Electricity May Supplant Nets in Taking Fish (Mar, 1931)

Electricity May Supplant Nets in Taking Fish

Catching fish by shocking them with electricity is an experiment being tried by the Australian State Fishery Station, at Sydney Bay. A fishing boat has been fitted with charged electrical grids or electrodes of copper that are submerged in the water. Powerful electric generators force a current through the water between the electrodes, shocking all near-by fish, which then float to the surface and are picked up alive in large nets.

Novel Rowing Car Provides Good Sport (Oct, 1939)

Novel Rowing Car Provides Good Sport

What this country needs is an exercising’ machine that will provide good sport as well as build up muscles and tear down excess avoirdupois. At least that is the belief of the New York manufacturer of the novel whirligig car shown above.

U.S. Navy Inventions Build Great Industries (Apr, 1932)

U.S. Navy Inventions Build Great Industries

by John Edwin Hogg, Lieut., U.S.N.R.




Denmark’s Amazing Submarine Plane (Sep, 1930)

Denmark’s Amazing Submarine Plane



Torture Devices of the Old Convict Ships (Sep, 1930)

Torture Devices of the Old Convict Ships

By C. Moran



Water Glider Floats on Rollers (Jul, 1932)

Water Glider Floats on Rollers

POWERED by a 9 horsepower motor, the novel water glider shown in the photo below attained a speed of 140 kilometers an hour in a recent test at Suresnes, near Paris. The boat is buoyed on three barrel-shaped floats which revolve when craft is in motion. Propeller attachment mounted in front of boat adds to the pulling power of the motor.

The Fighting NORTHLAND RESCUE SHIP of the Arctic (Jun, 1934)

The Fighting NORTHLAND RESCUE SHIP of the Arctic


TRAPPED in a field of treacherous pack-ice twenty miles off the Alaskan coast, the freighter Anyox, two gaping holes in her ice-crushed bow, was slowly settling to her doom.

Twenty-eight hours earlier the ship’s imperative distress call had crackled through the arctic ether as desperate men had leaped to lash tarpaulins over the battered bow. The initial rush of the hungry waters had been checked; but not before the hold had partially filled and one of the engine fires had been extinguished. Doggedly the men fought the inevitable, but it was a losing battle. Slowly, inexorably, the clutching waters inched their way upward along the freighter’s hull, pulling her ever lower into the trough of the sea. It was the end. The Anyox was doomed.



French salvage engineers are tackling an unusual job in the Mediterranean. The Nicholas Paquet, a vessel plying between Marseilles and the coast of Morroco, grounded on the rocks, and remained with its stern rearing high in the air and its bow buried in the waves. Salvage men climb to the tilted decks on rope ladders and lower dismantled parts of the vessel to waiting ships.

UNCLE SAM ASKED TO BUILD Floating Ocean Airports (Feb, 1934)

UNCLE SAM ASKED TO BUILD Floating Ocean Airports

REDESIGNED and improved since its earlier forms were described in this magazine, a new type of “seadrome” or floating airport, is proposed by its inventor, Edward R. Armstrong, as the basis of a modernized plan to bridge the Atlantic with a string of artificial islands. His project, which has attracted the interest of U. S. Government officials, is intended to provide twenty-hour airplane service between America and Europe. It calls for the anchoring of five of the seadromes between America and Spain, at about the latitude of Washington, D. C, to serve as refueling stations about three hours’ flight apart. Planes using these islands in stepping-stone fashion could transport heavy pay loads at high speed, since their loads of gasoline would be light.

“Water Auto” for Police Hits High Speed (Sep, 1939)

“Water Auto” for Police Hits High Speed

Like a streamline automobile without wheels, the odd “water auto” shown above in a trial run along the Thames River in England, can hit a top speed of thirty-five miles an hour although it is driven by a motor rated at only nine horsepower. Designed especially as a police patrol boat for emergency work on the waterfronts of large cities, the craft has its engine forward and a three-place passenger cabin perched over the stern. The center windshield section forms part of a hatch through which entrance is made into the cabin, which provides all the comforts of a luxurious motor car.