour a little drinking water into a china bowl and cause it to burst forth with flames several feet high--without the use of matches?

Amuse Friends with chemical stunts - Link.

Related:
Make 536
Thrilling stunts with a glass-eating chemical - Link.

February 24, 2008

Jumpin cars, sled stoves, battery powered cars and steampunk RC trains...

Make Pt0444
"Build a comedy ford", old timey version of bouncing suspension once found in rap music videos. Modern Mechanix 1933 - Link.

Lrg Sled Stove
Sled stove for skating parties, Modern Mechanix 1933 - Link.

Xlg Outdated Engines
Back in world war II people would conserve gas and use battery powered/pedal powered ways to get around, Popular Mechanics, 1941.

Lrg Steampunk Robot
Steampunk remote controlled train, retro Crab-Fu! Popular Mechanics 1936 - Link.

All of this and more @ Modern Mechanix - Link.

February 17, 2008

Grindstone attached to bicycle

Make Pt0423
Clever way to sharpen knives, Science And Mechanics 1936 - Link.

Related:

Knife sharpening tricks (video) - Link.

February 12, 2008

Clocks in odd figures show Makers' skill

Lrg Odd Clocks
Case modd'er from Popular Mechanics 1924!-

Showing skill possessed by watch-makers long before members of this ancient craft had advantages of modern tools, a collection of old timepieces owned by an eastern jeweler, provides a n interesting contrast with similar creations of a machine age....

One was cleverly made in a suit of armor that moved the hands around the chest and opened and closed the eyes and mouth, at every hour. After five and a half years of labor, one man completed an odd mechanical clock containing 298 moving figures, carved from oak with a penknife. They depict various historical scenes. Experts say that the watches in this display of mechanics of a past day are marvels of art and workmanship.

Clocks in odd figures show Makers' skill - Link.

February 6, 2008

Kitchen utensils make professional photo enlarger

Xlg Home Made Enlarger
Photo enlarger made from kitchen gear, Modern Mechanix 1936 Link.

February 5, 2008

Merry go round airplane launcher

Lrg Merry Go Round Plane
Here's a neat idea from Popular Science 1933, best tested on MythBusters now (they just tested if a plane could take off from a treadmill)... a merry go round airplane launcher, what do you think would happen? At least it would be more fun than most airport experiences - Link.

January 27, 2008

Electric gloves - SHOCKING!

Lrg Electric Glove
Electric glove from Modern Mechanix 1935 - Link.

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The old timey one reminds me of this modern hacky "Tazer Glove" - Link.

January 21, 2008

Anti-hitcher device and roller (tank) skates

Lrg Anti Hitch Shocker
Shocking anti-hitcher device, Link.

Lrg Tread Skates
Roller (tank) skates - Link.

Landlubbers hoist their sails and go yachting on bikes

Lrg Sail Bike
Sail biking! Popular Mechanics 1938 - Link.

More:
Strangevehicle4
Bicycles @ MAKE - Link.

January 16, 2008

HOW TO - Build a beer keg radio

Make Pt0241-1
Here's how to build a beer keg radio from Popular Science 1938 -

NOVEL as well as serviceable, the beer-keg radio described on these pages will make a useful addition to the furnishings in your game room. It can be used either as an end table or as a refreshment stand, and, since it is an entirely self-contained unit, operated by dry batteries, it can be carried onto a porch or even into the yard when warm summer days and evenings make this desirable. If you build this five-tube set carefully, it will give excellent reception from stations 1,000 miles or more away.

The unusual cabinet that houses the chassis, speaker, and batteries of the powerful superheterodyne circuit, is nothing more than an inexpensive ten to fifteen-gallon wine barrel, which can be purchased from any mail-order house. Making the barrel resemble a beer keg requires simple, inexpensive treatment which will be described later...

HOW TO - Build a beer keg radio - Link.

January 7, 2008

A different kind of "third hand"

A pic from a 1948 issue of Popular Mechanics of a "spring-arm" hands-free calling device.

Flexible steel arm for hands-free calling, 1948 - [via] Link

Portable neon sign

Lrg Neon Sign
Protesters! This is what you need to get your message across! A portable neon sign - Might need a 6V lantern cell or 2 (or just EL wire) - Link.

December 12, 2007

Sun-melted sand for roads

Xlg Sand
Fun idea from Modern Mechanix 1933 - Link.

December 11, 2007

Periscope house

Xlg Periscope House 0
Maybe a good (re)make? -

YOU walk across the green-lawned, palm-hemmed park overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, and climb the stairs to the little house in the picture above. Your party gathers around a circular rail in the center, the door is closed and at first all is darkness.

Then, slowly and as if by magic, the scene you left outdoors a few minutes before appears on the revolvable table in front of you. Colors are perfectly natural. Strollers in the park move about, quite oblivious to their observers.

Periscope house - Link.