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!

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• ThingamaHat

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.

Related:

How transistors work

Microcontroller basics.

How transistors of an integrated circuit are made.

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?

Related:

Thrilling stunts with a glass-eating chemical - Link.

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

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

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


All of this and more @ Modern Mechanix - Link.

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.

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

Roller (tank) skates - Link.

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Bicycles @ MAKE - Link.

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...

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

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.

To facilitate taking notes in the rain, a German newspaper reporter has equipped his raincoat with a window of transparent material. By holding his pencil and notebook in front of him, directly under the improvised window, he is able to see what he is writing, and jot down his impressions regardless of the stormy weather. The inventor is seen demonstrating the practical usefulness of his innovation.

WITH its deep, mellow notes, the electric organ is fast gaining the musical limelight. As a rule, these instruments are large and costly. Yet, for the price of a new hat, you can build a duplicate of a small organ that was featured in a recent coast-to-coast radio broadcast.

Complete, the original instrument cost its designer, Elmore B. Lyford, a New York electrical engineer, a little more than five dollars. In spite of its low cost, its rich organ-like notes delighted the well-known radio pianists that fingered its keys and its simplicity interested the engineers that examined it. All you need to build the organ is nine 50,000-ohm variable resistances, a .003 microfarad condenser, some brass, a type '74 voltage regulator tube, a socket, and a few feet of insulated connecting wire. For power, the organ uses three forty-five-volt B-batteries.

Mother Could Fix This Radio (Jan, 1948) - [via] Link

Related:
Halloween @ MAKE - Link.
DIY Halloween photo pool - Link.

MAKE Halloween, order now! - Link.

THE interesting little toy described in this article will, when placed in water, automatically dive and come to the surface again, repeating this performance, on an average, once a minute over a long period of time. It not only makes a very good toy for a boy but can be used also for advertising purposes. Placed in a glass tank and displayed in a show window, its actions will attract the attention and interest of passers-by, who will stop to wonder how it operates.

OF ALL home chemistry experiments, tests with combustibles offer the most in spectacular fun and harmless excitement. For even after some 60,000 years of use, fire still holds a mysterious fascination.

Although we are accustomed to kindling a fire with a match or some other small flame, a spark or a flame are by no means necessary to start some substances burning. Many materials ignite spontaneously when subjected to nothing more than a slight rise in temperature. Carbon disul-phide, a liquid often used as an ant exterminator, is one of these substances and for this reason presents a serious fire hazard if not handled carefully.