2 Computers? No-Just One (Sep, 1952)

2 Computers? No-Just One


Integro-Differential Analyzer
Leading design and research engineers have found that one IDA computer does the work of 2 ordinary computers â€” because of such ahead-of-the-field features as those outlined below:

Interchangeable Set-up Boards: permit problem change-over in minutes; thus IDA is always at work, there’s no lost set-up time!
20 Uncommitted Amplifiers: perform any computing function; and any required scale factor may be used for any number of inputs to any amplifier.
Hold Control: usually found only in most expensive computers, permits introduction of gross non-linearities.
8 Initial Conditions: once fixed, are automatically restored after each solution.
New Extra-Convenient Compactness: with the IDA you can actually sit at your desk while you compute!

Read for yourself the complete story on the truly advanced IDA computer. See how its twofold greater efficiency boosts your owa Just write for Catalog SA. Includes theory, set-up, typical examples.
Distributed Nationally by Burlingome Associates, 103 Lafayette Street, New York 13, N. Y.

Science Creates a Monster (May, 1954)


Thanks to Stannous for the tip about the anniversary site.

Science Creates a Monster





Plywood Dome Will Serve as Church in Korea (Jan, 1958)

Plywood Dome Will Serve as Church in Korea
All the building materials for the igloo-shaped sanctuary in the photograph above could be carried in a large pickup truck. The 39-foot hemisphere, built from 134 sheets of 1/4-inch exterior-grade plywood, will be used as a church at Naju, South Korea. Using the geodesic-dome design of architect Buckminster Fuller, the building gets its strength from the geometric pattern of the 4 by 6-1/2 foot sheets of plywood on 2 by 2-inch ribbing. It was erected in 16 hours, left, with much of the work done by small boys. The building weighs 3500 pounds.

Compact Television Unit Demonstrated (Jun, 1939)

Compact Television Unit Demonstrated

Muzzle Safeguards Chickens (Jul, 1938)

Muzzle Safeguards Chickens

The First Disposable Camera (Sep, 1949)

Apparently, this is one of those ideas that takes 30-40 years to catch on.

Mailbox Camera
HOW often have you arrived at a scenic beauty spot without your camera? A. D. Weir got caught on this pictorial limb so many times that he decided to do something about it.

The simplest remedy was a pre-loaded camera which could be rented at a near-by store for a small fee. That wasn’t a new ideaâ€”but in the past, devices to handle film inside such a camera had cost too much. Weir, a mechanical engineer, worked out a plan for feeding the 35-mm film without using a metal spool or winding device.

So, now you can drop into your drugstore, ask for a Photo-Pac and for $1.29 you get the loaded camera. After you take your eight exposures, you drop the entire unit in the mailbox. A few days later the mailman brings your prints and negatives. For helping to convert Uncle Sam’s mailboxes into darkrooms, we’re sending Mr. Weir Mi’s $50 Prize Gadget Award.

An Automatic Machine Tool (Sep, 1952)



An Automatic Machine Tool


by William Pease



Promise of a golden future (Mar, 1953)

Promise of a golden future



Ionic Breeze ’38 (Jan, 1938)

I’m crushed. I can’t believe the Sharper Image would lie to me like this. For years they’ve been telling us that they are the inventors of the ionic breeze, that it’s space age technology, a miracle of modern science. But it was all a big lie, now I know it was actually invented buy some undetermined person in 1938.

Sharper Image, how can I ever trust you again?

Electrostatic Device Clears Air Of Smoke, Pollen
DESIGNED for home or factory use, a compact electrostatic air cleaner device was recently placed on exhibition at a convention of iron and steel engineers held in Chicago, Ill. The new cleaner is said to remove dust, smoke, and pollen from the air more efficiently than ever before.

In operation the electrostatic cleaner forces the air through an ionizing screen and the solid particles in it, 90% of which would pass through the average filter, are electrically charged. The air is then passed over grounded plates, causing the dust and pollen particles to cling to them.

PAT does the talking (Dec, 1958)

This ia brief article about a speech synthesizer, but in the last paragraph it sounds like they were actually doing research into psychoacoustic audio compression.

PAT does the talking
“PAT” is the nickname given to a British talking machine which creates all the sounds that are normally used in speaking, and can string them together to produce the illusion of complete words and phrases. It can, in fact, talk.

In place of the human vocal cords, PAT (short for Parametric Artificial Talker) has an electron tube oscillator. In place of tongue and lips which normally vary the size of the mouth cavities, electrical resonators are provided and their resonant frequencies varied.